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Open Letters Review

Open Letters Review

An Arts & Literature Review

Open Letters Review

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March 25, 2025

Shahnameh, translated by Ahmad Sadri

March 25, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Shahnameh, translated by Ahmad Sadri

A new prose translation of the great Persian epic

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March 25, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Shahnameh, Ferdowsi, Ahmad Sadri, Persian literature, Persian epic, literature in translation
March 24, 2025

Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold

March 24, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold

A new history of the infamous Crippen murder case centers on the women of the story

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March 24, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Hallie Rubenhold, Crippen, Story of a Murder, true crime, English history
March 20, 2025

Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

March 20, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer

A big and decidedly unconventional history of the Renaissance’s darker sides

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March 20, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer, history, Renaissance Italy, Renaissance history, Machiavelli
March 19, 2025

Close to Home by Thor Hanson

March 19, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Close to Home by Thor Hanson

A conservationist finds natural miracles in his own back yard

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March 19, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Close to Home, Nature, nature writing, conservation, Thor Hanson
March 18, 2025

Inside the Stargazer's Palace by Violet Moller

March 18, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Inside the Stargazer's Palace by Violet Moller

A lively, personality-driven history of the birth of science

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March 18, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Violet Muller, Inside the Stargazer's Palace, science, history, history of science, Tycho Brahe, Violet Moller
March 17, 2025

The Franklin Stove by Joyce E. Chaplin

March 17, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
The Franklin Stove by Joyce E. Chaplin

A history of the broader context of Benjamin Franklin’s famous invention

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March 17, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution, Joyce E. Chaplin, The Franklin stove, Benjamin Franklin, history, American history
March 16, 2025

Love, Queenie by Mayukh Sen

March 16, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Love, Queenie by Mayukh Sen

A new biography of Golden Age Hollywood star Merle Oberon

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March 16, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Mayukh Sen, Love, Love Queenie, Merle Oberon, Hollywood, Hollywood history, biography
March 12, 2025

Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto

March 12, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto

From the author of “The Island at the Center of the World,” a history of the beginnings of New York

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March 12, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Taking Manhattan, Russell Shorto, history, American history, colonial history
March 09, 2025

Rain of Ruin by Richard Overy

March 09, 2025/ David Murphy
Rain of Ruin by Richard Overy

A brief new history of the destruction of Japan in WWII

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March 09, 2025/ David Murphy/
Rain of Ruin, Richard Overy, Hiroshima, Second World War, Second World War history
March 07, 2025

The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O'Sullivan

March 07, 2025/ Joe Spivey
The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O'Sullivan

A searing account of the modern epidemic of over-diagnosing everything in sight.

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March 07, 2025/ Joe Spivey/
Suzanne O'Sullivan, The Age of Diagnosis, medicine, medical practice
March 03, 2025

The Celts: A Modern History by Ian Stewart

March 03, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
The Celts: A Modern History by Ian Stewart

An engaging new study of the history and many uses of Celtic identity

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March 03, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
The Celts: A Modern History, Ian Stewart, Celts, Celtic history, European history
March 02, 2025

The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra

March 02, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra

Historian Pankaj Mishra looks at Israel’s war on Gaza

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March 02, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
The World After Gaza, Pankaj Mishra, Israel, Gaza
February 24, 2025

A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker, edited by Kevin Young

February 24, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker, edited by Kevin Young

A big new poetry anthology commemorates the magazine’s 100th year

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February 24, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Kevin Young, A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker, The New Yorker, poetry
February 23, 2025

Den of Spies by Craig Unger

February 23, 2025/ Joe Spivey
Den of Spies by Craig Unger

A new history of the negotiations that put Ronald Reagan in power

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February 23, 2025/ Joe Spivey/
Den of Spies, Craig Unger, history, American history, President Reagan
February 21, 2025

Summer of Fire and Blood by Lyndal Roper

February 21, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Summer of Fire and Blood by Lyndal Roper

A colorful new history of a social convulsion in 16th-century Germany

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February 21, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Lyndal Roper, Summer of Fire and Blood, German Peasants' War, Reformation, Martin Luther, european history
February 12, 2025

New and Collected Hell by Shane McCrae

February 12, 2025/ Eric Bies
New and Collected Hell by Shane McCrae

The narrator of McCrae’s poem sequence takes a strange journey

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February 12, 2025/ Eric Bies/
February 04, 2025

Sleepers Awake by Oli Hazzard

February 04, 2025/ Eric Bies
Sleepers Awake by Oli Hazzard

A new collection of experimental poetry from Oli Hazzard

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February 04, 2025/ Eric Bies/
Sleepers Awake, Oli Hazzard, poetry, contemporary poetry
February 03, 2025

A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker, edited by Deborah Treisman

February 03, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker, edited by Deborah Treisman

A gigantic anthology of New Yorker fiction in honor of the magazine’s 100th birthday

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February 03, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Deborah Treisman, A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker, fiction, contemporary fiction, The New Yorker, New Yorker fiction
February 01, 2025

Three Wild Dogs (and the truth) by Markus Zusak

February 01, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Three Wild Dogs (and the truth) by Markus Zusak

The author of “The Book Thief” writes about the dogs in his life

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February 01, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Three Wild Dogs (and the truth), Markus Zusak, dogs, dog stories
January 31, 2025

Andromeda by Therese Bohman

January 31, 2025/ Steve Donoghue
Andromeda by Therese Bohman

A novel in which two members of a publishing house reflect on their work and life together

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January 31, 2025/ Steve Donoghue/
Andromeda, Therese Bohman, Marlaine Delargy, fiction, literature in translation, Swedish fiction, contemporary fiction
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Editors:

Steve Donoghue
Sam Sacks
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Olive Fellows
Jack Hanson
Jennifer Helinek
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