WHAT’S NEW

“Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said” by Timothy Brennan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux): Brennan, who studied under Edward Said at Columbia, the Palestinian American academic’s longtime home, traces Said’s legacy as a critic, negotiator and even musician by drawing on his letters, unpublished manuscripts and FBI files.

“Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?” by Jesse Mccarthy (Liveright): Mccarthy, an assistant professor at Harvard, draws on a broad array of cultural and historical influences — from Kara Walker to Nas — in these essays, which he began writing in 2014. He approaches the country’s cultural changes in the intervening years through the lens of the arts and intellectual culture, opening with a provocative question: “What do people owe each other when debts accrued can never be repaid?”