Readings

In Nancy Lee’s new novel The Age, young Gerry is driven to extremism by both standard teen angst and a generation-specific “nuclear anxiety.” We talk to Lee about the book, and growing up between the Vietnam War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The crisis in Ukraine has been framed as a clash of civilizations. But the very concept of “civilization” gets fuzzier the more you examine it, and may not help to illuminate real-world conflict.

The case here described is real, witnessed by the author in bail court. The names have been changed and some details and times condensed. This week in Worse Off Than You: a businessman must decide whether to pony up the bail money for a man who has broken the conditions of his bail once before.