The God of Small Things author Arundhati Roy has written a powerful long essay about India’s “Covid catastrophe” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to stifle critics of the government. Writing at The Guardian, Roy offers a dire report on what is happening in India now: “"Crematoriums in Delhi have run out of firewood. The forest department has had to give special permission for the felling of city trees. Desperate people are using whatever kindling they can find. Parks and car parks are being turned into cremation grounds." The essay builds to a sharp critique of Modi’s actions in the past and present: “The government has failed. Perhaps ‘failed’ is an inaccurate word, because what we are witnessing is not criminal negligence, but an outright crime against humanity.”
Jeff Sharlet—the author of Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between and This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers—has joined Vanity Fair as a contributing editor.
Norton will publish Donald Antrim’s new memoir One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Survival, which will be released in October. Flatiron will publish Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron’s first book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus (A Sense of Direction) on “how the Pentagon started taking UFOs seriously.”
A script cowritten by poet-essayist-novelist Melissa Broder (Milk Fed, The Pisces, So Sad Today) is being made into a TV series starring Selena Gomez. Spiral, which “follows a former influencer whose addiction to social media is causing her body to literally fall apart,” will be directed by Petra Collins and produced by Drake.
