“At the Copenhagen restaurant, diners are served raw jellyfish—and freeze-dried lamb brain served in a fake cranium—while videos about climate change swirl on the ceiling. Is it ‘gastronomic opera,’ or sensory overload?”
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How Sandra HĂĽller Approached Playing a Nazi
“The German actress probes characters with unusual depth. But to portray a Fascist wife, in ‘The Zone of Interest,’ she reversed her usual approach—and withheld her empathy.”
The Curse of the Buried Treasure
“Two metal-detector enthusiasts discovered a Viking hoard. It was worth a fortune—but it became a nightmare.”
A New Citizen Leaves a Lost America
Journalist Rebecca Mead explains why she first left England for the United States, and why she’s now moving back to a country that isn’t necessarily home.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re featuring stories from Richard Beck, Rebecca Mead, Sarah Barker, Dylan Matthews, and Sarah Scoles.
Curiosity, Unfettered: Margaret Atwood as the Prophet of Dystopia
Rebecca Mead’s profile in The New Yorker covers the resonance of The Handmaid’s Tale in Donald Trump’s America.
Longreads Best of 2017: Profile Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in profile writing.
Margaret Atwood: The Prophet of Dystopia
At The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead profiles Margaret Atwood — Canada’s prolific queen of literature. Mead and Atwood cover the resonance of The Handmaid’s Tale in Donald Trump’s America, Atwood’s approach to feminism, and the purpose of fiction in today’s society. Beloved for her incisive mind along with her works, Atwood uses unlimited curiosity as […]
A Green New Jail
What does environmental justice look like in a landscape overrun by prisons? Where the incarcerated suffer from unusually polluted surroundings, and prisons are a toxin in their own right?
Adventures in Solitude: A Reading List
Being alone, free of distraction, can be both a writer’s dream and a nightmare.

