Sjón’s “CoDex 1962” is the fulfillment of a pact he made with the Maharal of Prague in the Old Jewish Cemetery almost three decades ago.

This month’s books newsletter has a lot to say about identities — mistaken, misunderstood, transformed, false, false, fictional, or as anonymous as the op-ed.

Even if one of the last surviving Tolstoyan communes has fallen short of Leo Tolstoy’s ideals, it’s still turned into something meaningful. It’s a place for people who don’t want to be found.