The Powerful, Unpredictable Nature of Fear

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.

“To learn what we fear is to learn who we are,” Guillermo del Toro wrote last week, in an essay for The Atlantic about Mary Shelley’s eternally spooky novel Frankenstein. The director, who just released a film adaptation of the classic, has made a career of investigating the depths of horror, which he considers “one of the last refuges of spirituality in our materialistic world.” But in his essay, del Toro also sought to elevate fear, a powerful emotion that doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. Halloween is the perfect time to think more deeply about the role it plays in our life.

First, here are six new stories from The Atlantic’s Books section: • Letters from John Updike • A writer who