“The Unraveling of Mercy Louis" tells the fascinating story of a community that’s nearly torn apart following the discovery of an abandoned baby in a dumpster. A witch hunt ensures and the girls at a local high school soon begin developing mysterious twitches and tics, which quickly intensify. Eventually, the girls in the town are acting as if they’re possessed, thrashing around on the floor or grunting like animals. As strange as it all sounds, Parssinen says the book was inspired by a real episode of mass hysteria in Le Roy, New York.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
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A portrait of Kathputli, India's last remaining magician's colony.
Paule Marshall tells Steve Paulson about the neighborhood both she and her cousin were born into, recalls Brooklyn's glorious past as a hotbed of jazz, and explains why so many African-American artists chose to live in France.
Celebrated children's author Maurice Sendak talks with Steve Paulson about one of his collections.
A recent study of DNA from Neanderthal bones changed everything we thought we knew.
Neil Steinberg tells Jim Fleming, among other things, why AA seems to work, even when you intellectually reject its basic premises.
Mike Daisey is the playwright and star of the off-Broadway 1-man-show called “21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon Dot Com.”
Jason Zasky edits the failuremagazine website. He just loves a good comeback story and shares a few with Anne Strainchamps.
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