“A wiseguy’s son steps out of his father’s shadow—and into the boxing ring. But the legacy of organized crime isn’t so easy to leave behind.”
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They Played Football as Children. Now Their Families Mourn.
They gave up the game after high school, but the damage seemingly was already done. Now, their families mourn and look for answers.
Escaping China with a Spoon and a Rusty Nail
“I never imagined that I would stay there for three years and eight months, from the ages of 16 to 19.”
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Rebecca Solnit
The author of The Beginning Comes After the End talks about jackrabbits, her own “informational hypervigilance,” and the one word she won’t stop using.
Coming to Terms with Going Home
There are few places I can think of more melancholy than the streets of my hometown late at night.
Best Of 2023: Features
At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
Boxer Patricio Manuel, a Transgender Pioneer, Is Still Looking for His Next Fight
“Manuel sees sports as the latest front in a culture war that fought — and lost — previous battles over same-sex marriage and trans bathroom bills.”
‘He Is the Prince, but I Am the King’
Two scammers, a web of betrayal, and Europe’s fraud of the century.
Best of 2022: Profiles
A great profile accomplishes the nearly impossible by making you feel like you truly know someone you’ve never met. It’s a feat of empathy and insight, the kind of alchemy that turns reporting into rapport. The five examples here span all manner of tone and subject, from victims of gun violence to digital charlatans, but […]
Pawns, Puppet Heads, and Paranoia: An Eccentrics Reading List
“They’re a little eccentric” is a phrase I suspect most of us have heard used to describe a certain kind of memorable person. For me, it evokes my childhood dentist — an elderly man who favored colorful bow ties and humming loudly as he worked, and who once wagged his finger in my face and […]

