In 2009, 300 people perished in an earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. Next week, six Italian scientists and one government official will stand trial for manslaughter.

Adventures in the cosmetics department of a Neiman Marcus in Dallas.

In which the author’s wife attempts to break the world record in Tetris.

In short order, eight gay men in Texas were murdered by teenage boys.

How a 15-month-old was found dead in the sea in Norway.

In search of Ramanujan in India.

An unidentified body found near the beach in Australia in 1948. An unclaimed suitcase. A coded note.

In the late 1990s, a serial killer found his victims in Yosemite National Park.

“The most important fast food restaurant in America is a radical burger joint in Watts.”

A trip to a grave in Damascus as shelling started in Homs.

A day in the economic life of the Nairobi’s Kibera, the largest shanty-town in Africa.

Visiting his daughter in San Francisco, the author longs for food delivery in Manhattan.

Finding a saint in a leprosy settlement in Hawaii.

Convicted and facing jail time plus a crippling fine in Sweden, the founders of the torrent site The Pirate’s Bay have scattered across the world towards new lives: fatherhood in Laos, a junkie’s life in Phnom Penh, and start-up work in Berlin.

Sixty years ago, the U.S. upset England in the World Cup on a goal from Joe Gaetjens. In most countries he would have been idolized. Instead, he was ignored in America and marked for death in his native Haiti.

In an elaborate FBI sting to expose corruption, four agents pose as futures traders in Chicago. The plan works–if you don’t count the hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars the agents lost in the process.

The evolution of cheating in chess.

Adventures in public speaking.

In defense of snark.

In the 1970s, Kelbessa Negewo was a midlevel administrator in Ethiopia’s brutal Red Terror regime. In the 1990s, he was a bellhop in an Atlanta hotel. Then someone he had tortured back home recognized him.

Jillian Lauren, wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, grew up middle class and now lives in a three-bedroom house in L.A. In between, she was a part of a royal harem in Brunei.

There are many explanations for the rise in killings in U.S. cities, including the pandemic and the choices made in response to it. In Philadelphia, the causes, the human costs — and the suffering — are particularly stark.

“In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it.”