Description: "Fantastic and intensely of-the-moment... It's a dogged feat of investigation from one of our greatest non-fiction storytellers." --Patrick Radden Keefe
"Brilliant... A blockbuster portrait of men gone mad." --Publishers Weekly, starred review From the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and So You've Been Publicly Shamed comes a darkly comic trip to the furthest reaches of the masculinity crisis His only child is lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, sending Jon Ronson on an extraordinary adventure into a dark world of unmoored men desperately searching for purpose and control--whatever the cost. With zero warning, the crisis of masculinity and its bizarre, wrecking-ball manifestations had crashed into Jon's life. As his investigation deepens, urgent questions come to light: What exactly is "Princessing"? Why did a lawn care influencer dress as a baby in front of billions of online viewers? How did a paid-up member of the Skeptic Society derail his life in the name of a warped vision of chivalry? And, more pressingly, why are two recently released murderers on their way to pay Jon a visit? In our rapidly changing society, many men have become detached from reality; some are behaving like separatists, while others have fallen deep down ideological rabbit holes. Is this a complete fracturing of society, a new era of disinhibition where anything goes? Drawing on his trademark brand of humor, psychological insight, and unrivaled prescience, The Castle marks Jon Ronson's long-awaited return to the written page in his darkest and most insightful book yet--one where he throws open the doors to the Castle and reveals a new lost generation of men.Review Quotes: "Fantastic and intensely of-the-moment, The Castle explores the nature of male anxiety, the spiralling delusions of the internet, the destructive allure of anti-woke defiance, the obsequious flattery of AI chatbots, the impunity of the mega-rich and so many other currents that are currently roiling our existence. The genuine horrors of contemporary life are rendered in a way that manages to be so antic and perversely fun, without whitewashing any of the horror itself . . . It's a dogged feat of investigation from one of our greatest non-fiction storytellers." --Patrick Radden Keefe, author of London Falling
"Ridiculously compelling and wonderfully weird, this is a book that helps us understand why so many men seem to be unraveling, filling their lives with ill-conceived dreams and self-performance. The Castle is vintage Ronson: wise, timely and extremely funny." --Louis Theroux "Addictively readable, I loved The Castle. This is a much-needed book -- an anti-sensationalist yet utterly compelling investigation into the masculinity crisis." --Dolly Alderton, author of Good Material "The Castle is by turns funny and frightening, dark and disarming. It's a cautionary tale of our times that deserves to be on the shelf of any reader who seeks to make sense of the perplexing, and sometimes toxic, manosphere." --BookPage, starred review "Brilliant...A blockbuster portrait of men gone mad." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "Jon Ronson is an essential guide in these disorienting times. I love everything that Ronson writes but The Castle is a particular gem, a story of his own making in the collapsing world of twenty-first century masculinity. Wonderfully breathless and weird and open, it feels hallucinatory and all too real at the same time." --Sam Knight, author of The Premonitions Bureau "The Castle is an investigation into one man that broadens into an enquiry into the state of all men. Jon Ronson is such a companiable narrator, and this book is by turns horrifying, hilarious, bizarre and gripping" --Ed Caesar, author of Moth and the Mountain "Every Jon Ronson book has made me see the world differently. Nobody tells an unbelievable-but-true story like him. He's done it again with The Castle I was utterly gripped from page one. If you want a totally compelling live mystery that will make you burn for justice, READ THIS BOOK URGENTLY." --Marina Hyde