Janet Malcolm is remembered, above all, for her ruthlessness. But when I went looking for it, I found something much more ...

As Valentine’s Day flashes her candy-studded smile, I’m thinking less about romantic love and more about the albatross of trying to love our fellow man. Casual cruelty permeates the culture in 2025, ...

When our brilliant, inquisitive colleague Kelsey McKinney last participated in the Defector staff author interview series, ...

Although clearly a man of the left, Leigh (like Dickens) is less interested in society than human nature. Some of his ...

Telling the full story of the Nathan Carman murder-on-the-high-seas case. Farrell has closely followed Carman’s travails ...