Allison Meakem

1 week ago | foreignpolicy.com | Allison Meakem |Chloe Hadavas

This month, we’re immersing ourselves in novels that explore the personal and societal costs of ambition in two of the globe’s economic powerhouses: the Gulf and Singapore. Mo Ogrodnik (Summit Books, 432 pp., $29.99, May 2025) This month, we’re immersing ourselves in novels that explore the personal and societal costs of ambition in two of the globe’s economic powerhouses: the Gulf and Singapore.

1 month ago | foreignpolicy.com | Chloe Hadavas |Allison Meakem

Politics United States Iran This month, we’re reading about a listless Hungarian man and a struggling American academic with Indian and Iranian ancestry, both of whom find themselves at home nowhere.

2 months ago | foreignpolicy.com | Chloe Hadavas |Allison Meakem

This month, we’re reading about dystopias real and imagined, from a crime drama set in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to a novel about a convent in a climate-ravaged world. Lawrence Wright (Knopf, 448 pp., $30, March 2025) This month, we’re reading about dystopias real and imagined, from a crime drama set in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to a novel about a convent in a climate-ravaged world.

2 months ago | foreignpolicy.com | Allison Meakem

Politics Security In January, as Hamas prepared to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal brokered with Israel, U.S. movie theaters began showing a new film about a different—but no less notorious—Israeli hostage crisis.

Feb 7, 2025 | foreignpolicy.com | Chloe Hadavas |Allison Meakem

Science and Technology Europe Afghanistan This month, we’re reading novels set against the backdrop of rising authoritarianism and right-wing extremism in Europe, from two siblings navigating near-future techno-dystopian Britain to the experiences of the daughter of Afghan refugees in 21st-century Berlin.