To Become a Better Human, Read a Novel

Fiction can pick up where self-help books fall short

Photo: cottonbro/Pexels

The summer of 2016, my husband recommended I read a novel called The Brothers K. I’m no stranger to getting lost in a good story — as a kid, I spent long summer days reading Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary, and a decade later, I graduated with a degree in English. But in that season of my life, pregnant with my…