In her debut, art historian and podcaster Blackwell Baines explores the haunted-house phenomenon through eight homes—five in England, three in the U.S.—tracing how a loosely defined building type became a remarkably stable cultural symbol, a space that “subvert[s] our expectations of the house (or ‘home’) as a place of safety and privacy.” Each dwelling anchors […]
Irene Sartori sells foreclosed houses—from a palazzo in smoldering Rome to an expensive property in sinking Venice—to wealthy foreigners impervious to the dystopian climate catastrophe befalling Europe. Renowned in her field, Irene gets a mysterious call beckoning her to help sell an “unsellable” property in her hometown of Milan. The enchanting yet haunting spot, known […]
Some days Mom soars on the wind like a kite, and “no matter how hard I pull the string, I can’t bring her back down.” Other days, Mom’s boat takes on water and begins to sink. The child tries to help bail it out from her own buoyant vessel, but it’s not enough, and Mom […]
After surviving a battle against Napoleon’s forces, Deckard Payne is left with two things: terrible injuries and a battlefield promise to care for the daughter of one of his men. Years later, Dex is still living with both, because, despite the resources at his disposal as Duke of Warburton, Analise Crewe has been impossible to […]
In the opening story, “Christmas Holiday, 1945,” a veteran returning home to Chicago after Germany’s surrender prepares to meet the wife he hasn’t seen in two years. Upon arriving in America, he visits his sister, Edith, a nun who’s about to embark on a missionary voyage to China. In “The Visit,” a man named Rob […]
“The authors of these articles all have day jobs,” writes Doti in his preface. “Somehow, some way, they carved out enough time to experience and then record their adventures, pushing against the boundaries that often constrain the range of life’s offerings.” The contributors—Scott Chapman, Ryan Dahlem, Adam Doti, Lynne Doti, Daniele Struppa, and Dan Temianka—recount […]
The best part of Callie McFee’s post-work evening run is chatting with Barney, an unhoused man who always sits on the same park bench on her route. Thanks to her brother, State, a local homicide detective, she’s one of the first people to hear the tragic news of her friend’s fatal shooting. Just as shocking […]
Devra Denniston is a very successful (and very private) scientist and academic, who, as the story opens, is at her 75th birthday party. Her best friend, journalist Alison Mellows, wants to write Devra’s biography, which she proposes as a gift. Devra resists strenuously at first, but later she falls mysteriously ill with a malady whose […]
This illustrated feast frames Fire Island not simply as a queer sanctuary, but as an incubator of queer style across the 20th century. Dempsey, president of the Fire Island Pines Historical Society, is an engaging guide to a vibrant history: Readers learn that Oscar Wilde is said to have visited in Cherry Grove in 1882; […]
The Indian government has a family-planning slogan: “Hum do hamare do”—literally “two of us, two of ours,” or “[Mom + Dad] + [Kid 1 + Kid 2].” So why does 12-year-old Chandni’s household number five, with Diya Masi, her maternal aunt, living under the same roof? Neither Chandni nor her older brother, Suraj, ever asks; […]