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Tag: Fiction

Browse our essays and reviews on fiction.

AI-generated novels are here, but they hardly spell the end of fiction.

Terry Nguyen

Chantal Johnson’s debut novel, Post-Traumatic, makes the case that we can—by moving away from representations of individual suffering.

Anna Krauthamer

Reflecting on three monumental works of modernism a hundred years on.

Johanna Winant

László Krasznahorkai’s latest novel reflects on the power of the surveillance state through the perspective of a librarian who wishes to lock up all books.

Tadhg Larabee

The celebrated novelist treated the past seriously, depicting its psychological complexity and drawing out its present-day political implications.

Samuel Clowes Huneke

In her new book, Danish poet Olga Ravn writes with open love, pity, and compassion for her strange yet familiar creations.

John Crowley
Known mainly as a realist, the writer used the gothic form to explore the horror of being confined by gender.
Jennifer R. Bernstein
Marlon James discusses writing realistic Black characters, being inspired by African folktales, and why we don’t have to let go of the world of make-believe to tell serious stories.
Nate File, Marlon James
Amazon’s Tales from the Loop has introduced a new audience to the speculative worlds of the Swedish artist, whose books depict worlds in which humanity has, in one way or another, run afoul of technology.
John Crowley
Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven reminds us of the radical power of collective imagination.
Annie Howard

Amidst a boys’ club of ’70s-era comics, Shary Flenniken’s Trots and Bonnie was unique for its feminist depiction of the political and sexual awakening of young women.

John Crowley
A recording of our digital reading of poetry, fiction, and essays from our annual literary anthology, with ASL interpreting.
Boston Review

Newly translated into English, Minae Mizumura’s An I-Novel is a vivid portrait of immigrant displacement and the ironies of our global cultural ecosystem.

Houman Barekat
A recording of our discussion about the recovery of one of Wainaina’s lost stories and his continued importance to the African literary landscape.
Boston Review
Celebrated writer Binyavanga Wainaina’s first piece of fiction was thought to be lost. Recently rediscovered, it appears here twenty-five years after it originally debuted.
Achal Prabhala, Binyavanga Wainaina

The Greens are on track to become Germany’s second strongest party. Was abandoning radicalism was the right choice?

Stephen Milder
A recording of the launch event for Boston Review’s new literary anthology, Ancestors. Renowned writers read their poems, fiction, and more.
Yeoh Jo-Ann, Cheswayo Mphanza, Ivelisse Rodriguez, Sonia Sanchez, Ed Pavlić, Tyehimba Jess, Domenica Ruta, Adam McGee

On Dennis Cooper’s transgressive fiction about marginalized men.

David B. Hobbs

The French Algerian writer steadfastly defended democracy and humanity against dogmatic ideologies of all stripes.

Mugambi Jouet

In Vineland, his underappreciated 1990 novel, Thomas Pynchon anticipated a United States in which security would become the greatest good. 

Peter Coviello

Rereleased this year in a single volume, Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy Three Californias imagines three possible futures for the world writ large through the lens of Orange County, California.

Dayton Martindale

Michel Houellebecq’s Islamophobia and chauvinism have made him a favorite intellectual of right extremists. So why does he appeal to so many on the left as well?

Martin Gelin

Alternate histories like Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America—newly adapted by HBO—force us to imagine a different America.

Matt Gallagher

Garth Greenwell’s Cleanness movingly depicts the vulnerabilities of queer desire, but it also continues a long tradition of exoticizing Eastern European sexuality.

Marta Figlerowicz

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Use code DISSENT when you purchase a print BR membership.

Act fast: offer ends March 31!

Use code DISSENT when you purchase a print BR membership. Offer ends March 31.