Rachel Donadio

The Fall of the Man From Mango The patriarch of a fashion empire plunged to his death on a hike with his son. Over a year later, the case of the Spanish Succession remains unsolved.

A Spanish billionaire plunged off a cliff to his death on a hike with his son. Was it a tragic accident?

I went to Barcelona for @nymag.com to report on the fascinating life and mysterious death of Isak Andic, the Turkish-born founder of the fashion brand Mango

www.thecut.com/article/isak...

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int... — fascinating @shaunwalker7.bsky.social

Opinion | Ukraine Has Passed a Point of No Return

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/o...

A Student of Power | Rachel Donadio In his experiences and chronicles of the great ideological battles of the twentieth century, Curzio Malaparte was a shape-shifter—pitiless, clinical, cynical, unsentimental, indifferent to morality an...

“Curzio Malaparte’s fundamental focus was on the great ideological battles of the twentieth century, but he was also a witness to the ends of eras, and in his lifetime he experienced many.” —@racheldonadio.bsky.social

My latest — on Malaparte in @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

“Curzio Malaparte was a journalist at heart who needed to witness the outside world, larger political developments, and front lines,” @racheldonadio.bsky.social writes. “[He] had a light touch in a dark time.”

A Student of Power | Rachel Donadio In his experiences and chronicles of the great ideological battles of the twentieth century, Curzio Malaparte was a shape-shifter—pitiless, clinical, cynical, unsentimental, indifferent to morality an...

“Curzio Malaparte’s fundamental focus was on the great ideological battles of the twentieth century, but he was also a witness to the ends of eras, and in his lifetime he experienced many.” —@racheldonadio.bsky.social

🇮🇹⚡Malaparte argues that in the seizure of power, ideology only goes so far, and if a handful of skilled operatives manage to commandeer the mechanisms of the state—infrastructure, communications—a leader can take control without mass support or even favorable circumstances...

John! You’ve done great work. I’m so sorry and upset that it came to this. Bon courage to you and your colleagues.

Pizzagate at the Vatican MAGA Catholics play a familiar game of conspiratorial dissent, but to what end?

among the MAGA faithful at the conclave @nymag.com @racheldonadio.bsky.social nymag.com/intelligence...

Life on the Papal Beat (Published 2015) A journalist reflects on covering the Vatican over the years, and how Pope Francis has, and has not, changed the institution.

I was honored to lead the @nytimes.com coverage of the 2013 conclave in which Pope Francis was elected. A while back I looked back on my experience as a Vatican correspondent, a combination of palace intrigue, political campaign and intellectual history on deadline!

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/m...

Life on the Papal Beat (Published 2015) A journalist reflects on covering the Vatican over the years, and how Pope Francis has, and has not, changed the institution.

End of an era. RIP Pope Francis, always full of surprises — including his ascent to the papacy. In another lifetime, I led @nytimes.com coverage of the conclave in which he was elected.

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/m...

Un journaliste de « The Atlantic » accède à des informations ultraconfidentielles de l’administration Trump après avoir été invité par erreur dans une conversation Signal J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz et Pete Hegseth échangeaient des informations opérationnelles et politiques lors de la préparation des frappes américaines au Yémen sous les yeux de Jeffrey Goldberg. Une « débâcle » pour le sénateur démocrate Chuck Summer.

Un journaliste de « The Atlantic » accède à des informations ultraconfidentielles de l’administration Trump après avoir été invité par erreur dans une conversation Signal

The Conservative Women’s Magazine With Big Ambitions, and Sex Tips for Wives The Evie reader can work. She can be a mom. It’s her choice. It’s just not feminism.

America in 2025 is... interesting...

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/s...

Every Planet in Our Solar System Will Be Visible at Night This Week With Mercury joining the show, all seven of Earth’s celestial neighbors will be present at dusk this week.

Earth’s celestial neighbors will be present at dusk this week. Here’s how to spot all seven planets.

The Dream of the Raised Arm | Zadie Smith It’s no wonder those who lived under the Third Reich suffered ceaseless nightmares. What of our dreams today, under the totalitarianism of the online algorithm?

This Zadie Smith essay is so incredibly good

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans As Donald Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic project, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of...

Flagging @alecmac.bsky.social 's excellent August 2024 @propublica.org piece on Project 2025 and Paul Dans, who assembled a database of 10,000+ names — "candidates vetted for loyalty to Trump’s cause ... ready to deploy into federal agencies should he win..."

www.propublica.org/article/proj...

Once upon a time: Hollywood meets Bob Dylan “A Complete Unknown” has attracted outsized media attention. As someone who has written a bit about Dylan here and there, I can attest that not a single day has gone by in the past month without me re...

"It’s a fable about the end of an ideal of 🇺🇸 unity and optimism. About the failure of goodness... less in the history of biopics about genius than in a tradition of stories abt communities that turn bad"

-Timothy Hampton, author of BOB DYLAN: HOW THE SONGS WORK

press.princeton.edu/ideas/once-u...

Maylis de Kerangal on Canoes and Eastbound Award-winning French author Maylis de Kerangal discusses her latest works, Canoes and Eastbound. In conversation with Donatien Grau, Head of Contemporary Programs at the Musée du Louvre

Wed. Jan. 29 at 19h30 we are delighted to have the marvelous writer Maylis de Kerangal in conversation with Donatien Grau of the Louvre. Sign up live or on Zoom!

Beautiful new translations of EASTBOUND & CANOES are out from Archipelago Books in the U.S.

americanlibraryinparis.org/event/dekera...

Roman pen – inscribed with joke – found at London building site | DigVentures “I went to Rome and all I got you was this lousy pen” says message on 2,000 year old stylus

Bad humor is eternal. From the year 70 CE:
“I have come from the city. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able [to give] as generously as the way is long [and] as my purse is empty,”
digventures.com/2019/07/roma...

Unsinkable Paris | Rachel Donadio One evening during the Summer Olympics last August, I wandered through central Paris at dusk with a friend. We watched on a café TV as the American

🇫🇷📚 Paris is an exquisite city full of exquisite complainers, forever beset by a pervasive sense that things are terrible or dirtier or somehow worse than they used to be, when things are not, in fact, terrible or dirtier or worse.

My latest for @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Venice in Winter, With a Poet as Our Guide A writer and his daughter wander the ancient city at night, inspired by Joseph Brodsky, the Russian writer who loved the city in its cold, quiet season.

It was a bit jarring to see a rather similar piece in today's @nytimestravel.bsky.social ! But I'm always glad for more shout-outs to Brodsky and his indelible WATERMARK.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/t...

Venice in Winter (Published 2010) In summer, Venice is torrid, stuffed to the gills with the 18 million tourists that overwhelm it each year. But in winter, it is a city of church bells, haze and a slow pace that reveals its soul.

is my 2010 essay VENICE IN WINTER, inspired by Joseph Brodsky's "Watermark" @nytimestravel.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/t...

Preserving the Ghastly Inventory of Auschwitz (Published 2015) The aim of the foundation maintaining the site of the concentration camp is “to preserve authenticity.” It is a moral stance with specific curatorial challenges.

Today is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

In 2015, I visited Auschwitz and wrote about the moral and practical challenges of conserving the death camp. @nytimesarts.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/a...

Rachel Kushner on Creation Lake YouTube video by AmericanLibraryParis

🇫🇷📚 Loved talking to Rachel Kushner at the American Library in Paris about her latest novel, CREATION LAKE, about Neanderthals, eco-anarchists, undercover agents, French politics, leftist idealism, how the ancient past insinuates itself into the present.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBHR...

Unsinkable Paris | Rachel Donadio One evening during the Summer Olympics last August, I wandered through central Paris at dusk with a friend. We watched on a café TV as the American

🇫🇷 Ten years ago this week, terrorists attacked Charlie Hebdo and France began an annus horribilus. Today those scars have become part of Paris' cityscape.

My latest for @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Unsinkable Paris | Rachel Donadio One evening during the Summer Olympics last August, I wandered through central Paris at dusk with a friend. We watched on a café TV as the American

🇫🇷 Paris is an exquisite city full of exquisite complainers, forever beset by a pervasive sense that things are terrible or dirtier or somehow worse than they used to be, when things are not, in fact, terrible or dirtier or worse. 🇫🇷

My latest for @nybooks

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

🇫🇷 Closing out the year with one more for @nybooks.com — on Paris, city of revolutions past and perhaps future, city of rich and poor, city of attacks and survivors.

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Why Is France So Afraid of God? How the country came to view religion as a threat to national identity

🇫🇷 The first Mass in a gorgeously restored Notre Dame is underway this morning. For more on church and state in France, here's my Laïcité deep dive for @theatlantic.com

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...