#paul-gallico

#paul-gallico

"Why did you do that, sweetheart?" encapsulates the central theme of Blue Heron, as Sasha's actions prompt her parents to question the unpredictable behavior of her half-brother Jeremy.

Catherine Lacey reads her story 'Rate Your Happiness,' from the April 13, 2026, issue of the magazine, highlighting her narrative style and thematic depth.

A prolific polymath, Sand published 70 novels, as well as travel writing, criticism, autobiography, political polemic and visionary essays on the interconnectedness of the natural world. She founded several politically progressive periodicals and became a highly successful playwright. But none of it came easy. When she burst on to the Paris scene in 1831 at 27, writing for Le Figaro, she became immediately notorious as a woman in a man's world.

An officer showed her images of a woman being sexually assaulted. At first, she did not realize the woman in the photos was herself. Investigators discovered over 20,000 images of non-consensual sex. For 10 years, Dominique Pelicot repeatedly drugged his wife and, through the dark web, recruited men from their neighborhood to rape her while she was unconscious. He committed this abuse at least 200 times.

Tracy Kidder's gifts for storytelling and tireless reporting are an enduring reflection of the empathy, integrity, and endless curiosity he brought to everything he did.

You are leaving work, your suit still damp from the morning's downpour, the skin on your palms peeling. You are clutching two supermarket bags, tins of cream soup and tuna knocking against one another. The rain is hard and your anorak is cheap. You are on your way to Stockbridge, to your parents' house, which only your father inhabits now that your mother is gone.

Competitors must attempt to answer 240 questions, such as the following, from 2022: "Playing for Bangalore against Pune in the IPL in April 2013, who set a new record for the fastest century in professional cricket by reaching 100 off 30 balls?" If it makes you feel better, the median number of correct answers the year of that test was 64.

In addition to writing fiction, you're a staff writer for the and a screenwriter. How do you think of your career? I think of myself as a storyteller. I'm nosy, so once I'm telling a story, I want to know what happens. I do find, with fiction, I can't toggle in and out of it. It's like acting, where you have to stay with that character, in that world.

A writer is a kind of magician. Their job is to create living, three-dimensional people out of the ordinary stuff of ink and paper. This is no easy task, because readers can't literally hear, touch, or observe a character. Everything that defines a human being in real life-the physical space they occupy, or how they smell, feel, and sound-is stripped away, replaced by description. But authors have one major, mystical advantage: They can show you what's happening inside of someone's brain.

Dilara, the protagonist of this début novel, is consumed by the absence of a stable home in her life. She and her family flee Turkey, where she is from, after a failed coup in 2016. When they end up in Italy, something inexplicable happens: Dilara's bathroom transforms into a cell in an infamous prison on the outskirts of Istanbul.