This Week’s Issue: How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda

Jiayang Fan on watching her personal crisis become a viral sensation. Plus: the real danger in election meddling, and the novelist Susanna Clarke. View in browser | Update your preferences Personal History How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda Immigrant struggles in America forged a bond that became even tighter after my mother’s A.L.S. diagnosis. Then, as covid-19 threatened, Chinese nationalists began calling us traitors to our country. By Jiayang Fan Annals of Politics Is Russian Meddling as Dangerous as We Think? The spectre of foreign manipulation looms over the coming election. But in focussing on the ­tactics of the aggressors we overlook our weaknesses as victims. By Joshua Yaffa Onward and Upward with the Arts Susanna Clarke’s Fantasy World of Interiors Fifteen years after an illness rendered her largely housebound, the best-selling writer is releasing a novel that feels like a surreal meditation on life in quarantine. By Laura Miller Dept. of Hoopla Roger Angell at a Hundred Raising a glass to the New Yorker legend—born five years before the founding of this magazine, and a contributor for the past seventy-six—as he celebrates a milestone birthday. By Mark Singer Profiles The Colorful Worlds of Pipilotti Rist The Swiss video artist wants her groundbreaking work to be like women’s handbags, with “room in them for everything.” By Calvin Tomkins Comment Our Long, Forgotten History of Election-Related Violence President Trump has sparked dangerous lawlessness, but killing and destruction linked to political antagonisms are nothing new for this country. By Jelani Cobb Books Yaa Gyasi Explores the Science of the Soul In her second novel, Gyasi examines the forces of repression through a mother and daughter’s shared loss. By James Wood Books How Can We Pay for Creativity in the Digital Age? There’s still money to be made, but it’s mostly not the creators who are getting rich. By Hua Hsu PAID POST The Hilarious National Bestseller - Now in Paperback With white-hot wit and a big, tender heart, Kevin Wilson has written his best book yet! A moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability. Humor from The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs Opt Out I would like to opt out of any and all news alerts related to the President of the United States; any headline with the word “tweet” in any form; Shia LaBeouf. By Cora Frazier Cartoons From The Issue Cartoons from the Issue Drawings and drollery from this week’s magazine. This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.