This Week’s Issue: The Astonishing Transformation of Austin

Plus: David Remnick on Salman Rushdie, why everyone feels like they’re faking it, and a ninety-year-old memoirist’s accounts of aristocratic degeneracy. View in browser | Update your preferences Letter from Texas The Astonishing Transformation of Austin My town, once celebrated for its laid-back weirdness, is now a turbocharged tech megalopolis being shaped by exiles from places like Silicon Valley. By Lawrence Wright This Week’s Cover Cover Story “New Tricks” The cover artist for this week’s issue, John W. Tomac, reimagines our dandy mascot as a man-about-town’s best friend. By Françoise Mouly Shop this cover and others from The New Yorker in the Condé Nast Store » Reporting and Commentary Onward and Upward with the Arts Oldest Living Aristocratic Widow Tells All Now ninety, Lady Glenconner—a trusted friend of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret—has become a cheeky chronicler of the British élite. By Rebecca Mead Profiles The Defiance of Salman Rushdie After a near-fatal stabbing—and decades of threats—the novelist speaks about writing as a death-defying act. By David Remnick Annals of Psychology Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous. Critics, and even the idea’s originators, question its value. By Leslie Jamison Comment The New G.O.P. Takes the Country Hostage with the Debt Ceiling Why the Republicans’ routine threat to wreck the economy, rather than raise the borrowing limit, could end differently this time. By Amy Davidson Sorkin The Critics Books The Feminist Forerunner in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” The Wife of Bath, one of the most beloved characters in English literature, asked provocative questions: Why shouldn’t widows remarry? Why must we procreate? By Joan Acocella Books Daughters Outgrow Their Parents in Two Unsparing Novels The fiction of Gwendoline Riley ruthlessly depicts the fragile tedium of broken people who are desperate to be normal. By James Wood The Theatre Finding Laughs Amid the Gray, in Beckett’s “Endgame” At the Irish Repertory Theatre, John Douglas Thompson and Bill Irwin wring moments of superb physical comedy from two characters who struggle to move. By Vinson Cunningham The Current Cinema The Phantom Menace of “Knock at the Cabin” M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller abounds in compositional devilry, but the frights don’t leave a lasting impression. By Anthony Lane Fiction from the Issue Fiction “My Sad Dead” “I stay because my mother lives here. Can I say that about a dead woman?” By Mariana Enriquez Humor from The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs We Come to This Place . . . for Toner Cartridges A tour of some of the other places that Nicole Kidman wants us to come to. By Bruce Handy Cartoons from the Issue Cartoons from the Issue Funny drawings from this week’s magazine. Crossword A Challenging Puzzle The ways of the French?: four letters. By Anna Shechtman Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger More from The New Yorker Daily Comment How Should an Older President Think About a Second Term? From Eisenhower to Biden, questions of age have persisted. By Jeffrey Frank The New Yorker Interview Imran Khan’s Double Game Following an assassination attempt, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister discusses his views on the Taliban, his relationship with the military, and why he’s more “evolved” than other people. By Isaac Chotiner Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for This Week's Issue from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.