Maraú Península: Should We Expect More from Dads?

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Under Review

Should We Expect More from Dads?

Two new books assess our contemporary scripts for fatherhood.

By Hua Hsu

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From the News Desk

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Comment

After the European Elections, President Macron Makes a Gamble

The rise of the far right in Europe might help Americans deprovincialize their own crisis. The single wave has struck many coastlines.

By Adam Gopnik

Jaylen Brown, number seven of the Boston Celtics, dribbles the ball during Game 2 of the 2024 N.B.A. Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Sporting Scene

The Mental Challenge of Winning the N.B.A. Finals

Four games between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks have mostly come down to talent and strategy. But the mind-set of the players matters, too.

By Louisa Thomas

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Editor’s Pick

An illustrated portrait of Susan Seidelman.

The New Yorker Interview

Susan Seidelman Knows What It’s Like to Be in “Movie Jail”

The groundbreaking director of “Desperately Seeking Susan” on proving people wrong, learning from Nora Ephron, and the upshot of making a movie without realizing you’re pregnant.

By Rachel Syme

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Culture Dept.

Fiction

“The Buggy”

The next wave or the one after, the buggy was going to be on its side and the baby—if there was one—would be strapped in and helpless.

By Roddy Doyle

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This Week in Fiction

Roddy Doyle on How an Idea Makes It to the Page

The author discusses “The Buggy,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine.

By Cressida Leyshon

Poems

“Half Hour to Aberdour”

“Late August, your estuary, now / Flattens gray, and the eroded / Pilings stagger from landfall / Like upside-down legs.”

By David Biespiel

Poems

“A Big Red Shiny Apple”

“He slowly peeled / off the glossy paper, & he just / held the apple as if it were / golden.”

By Yusef Komunyakaa

A father with early-onset Alzheimer's kneeling down and proposing to his daughter.

Culture Desk

Lying to My Dad

I’d become everything to him—a fun-house mirror, constantly contorting to fit his needs.

By Bryn Durgin

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Fun & Games Dept.

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Shouts & Murmurs

What Are You Fond of, Samuel Alito?

My wife is fond of expensive men’s watches, Norwegian death metal, and private jets. I am not.

By Bruce Headlam and Stephen Sherrill

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Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play our trivia game »

P.S. When the journalist Robin Wright flew to Africa, in 1975, to report on turmoil there, her father wrote these sage words in a farewell letter: “As is always the case when one does something quite unusual, there will be high moments and also low moments, some so low you will ask, ‘Why in the world was I even tempted to undertake this?’ Ask instead whether you are doing precisely those things you ought to be doing to give you that feeling of happiness—a feeling that you are doing those things which reflect accomplishment.” As she recounts in this moving piece, the advice was emblematic of a loving and complicated relationship.