The novel became the beach read of the summer, with the shark at its center embodying the unease of an era of political and social upheaval. Read more
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Author: GR
Why More Americans Can’t Afford to Stop Working
Retirement is increasingly becoming a luxury many American workers cannot afford. With rising housing costs and medical expenses and without the pensions that buoyed previous generations, millions of older Americans can’t stop working. Read more
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Read Your Way Through Prague
Prague has survived wars and political strife — and through it all, its literary scene has thrived. Jaroslav Kalfar, the author of “Spaceman of Bohemia,” recommends books that connect readers to the city. Read more
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Miniseries Based on ‘Lady in the Lake’ by Laura Lippman Coming Soon
When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) is a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, and Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) is a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. Their disparate lives seem parallel at first, but when Maddie becomes fixated on Cleo’s mystifying death, a chasm opens that puts everyone around them in danger. From visionary director Alma Har’el, “Lady in the Lake” emerges as a feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale of the price women pay for their dreams. Watch trailer
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‘The Heart in Winter’ by Kevin Barry
“The Heart in Winter” sees Barry once again attempting something new — and pulling it off with aplomb. His first novel to be set in America is both an Irish-flavored western fraught with danger and brutality and a love story filled with caustic humor and pathos. It wears its influences well — the raw flintiness of Cormac McCarthy, the dizzying exuberance of Flann O’Brien, the taut storytelling of Charles Portis — but Barry’s signature touches predominate and render the narrative propulsive and immersive. Read more
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‘Long Island Compromise’ by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
A great American Jewish novel whose brew of hilarity, heartbreak, and smarts recalls the best of Philip Roth. A triumph. Read more
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Robert Towne, Screenwriter of ‘Chinatown’ and More, Dies at 89
Robert Towne, whose screenplay for Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” won an Oscar, and whose work on that and other important films established him as one of the leading screenwriters of the so-called New Hollywood, died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles. Read more
What Happened to the Well-Mannered Cat Burglar?
Though he sounds like a screenwriter’s invention, Arthur Barry was real. Life magazine called him “the greatest jewel thief who ever lived.” And, as Dean Jobb notes in his delectably entertaining new biography, “A Gentleman and a Thief,” Barry was a triple threat: “a bold impostor, a charming con artist and a master cat burglar rolled into one.” Read more
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Ismail Kadare, Whose Novels Brought Albania’s Plight to the World, Dies at 88
Ismail Kadare, the Albanian novelist and poet who single-handedly wrote his isolated Balkan homeland onto the map of world literature, creating often dark, allegorical works that obliquely criticized the country’s totalitarian state, died in Tirana, Albania, on Monday. Read more
Kinky Friedman, Musician and Humorist Who Slew Sacred Cows, Dies at 79
He and his band, the Texas Jewboys, won acclaim for their satirical takes on American culture. He later wrote detective novels and ran for governor of Texas. Read more
