The Writer in the Family

The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero

Birthday Boy

“The Horses” by Ted Hughes

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Amy Wetsch

Life, magnified

The Weight of a Stone

Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology

New Year, Old Year

“The Horses” by Edwin Muir

Poems read aloud, beautifully

The Snow Maiden

Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice

Ho Ho Horror

Why not make this Christmas a little darker?

A Story for Christmas

The Promised Land of the Pampas

Javier Sinay on the forgotten history of the first Jewish immigrants in Argentina

American Mandarins

David Halberstam’s title The Best and the Brightest was steeped in irony. Did these presidential advisers earn it?

The Coolest Car

“Kisses” by Gabriela Mistral

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Making the List

Finding the right page required centuries of experiment

Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Ageby Dennis Duncan

Hoesy Corona

Vestiges of Climate Migration

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times

The people of Poland step up

Sakura Fever

How an English eccentric saved Japan’s beloved cherry trees—and spread them around the world

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

Footage from a war and the effects on your brain

A Godchild

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