“New Shoes,” by Hisham Matar

My life in London, the life I had cobbled together with the barest of routines, grew thin and unconvincing. It now seldom felt real.

Related

Other articles with overlapping topics.

The New Yorker

Free quota

“Narrow Escape,” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Fiction by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in English for the first time: The police lieutenant appeared to be writing down exactly what Gleb was telling him, but relying upon completely different words.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn·Sep 27, 2026·14 min read

The New Yorker

Free quota

The Predator Catcher Turns Predatory in “Primetime”

A dazzling, wolfish performance from Robert Pattinson anchors “Primetime,” Lance Oppenheim’s period piece about the rise and fall of a reality-TV host.

Justin Chang·Sep 25, 2026·7 min read

The New Yorker

Free quota

The Unknowable Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus has been raunchy, folksy, psychedelic, Disney-clean. On her new album, “Bass Persuades,” she disappears onto the dance floor.

Amanda Petrusich·Sep 19, 2026·7 min read

The New Yorker

Free quota

Hernan Diaz’s Grand Experiment

In the novel “Ply,” Hernan Diaz imagines a ruined New York, a fractured society, and the ultimate structure of existence.

Kathryn Schulz·Sep 21, 2026·18 min read

The New Yorker

Free quota

The Curious Power of Punctuation

Commas, dashes, semicolons, and spaces have shaped how we read for centuries. What happens when machines start crafting the sentences?

Louis Menand·Sep 21, 2026·13 min read

The New Yorker

Free quota

What’s Really Behind the Baby Bust?

Are people having fewer children because modern life makes parenthood too difficult—or because the meaning of a satisfying life has changed?

Margaret Talbot·Sep 21, 2026·14 min read