At first glance, “The Last Magazine: A Novel” by Michael Hastings would appear to lack relevance in the current media age. A fictional account of life inside a failed magazine — Newsweek — in a dying industry — print — written by a now-dead journalist, the book seems very much beside the point. And the march of history aside, does the world need another roman à clef from inside the world of Manhattan media, whose bottomless interest in itself is not generally shared by the public?

But even from the grave Mr. Hastings has demonstrated anew an ability to reframe the debate. The novel, exhumed by his spouse after his death and published last week, reads as vivid archaeology that reveals much about the present moment.

The book seems eerily relevant in part because it arrived the same week it became clear that while America was done with Iraq, Iraq is not done with America, not by a long shot.

The novel begins when its main character, Michael Hastings, gets a job as an intern in 2002, just as the media tom-toms of battle are rising. “There’s war in the backdrop, looming and distant and not real for most of these characters, myself included,” he writes in a dose of self-indictment.