COVER

Jonathan Franzen: The Wide Shot (Profile)

At a time when the trend in fiction has been toward specialization, the author of The Corrections and the new Freedom is a devotee of the wide shot, the all-embracing, way-we-live-now novel

WORLD

Why Germany Is a Nation in Conflict

Built purely for defense and peacekeeping, Germanys army is fighting in Afghanistan. Now the country, haunted by its past, struggles to deal with the realities of war

UNITED STATES

Is the FDA On Drugs?

A TIME investigation of Avandia's journey from lab to pharmacy reveals serious flaws in the way the Food and Drug Administration protects consumers from harmful medicines

The Kentucky Test (In the Arena)

How deeply will anti-Democrat sentiment affect November's elections? One race will reveal a lot

LETTERS