Start here
I must confess that every article and story on this website is exceptionally good — each one surpassed only by the next.
I assure you, that was never the plan.
The unintended consequence, however, is that you may find yourself wondering where to begin. That's a good problem to have.
What I can promise is this: whichever piece you choose first will be worth your time. The editorial standards around here make sure of that.
To save you from the burden of deciding, I've handpicked a few favourites to get the ball rolling.
Enjoy them.
And when you're done, do the decent thing — the natural balance of the world sorely depends on this singular act — share them with someone else.
Don't be greedy.
What I Wish I Knew About Grace
My father, a razor blade, and the servant who forgave him before handing it over — the story that taught him, and later me, what grace actually is.
The story the whole archive keeps returning to — my father, Nathan, and the blade. If the site has a centre, it is here.
Where Conscience Goes to Die
A driver refuses a bribe at a northern checkpoint and has a rifle pointed at our windscreen. It was the man beside me who unsettled me more.
The narrative register at full strength — a checkpoint, a refusal, a rifle, and the passenger whose shrug unsettled me more than the gun.
How To Give Up
A straight-faced, mock-instructional guide to quitting — despondency, doomsday, the ethics of it — that teaches you the method over two thousand words and then declines to use it.
Proof the archive can be funny — a straight-faced guide that teaches you how to quit and then, at the last moment, declines to.