TWO FOR THE ROAD

\"The Last of Us,\" on HBO.

THE BOOK OF LOVE

Reimagining the Victorian reformers who defended same-sex desire.

THE ROYAL ME

In \"Spare,\" Prince Harry must be cruel only to be kind.

Wednesday's Child Yiyun Li

The difficulty with waiting, Rosalie thought, is that one can rarely wait in absolute stillness. Absolute stillness?—that part of herself, which was in the habit of questioning her own thoughts as they occurred, raised a mental eyebrow. No one waits in absolute stillness; absolute stillness is death; and when you’re dead you no longer wait for anything. No, not death, Rosalie clarified, but stillness, like hibernation or estivation, waiting for . . . Before she could embellish the thought with some garden-variety clichés, the monitor nearby rolled out a schedule change: the 11:35 train to Brussels Midi was cancelled.

PROFILES A RAUCOUS ASSAULT

How the Iranian American artist Tala Madani sees men and women.

THE SWAMP

Could corruption have led Alex Murdaugh to murder his wife and son?

A Critic at Large – Blood Lines

Seventy-five years after Indian Partition, have we learned how to say what happened?

THE CURRENT: CINEMA COLLUSION

“Saint Omer” and Turn Every Page.”

THE THEATRE: LANDS OF THE LOST

London’ Orlando,” My Neighbour Totoro,” and The Burnt City.”

DEEP CUTS

Franz Kafka’ diaries reveal a writer who was antic as well as agonized.

HAMMER ATTACK

Three Virgin Marys kept their baleful eyes on the back of Allen’s head. But more powers were needed—of clemency, of healing—so, to accompany the dolorous mothers, somebody had also taped to the wall behind Allen’s hospital bed half a dozen Jesuses (a few were laminated), the famous “Last Supper” painting, and a grave-looking figure who, Alice, one of Allen’s sisters, told Gina, was St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, of last hope.

U.S. JOURNAL: THE TOTAL PACKAGE

UPS offers old-fashioned middle-class jobs, so why is a strike looming?

PROFILES: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE

The executive leading Netflixs quest for worldwide domination.

ANNALS OF INQUIRY: THOUGHT PROCESS

What really goes on between our ears?

THE INFINITE-MONKEY THEOREM: FIELD NOTES

SHOUTS MURMURS

LETTER FROM ITALY: THE MISSING

Many migrants disappear on their way to Europe. Most are never identified.

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

In “How to Lie with Statistics,” a best-selling book from 1954, the journalist (and tobacco apologist) Darrell Huffdetails common techniques for manipulating people’s understanding of reality, among them truncating the y-axis of a graph.

GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN

The Public’s Under the Radar, now in its eighteenth installment, is a lively showcase of experimental performance. Last year’s edition was scuttled by the Omicron surge, but the festival returns, through Jan. 22, with work contemplating desire, loss, queerness, chain restaurants, and King Leopold II. Among the offerings: LatinXoxo,” by the Venezuelan-born performance artist Migguel Anggelo above), who uses Spanish boleros, comedy, and pop songs to subvert Latin-lover tropes and his own father’s machismo.

Onward and Upward With the Arts - Game Theory

Can a critically acclaimed video game be turned into a hit HBO series?

A reporter at large – Trapped in the Trenches

On Ukraine's battle fil, drone surveillance ae it almost ete sible to maneuver.

The Painter and His Court

Kehinde Wiley has gone from depicting power to building it.

Returns – Annie Ernaux

The last time I saw my mother at her home, it was July, a Sunday. I travelled there by train. At Motteville, we sat in the station for a long time. It was hot. It was quiet, both in the compartment and outside.

TOP OF THE HEAP

“Babylon” and Corsage.”

DOLOROUS HAZE

“Fleishman Is in Trouble,” on FX on Hulu.

DOWN THE HATCH

Alcohol-fuelled catharsis in Des Moines” and Between Riverside and Crazy.”

LIVE, FROM NEW YORK

John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres's portraits of the South Bronx.

NOTIONS OF THE SACRED

AYŞEGÜL SAVAŞ

UNEASY RIDER

When you want some extra oomph on two wheels.

PUNISHMENT

And so the Lord created two huAmass in His image, called Adam and Eve. And He put them in the Garden of Eden and provided them with everything that they could want.

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

The New Yorker