Don DeLillo and the feel of how it is
A prophetic novelist gets to the heart of the postmodern condition
Arts & Books
Why Sylvia Plath's art transcends her tragic story
Sylvia Plath’s extraordinary poetic gifts have been overshadowed by her death. A new biography sets that right
The best classical and opera in January 2021—Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Plus Fenella Humphrey & Daniel Grimwood at St Mary’s Perivale
What graveyards tell us about how we live now
The pandemic may have increased the demand for cemeteries, but it has also re-established their rightful role as theatres of life, as well as mourning
The search for the secular Jesus
Bold efforts to reconfigure Jesus as merely a moral teacher miss something essential about him
Why Barack Obama did fulfil his promise
Obama's instinctive patriotism shines through in the first volume of his memoirs
How 2000s boarding school drama Wild Child became a hidden cult hit
The story of a misbehaving Malibu princess sent to an English boarding school was a box office bomb. But its release on Netflix this winter hints at a secret afterlife
Eyes on the prize: my year as a Booker judge
My task for 2020 was to help choose the best novel in English—and retain my sanity
A prizewinning novelist’s surreal tale of millennial burnout
Kikuko Tsumura's curious tale follows other cult novels about unambitious women stuck in the thankless carousel of contemporary labour—but offers a different ending
An optimistic new book argues that we can all become expert at something
An appreciation of physical craft ranges from surgery to flower-arrangement. But it doesn't untangle the way most of us actually work
The rare feats of Tom Stoppard
Hermione Lee's new authorised biography of the playwright ruminates on the importance of mystery—and introspection
The life of Sybille Bedford—a whirlpool of overlapping affairs
If the novelist had been more productive she would have had less fun
The rich untold history of African Europeans
Olivette Otele's superb book traces the historical links between Africa and Europe
The best television in December 2020—BBC’s Black Narcissus and Netflix’s Bridgerton
Plus meet Lin-Manuel Miranda's politicking father in Siempre, Luis
The librarians who saved books from destruction
Libraries are essential reference points for ideas, facts and truth
The best films to stream this December 2020—Possessor and Mank
Plus a sinister nudist colony and missing hammer propel the drama in Patrick
How the north was made—and unmade
Industrialisation—and its delicine—have forged the psyche of the modern northerner
Liberalism—fighting for a beautiful, world-changing idea
Ian Dunt offers a whirlwind tour of free-thinking
Why it’s vital we fix our broken care system
The pandemic has given fresh visibility to a long-term problem
The best podcasts in December 2020—Wind of Change and You’re Wrong About
Plus Queen Mary Centre for the History of Emotions takes you behind the many sides of anger