Blog Biz

In April 2012, the Mitchell family of Bakersfield, California reached a breaking point. For over fifty years they had worked the same cornfields, passed down through three generations. But the drought of 2011 had devastated the central valley, and the economic crisis had drained what little prosperity remained. Robert Mitchell, forty-eight, watched his fields fail … Read more

Ich bin Lena Schmidt, vierunddreißig Jahre alt, Digital Creator aus Berlin-Kreuzberg. Mein Hochzeitstag hätte perfekt sein sollen. Weißes Kleid, Gelübde, mein Mann Erik an meiner Seite. Ich hatte monatelang geplant und gehofft, dass meine Familie auftauchen, lächeln und mit mir feiern würde. Aber sie kamen nicht. Kein Anruf, keine Nachricht, keine Entschuldigung. Meine Eltern und … Read more

The alarm hadn’t even sounded when my eyes opened at six thirty, sunlight already pushing through the curtains of the bedroom I’d shared with Naen for thirty years before she passed. Five years gone now, and some mornings my hand still reached across to her side of the bed without asking permission from my brain. … Read more

První srpnový týden přinesl do rezidenčního komplexu Heron Ridge těžké, nepřetržité vedro. Postřikovače tiše šuměly nad trávníky, po kterých nikdo nechodil. Na lavičce u zaměstnaneckého parkoviště, poblíž boudy hlídače, seděla sedmiletá Ruby Dawsonová. Červený batoh, knížka z knihovny a ubrousek se svačinou, který jí ráno maminka pečlivě složila do úhledného čtverce. Ve třetím patře její … Read more

At 9:10 on the morning of June 19, 1944, a 42-year-old American submarine commander from Minneapolis put his eye to the periscope and locked onto the largest target of his career. His torpedo data computer was broken. He fired anyway. Six torpedoes raced through the water. Four would miss. One would be intercepted by a … Read more

On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, along the dusty ridges above the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, time ran out for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the 210 men riding with him. For most of those troopers it was not a drawn-out epic, not the heroic last stand the paintings would later … Read more

In the spring of 1887, Aldrich and Cordelia Vulsberg arrived in the Rhineland region of Missouri with everything they owned and a substantial sum borrowed from relatives in Pennsylvania. They had come to buy the Hollenbeck estate in Gasconade County, a stone manor house offered at a remarkably low price for its size—about three hundred … Read more

Questa famiglia non ha nulla da offrire. Ho sentito quelle parole uscire dalla bocca di un uomo seduto alla mia tavola, nella mia casa, davanti a mia figlia. Non ho alzato la voce. Non mi sono alzato. Ho solo posato la forchetta e ho guardato un uomo che possedeva tre case e un jet privato … Read more

In May 1946, inside Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, a 31-year-old musician named Ben Johnson lay curled on the concrete floor of cell 217, his appendix dangerously swollen, his temperature near 104 degrees. He screamed through the night, not from fear, but from pain that stripped him of all dignity. In the neighboring cells, every … Read more

Patnáct dolarů, tati. To byla poslední slova mého syna, pronesená hlasem, který se tetelil sebeuspokojením muže, jenž se chystá zdědit sto šedesát milionů dolarů po své matce. Chtěl mě v první řadě při čtení závěti, aby byl svědkem svého triumfu a viděl mou tvář, až tam zazní skutečnost, že nemám žádnou cenu. Nevěděl ale, že … Read more