NYT Books

The only male child of the actor Yul Brynner, he built a peripatetic career as a historian, novelist, playwright — and roadie for the Band.

The only male child of the actor Yul Brynner, he built a peripatetic career as a writer, historian, novelist, playwright — and roadie for the Band.

He wanted to put a face on the source of cells that led to striking medical advances, and through him a best seller and a movie did just that, telling Mrs. Lacks’s story.

He wanted to put a face on the source of cells that led to striking medical advances, and through him a best seller and a movie did just that, telling Mrs. Lacks’s story.

Shedding the concept “completely strikes at our sense of identity and autonomy,” the Stanford biologist and neuroscientist argues. It might also be liberating.

For 12 years, Yiyun Li taught her writing students a story by Amy Bloom about the power, and limitations, of love. Confronting unbearable grief, she returned to it.

Montana calls to storytellers: The cold clear waters of its rivers have carried the voices of its inhabitants from time immemorial, says Debra Magpie Earling, one of its writers. Here, she recommends her favorites.

Han Kang grew up in Seoul, a city that embraces “thousands of years of turbulence.” She recommends reading that draws from the various eras that have made up her hometown.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel, “Silver Nitrate,” is about friends whose attempt to lift an old curse unleashes something even more terrifying.

Elisabeth Egan and Tina Jordan talk about Helen Fielding’s novelthe, and Gregory Cowles and Juliana Barbassa discuss all things translation.