Katie Baker

In 2003, the acclaimed Spanish writer and journalist Antonio Muñoz Molina took the English-speaking world by storm with the translation of his work "Sepharad." Now Anglophone readers will get to revel anew in Muñoz Molina's sensual prose and fluid plotlines with the translation of his first novel, "A Manuscript of Ashes" (published in Spain as "Beatus Ille" in 1986).

With military scuffles breaking out from the Caucuses to the Philippines, it's hard not to be cynical when the U.N. hosts an exhibit entitled "Paintings for World Harmony." But in this case, the artist warrants a suspension of disbelief: the acrylics are by Sri Chinmoy, the recently deceased humanitarian who campaigned tirelessly for tolerance and peace.

In her new memoir, "Epilogue," author Anne Roiphe chronicles her sudden widowhood and attempts, at age 72, to date again in the Internet era. She spoke with NEWSWEEK's Katie Baker.

China bans all mention of June 4, the day of a deadly 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, but memories remain—including those of exiled novelist Ma Jian and of the protagonist of his new novel, "Beijing Coma." The story follows Dai Wei, who grew up the son of an accused "rightist" in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, and who falls in with ideological firebrands during his university days.

The inventor of the Roomba describes what's in store for the future of human-robot interaction.

As Japan builds a new generation of robot companions, U.S. firms focus on pragmatics.

In the annals of literary history, novelists have often been sports maniacs—Hemingway had his hunting, Mailer his boxing, Plimpton his football. Now Japanese cult writer Haruki Murakami has his marathons.

To compile "Why I'm A Democrat," editor Susan Mulcahy recruited more than 50 fellow party faithful, including celebs like Tony Bennett, Isaac Mizrahi and Nora Ephron, along with farmers, waitresses and one billionaire (insurance mogul Bernard Rapoport).

Less than a month to go until the Olympics and world leaders are finally announcing their plans, with hardly a party pooper in the bunch. George W. Bush will be there, saying he's going for the sake of the athletes and "the Chinese people." That sentiment was echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who backtracked on threats to sit out by declaring, "I don't think you can boycott a quarter of humanity." Even leaders who passed on the invite insist it's not political: both Germany's...

For the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize—Britain's annual award for the best novel by a Commonwealth or Irish citizen—a Best of the Booker is being bestowed on July 10.

The countdown is on for the 2008 Tour de France and the scandals keep on coming. In June, green-jersey champion Tom Boonen was banned for a positive cocaine test, making him the latest in a string of expulsions that include defending champion Alberto Contador, whose Astana Team was barred in February for past doping problems.

It's the late 12th century, at a trading bazaar in the Gobi Desert. A ruler from the local Tangut dynasty is buying slaves, and he's drawn to a captive named Temudgin.

"Panic in Level 4," a collection of essays by New Yorker writer Richard Preston, is sure to please science fanatics, or anyone else obsessed with nature's murkier mysteries.

War monuments on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall tend toward the phallic—most famously, the obelisk honoring revolutionary hero and first President George Washington.

In the web counterrevolution that Jonathan Zittrain foresees, users will lose the ability to control content, companies will gain the power to censor data, and security will trump innovation.

Much has been made of "Sex and the City's" single-girl mythology, with its four Dolce-clad heroines who set off to conquer a larger-than-life version of New York.

The Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial show has long been heralded as a survey of the most influential up-and-comers, and also derided as a hit-or-miss exhibit that fails to live up to its hype.

The orations of politicians, George Orwell once complained, "vary from party to party, but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech." It's an opiate-of-the-masses view of political jargon—one that's soundly rebuffed by William Safire, The New York Times's "On Language" guru, whose Political Dictionary will be rereleased next month in time for party conventions and the general election, both historical hotbeds of new "po-lingo."Safire, a...

Beijing recently unveiled the earth's largest building, a new million-square-meter airport terminal that will help handle up to 90 million passengers per year.