COVER

EDITOR'S DESK

COMMENTARY

Primary Shallows

The pundits' obsession with fads and polls means they miss the bigger story

When He's Good and Ready (In the Arena)

Christie resists the temptation to run, which is itself a qualification for office

BRIEFING

THE CULTURE

Heartthrobs (Review)

Two award-winning novelists on the paths of lust and love

Cat Power (Backlist)

Rating Haruki Murakami's feline intuition

Ghosh World (Fall Books)

A new take on the opium wars

Zombie 101 (Fall Books)

Colson Whitehead's primer for the apocalypse

Dead Poets Society (Fall Books)

A ghost haunts a century of sex, loss and disillusionment

Home Fires (Fall Books)

Women and the housing crisis

Lives at Sea (Fall Books)

The haunted intimacy of Michael Ondaatje's new novel

Oh, the Humanity (Essay)

Will Facebook's shift toward data sacrifice its soul?

10 Questions for Rahm Emanuel (10 Questions)

The hard-hitting White House chief of staff turned peppy Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has a few fast ideas

BUSINESS

Pod of Gold (Coffee)

Nespresso's capsule coffee is lushly profitable. Competitors are smelling the aroma

LETTERS