The author of The Castle likes his music in a time capsule and silence in his home—but definitely not in his stories.
Books
Posted inFeature
Going Up and Going In
A solo climber considers the outermost reaches of risk, and the unlikely ways in which they redefine us.
Posted inFeature
Black and Blue in Cleveland
Both of Wilbert L. Cooper’s parents were cops. In this excerpt from his memoir, Cooper recounts how his mother got into the force—and what the department did to try to keep her out.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Missing Pages
“Sixty years after the Cultural Revolution began, a writer looks back to her childhood in Beijing during its peak, and the banned books that sustained her through the tumult.”
Posted inFeature
Magical Mystery Toads
The long, tangled, and mostly wrong history of the psychedelic toad.
Posted inQuestionnaire
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Kimon de Greef
The Ego Trip author on the sea, the pull of South Africa, and how his ecology background shapes the stories he tells.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Welcome to Toronto, World Capital of the Urban Raccoon
Dan Werb on the understated intelligence of the animals that share our cities.
Posted inFeature
Vinyl in the Veins
Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: Every record is made of oil.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The True Story of Laura Ingalls Is Wilder than Little House on the Prairie
“Netflix’s new adaptation of the beloved book series will probably leave out some of the most fascinating details from the author’s life—from Pa Ingalls’s ineptitude to the serial killers that stalked Kansas during her childhood.”