THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

FEBRUARY 19. 2026

Gaslight

The case of Gisèle Pelicot, who for more than a decade was violated by her husband and dozens of other men, should mark the end of the regime that puts on women the responsibility for avoiding assault.

Evil in the West Bank

As long as the daily horrors in the occupied territories continue and the extreme right remains in power, democracy in Israel will be sick at the core.

Poisonous Objects

Two exhibitions in Los Angeles respond to the racist monuments to Confederate soldiers that have been erected all over the United States.

Deeper Than They Thought

Although Margaret Kennedy has been largely forgotten as a popular writer, in her novels she wielded the most cunning techniques of literary modernism.

Jason Statham Asks Nothing of Me

And for this I’m grateful. The scene: I’m in my convalescent’s nest—a corner of the sofa. Floral pajamas, oily roots. The pain refersinto my shoulders, as

If These Walls Could Talk

In A House for Miss Pauline, the Jamaican novelist Diana McCaulay examines her family’s shadowy history by telling the story of a woman who builds her house with the remains of the manor of a former slave plantation.

A Real Live Socialist

What Bernie Sanders brought to the job of mayor of Burlington and what he did with it help explain what matters to him and how he fits into American political argument.

The Poet’s Double

In the early years of the Soviet Union, Konstantin Vaginov wrote fiction and poetry characterized by a sense of doubleness, ambiguity, and perverse humor.

As Kennedy Went

Justice Anthony Kennedy often confounded Supreme Court observers with his seemingly unpredictable opinions, but during the years when a majority could be achieved only through some measure of compromise, he wielded enormous power over the Constitution’s contemporary meaning.

‘An Entirely New Domain of Knowledge’

The Torah scholars who came to be called “rabbis” emerged as figures of authority after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE and the later exile of Jews from Judaea—and created Judaism’s founding literature.

Road Trippers

In a thirty-three day ramble along the Hudson and Connecticut rivers in 1791, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison encountered many of the issues that would end up plaguing the United States.

Alexei Ratmansky’s Leap of Faith

Having wrested himself from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, the great choreographer has sought to remake himself and his work in Denmark.

Paths of Resistance

Those who challenged the Nazi regime knew they were almost certainly doomed to failure. What roused them from complacency to defiance?

‘We Think They’ll Kill Someone’

Indigenous communities in Mexico who oppose the construction of megaprojects on their lands do so at great risk.