Ben Marcus' bracing 2012 novel The Flame Alphabet (Knopf) makes high, messy art from the fantastic. His premise — that the language of children suddenly is toxic to adults — has an immediate power but ...

Given its harrowing premise and mesmerizing opening passages, Ben Marcus’s latest novel, “The Flame Alphabet,’’ promises to provide a particularly terrifying read. Set in a time when language has ...

Ben Marcus discusses the consequences of a communications breakdown that amounts to a social and spiritual dissolution. Where will wisdom be found? How will it be expressed? We discuss the ...

Near the end of The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus's rhapsodic apocalyptic novel of a world where language has become toxic, Sam, the narrator, commenting on a fable of a young bird blindfolded as a rite ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...