The New Yorker

Founded in 1925, The New Yorker publishes the best writers of its time and has received more National Magazine Awards than any other magazine, for its groundbreaking reporting, authoritative analysis, and creative inspiration. The New Yorker takes readers beyond the weekly print magazine with the web, mobile, tablet, social media, and signature events. The New Yorker is at once a classic and at the leading edge.

CONTRIBUTORS

GOINGS ON • What we're watching, listening to, and doing this week.

What We’re Reading • My usual beat for The New Yorker is political and legal commentary, and so I'll ask, in advance of listing outstanding mystery novels of the past twenty years, for the forbearance of the genre's true specialists. But there are overlaps in expertise: most of the best mysteries deal with the imperfect fit between the law and justice, skewed balances of power, and the tension between public and private identities. As in politics, those pressures can prove fatal. Here are four of my top picks.

Comment: The Fever Breaks

Permanent Rebellion: Say Anything

American Chronicles: The Next Left • Is socialism destiny?

Annals of Music: Are You Crying Yet? • Max Richter’s ubiquitous melancholy.

Shouts & Murmurs: If Trump Did Standup

The Sporting Scene: The Under • An N.B.A. player got hooked on sports gambling. Soon enough, he became the bet.

The Control of Nature: Burn Rate • The urban conflagration is back. And you can't fight it alone.

Fiction: The Death of a Certain Woman

Books: See and Be Seen • The making of John Berger.

Books: Unnatural Selection • Is it good to feel bad?

Pop Music: If You Know You Know • The long-awaited rise of Tinashe.

The Theatre: All Together Now • In “The Heart” and “I Became We,” the musical goes choral.

The Current Cinema: Family Values • "Paper Tiger."

CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST • Each week, we provide a cartoon in need of a caption. You, the reader, submit a caption, we choose three finalists, and you vote for your favorite. Caption submissions for this week's cartoon, by Lonnie Millsap, must be received by Sunday, November 15th. The finalists in the November 2nd contest appear below. We will announce the winner, and the finalists in this week's contest, in the November 30th & December 7th issue. Anyone age thirteen or older can enter or vote. To do so, and to read the complete rules, visit contest.newyorker.com.