In Other Words

The quest to write great literature, 140 characters at a time.

What Shakespeare, Lincoln, and 
"Lone Survivor" teach us about the danger 
of refusing to confront futility in war.

After decades of censorship, Burma's filmmakers probe their country's dark past.

The 10 best books, according to China's ruling elite.

A Syrian-American writer finds her voice, with help from Libya's most famous novelist.

Why Chinese and Mexican dominate the market.

The grain that sustains the war weary.

What a country cooks when it's collapsing.

How Poland learned to love its own cuisine.

A special report from the utopian future.

A TV thriller taps into Israel's collective subconscious.

Homeland and the Israeli show that inspired it aren't the only thrillers that tackle their countries' deepest national security concerns. Here are five other programs that tap into national psyches.

In Putin's Russia, it's the spies that are handing out the awards for the year's best movies.

And his journalist son's search for the truth.

The son of a Red Army intelligence officer sent to die in a Siberian gulag discovers his father's KGB file, and a cottage industry of children-of-spies memoirs.

What in-flight magazines don't want you to know about the world.

Why do so many travel guides make excuses for dictators?

You should see what even first graders have to read in Saudi Arabia.

The Green Book is gone, but what will replace it?

(And Roberto Bolaño and Tomás Eloy Martínez.)