short story
The real Cat Person has spoken—but is there a real Cat Person?
What the saga of a short story tells us about sex, lies and truth in fiction
“The Rememberer,” a short story by Johanna Skibsrud
When scientists discover a young girl has an exceptional memory, she is forced to be a back-up information drive, saddled with over 200,000 years of human knowledge. But is the load too heavy?
And, oh yeah, it’s about ants
Every so often the New Yorker gives readers their first glimpse of a classic of American fiction. Indeed, all the other apparent functions of that organ are peripheral. What must it have been like to open up the magazine and get hit between the eyes with “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” or “The Lottery” or In Cold Blood or Maus? Today, my friends, you get to find out. “Trailhead” is a free-standing excerpt from the forthcoming first novel by the naturalist E.O. Wilson.