NYT Books

Robert Redford, Roberta Flack, Diane Keaton and Brian Wilson are among the cultural luminaries who died this year.

After this Booker Prize finalist became seriously ill, everything seemed very real, and everything seemed to matter.

His Pulitzer-nominated book “Graven Images” inspired a reassessment of Puritan art, challenging the belief that imagery carved on headstones was meaningless.

It’s the day the “Animal Goncourt” is awarded. “Who better,” a judge says, “to talk about the fabulous relationship between animals and men than writers and philosophers?”

The pair work together to envision Kristian Hadeland, the protagonist of the author’s latest novel, “The School of Night.”

Like her debut, “The Dive From Clausen’s Pier,” the novelist’s “Some Bright Nowhere” is bound to touch a nerve. That’s fine with her.

Jean-Philippe Pleau’s book and play about moving up socially became a cultural reckoning in Quebec, but created a gulf with his family.

Emmanuel Carrère’s best sellers on Russia grew out of a deep affection. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine, he has traveled to the war-torn country to rethink his views.

She started as the magazine’s glamorous receptionist and became one of its more singular writers. In one of her last articles, she memorialized her time (and lovers) there.

In “Goliath’s Curse,” Luke Kemp crunches the numbers to see exactly how far we are from the fate of once-great empires.