Best of 2025: The Stories You Missed

“Time,” Ernest Hemingway once wrote to Lillian Ross, “is the least thing we have of.” It can certainly feel that way to a reader.

“时间，”欧内斯特·海明威曾经写信给莉莲·罗斯，“是我们拥有的最少的东西。”读者肯定会有这种感觉。

The stories we love tend to find us at moments that are generous enough to hold them.

我们喜欢的故事往往会在足够慷慨的时刻找到我们。

This year, Longreads editors personally recommended more than 600 stories to our audience.

今年，Longreads编辑亲自向我们的观众推荐了600多个故事。

Some of those stories may have snuck past you the first time, and that’s unavoidable; the ideal moment might not always be “Right here, right now.” But good stories tend to stick around.

其中一些故事可能第一次就从你身边溜过，这是不可避免的；理想的时刻可能并不总是“此时此地”。但好的故事往往会留下来。

This year’s “Stories You Missed” include journeys with mummies and endangered birds, meditations on compost and lionfish, and deep studies of time, maps, and memory.

今年的“你错过的故事”包括与木乃伊和濒临灭绝的鸟类的旅程，对堆肥和狮子鱼的冥想，以及对时间、地图和记忆的深入研究。

Maybe you haven’t missed them quite yet; in fact, maybe they’ve been waiting to find you at this very moment.

也许你还没有想念他们；事实上，也许他们此刻一直在等待找到你。

—Brendan, Carolyn, Cheri, Krista, Peter & Seyward

—布伦丹、卡罗琳、谢里、克里斯塔、彼得和西沃德

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## 1.

The Long Fight to Teach an Endangered Ibis Species to Migrate

教导濒临灭绝的朱鹮物种进行迁徙的长期斗争

Nick Paumgarten | The New Yorker | February 10, 2025 | 7, 587 words

尼克·鲍姆加滕 |纽约客 | 2025 年 2 月 10 日 | 7、587字

Over the course of 51 days, Johannes Fritz, flying a microlight along with two “foster mothers,” led a flock of Ibis birds 1,700 miles, from Germany to Spain.

在 51 天的时间里，约翰内斯·弗里茨 (Johannes Fritz) 与两名“养母”一起驾驶超轻型飞机，带领一群宜必思鸟从德国飞了 1,700 英里，到达西班牙。

It’s a bizaare enterprise, brilliantly described by Nick Paumgarten in a piece that shows the lengths some people are prepared to go to repair the damage humans have caused.

这是一项奇异的事业，尼克·鲍姆加滕 (Nick Paumgarten) 在一篇文章中精彩地描述了这一点，展示了一些人为修复人类造成的损害所做的准备。

—CW

—CW

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## 2.

Double Exposure

双重曝光

Jonathan Weiner | The American Scholar | December 23, 2024 | 4,211 words

乔纳森·韦纳 |美国学者| 2024 年 12 月 23 日 | 4,211 字

A century ago, psychologists believed that our earliest memories began at three years old; before that age, Freud wrote, we are susceptible to “infantile amnesia,” a grand slate-clearing of events that, nevertheless, leave “a definite influence for all future time.” For Jonathan Weiner, a photograph of his family taken in 1956, when he was just two, revealed his mother’s lost pregnancy and granted him new access to a few foundational memories—“those free-floating, undated scenes that are usually hard, or impossible, to explain.” In his researched essay, Weiner, a science writer, investigates those scenes with the help of a neurobiologist and psychoanalyst, to better understand why so many of our earliest moments are swept from our memories.

一个世纪前，心理学家认为我们最早的记忆始于三岁；弗洛伊德写道，在那个年龄之前，我们很容易患上“婴儿期失忆症”，这是一种对事件的大规模清除，然而，这些事件“对未来的所有时间都留下了明确的影响”。对于乔纳森·韦纳（Jonathan Weiner）来说，一张 1956 年他两岁时拍摄的全家照片揭示了他母亲流产的经历，并让他重新获得了一些基本记忆——“那些自由浮动、没有注明日期的场景，通常很难或不可能解释。”科普作家韦纳在他的研究论文中，在神经生物学家和精神分析师的帮助下研究了这些场景，以更好地理解为什么我们最早的许多时刻都从我们的记忆中消失了。

—BF

—BF

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## 3.

Spaghetti Underground

地下意大利面

Zoe Guttenplan | The New York Review of Books | April 18, 2025 | 3,567 words

佐伊·古腾普兰 |纽约书评| 2025 年 4 月 18 日 | 3,567 字

Recently, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Agency unveiled new maps for the city’s famously complex subway system—well, diagrams, technically, since they’re too abstracted to be considered maps.

最近，纽约市大都会交通局公布了该市著名的复杂地铁系统的新地图——从技术上讲，是图表，因为它们太抽象了，不能被视为地图。

The new design marks the first major visual overhaul since 1979; ironically enough, it’s based on Massimo Vignelli’s predecessor, which riled straphangers almost immediately after its 1972 debut (but enthralled designers).

新设计标志着自 1979 年以来首次重大视觉改革；讽刺的是，它是基于 Massimo Vignelli 的前身，后者在 1972 年首次亮相后几乎立即激怒了业界人士（但也让设计师们着迷）。

For The New York Review, Zoe Guttenplan descends into the tunnels to trace the winding path of cartographic evolution.

在《纽约评论》中，佐伊·古腾普兰 (Zoe Guttenplan) 深入隧道，追踪制图演变的蜿蜒路径。

—PR

——公关

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## 4.

Chimes at Midnight

午夜的钟声

Alec Nevala-Lee | Asterisk | January 2025 | 5,007 words

亚历克·内瓦拉-李 |星号 | 2025 年 1 月 | 5,007 字

The Clock of the Long Now is a massive clock, powered by mechanical energy harvested from sunlight, currently under construction inside a mountain located at 31°26’54”N, 104°54’14”W.

长久之钟是一座巨大的时钟，由从阳光中收集的机械能提供动力，目前正在一座位于北纬 31°26'54”、西经 104°54'14”的山内建造。

(If you’re wondering, this is in West Texas, on land owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.) The clock, a project conceived by Danny Hillis in 1989, was designed to keep accurate time for the next ten millennia.

（如果你想知道的话，这是在德克萨斯州西部，亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝索斯 (Jeff Bezos) 拥有的土地上。）这个时钟是丹尼·希利斯 (Danny Hillis) 于 1989 年构思的一个项目，旨在在未来十个千年里保持准确的时间。

Alec Nevala-Lee tells its origin story, how Bezos came into the picture to fund its construction, and the clock’s role in humanity’s future.

亚历克·内瓦拉·李 (Alec Nevala-Lee) 讲述了它的起源故事、贝索斯如何参与资助其建设，以及时钟在人类未来中的作用。

—CLR

—CLR

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## 5.

On Compost

关于堆肥

Fraser MacDonald | The London Review of Books | April 17, 2025 | 2,576 words

弗雷泽·麦克唐纳 |伦敦书评 | 2025 年 4 月 17 日 | 2,576 字

Fraser MacDonald waxes lyrical about the magic of composting for the London Review of Books.

弗雷泽·麦克唐纳 (Fraser MacDonald) 在《伦敦书评》上抒情地讲述了堆肥的魔力。

He surveys various methods and reveals what goes into his compost pile, which includes everything from seaweed to beard shavings.

他研究了各种方法，并揭示了堆肥堆中的成分，其中包括从海藻到胡须刨花的所有东西。

In looking at his heap, he sees it as a slightly messy response to the “dispiriting cleanness of modern life,” one full of one-use wet wipes and sanitizers, a pile which “stands in productive contrast to domestic disorder.” —KS

在看着他的一堆东西时，他认为这是对“现代生活令人沮丧的清洁”的一种稍微凌乱的反应，里面装满了一次性湿巾和消毒剂，一堆“与家庭混乱形成了富有成效的对比”。 —KS

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## 6.

Car Talk

汽车谈话

Cynthia Zarin | The Paris Review | November 3, 2025 | 1,967 words

辛西娅扎林|巴黎评论 | 2025 年 11 月 3 日 | 1,967 字

We have, many of us, been waylaid by our own car misfortunes.

我们中的许多人都曾被自己的汽车不幸所困扰。

But we have also been transported, often in more than one sense.

但我们也曾经历过迁移，而且往往不止一种意义上的迁移。

Cynthia Zarin’s short personal essay for The Paris Review corners beautifully, moving with grace and good speed between the Odyssey, a marriage’s end, the expectations of parents and children, the fantasies we harbor, and, per Zarin, “the car at the end of the mind.” —BF

辛西娅·扎林（Cynthia Zarin）为《巴黎评论》撰写的简短个人文章转折优美，优雅而快速地在奥德赛、婚姻的终结、父母和孩子的期望、我们怀有的幻想以及扎林所说的“心灵尽头的汽车”之间移动。 —BF

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## 7.

The Secret Life of Horus

荷鲁斯的秘密生活

Russell Cobb, Sarah Brandvold | Edify | October 1, 2025 | 2,732 words

拉塞尔·科布、莎拉·布兰德沃德 |启发 | 2025 年 10 月 1 日 | 2,732 字

Russell Cobb and Sarah Brandvold follow the remarkable journey of an Egyptian mummy, nicknamed “Horus.” Now at the University of Alberta, Horus has had a tumultuous time since being removed from Egypt—treated as an object of entertainment and fear, until eventually ending up in the University’s permanent collection.

拉塞尔·科布和莎拉·布兰德沃德跟随一位绰号为“荷鲁斯”的埃及木乃伊的非凡旅程。现在在阿尔伯塔大学，荷鲁斯自从被带离埃及以来，经历了一段动荡的时期——被视为娱乐和恐惧的对象，直到最终成为该大学的永久收藏。

What questions does the afterlife of Horus raise about how we treat and display human remains?

荷鲁斯的来世对我们如何处理和展示人类遗骸提出了哪些问题？

—CW

—CW

## 8.

## 8.

Building a Nest

筑巢

Lauren Markham, Jenny Odell | Los Angeles Review of Books | April 25, 2025 | 3,682 words

劳伦·马卡姆、珍妮·奥德尔 |洛杉矶书评| 2025 年 4 月 25 日 | 3,682 字

At the Los Angeles Review of Books, authors Jenny Odell and Lauren Markham are in conversation after the publication of Markham’s latest book, Immemorial, in which she considers how we use language to memorialize what we’ve lost due to climate change.

在《洛杉矶书评》上，作者珍妮·奥德尔 (Jenny Odell) 和劳伦·马卡姆 (Lauren Markham) 在马卡姆的最新著作《不朽》出版后进行了对话，她在书中思考了我们如何使用语言来纪念我们因气候变化而失去的东西。

In this wide-ranging interview about the work of writing, they discuss finding and making connections, making art in a time of crisis, the puzzles of structure, the power of ritual in the process of discovery, and the great privilege and responsibility that comes with being a journalist.

在这次关于写作工作的内容广泛的采访中，他们讨论了寻找和建立联系、危机时期的艺术创作、结构之谜、发现过程中仪式的力量，以及作为一名记者所带来的巨大特权和责任。

—KS

—KS

## 9.

## 9.

Here Come the Lionfish

狮子鱼来了

James Bridle | Emergence Magazine | January 30, 2025 | 4,136 words

詹姆斯·布莱德尔 |新兴杂志| 2025 年 1 月 30 日 | 4,136 字

James Bridle, the technologist and author of Ways of Being and New Dark Age, centers this insightful essay on the lionfish, and what some people view as an “invasion” of the species in the Mediterranean.

技术专家詹姆斯·布里德尔（James Bridle）是《存在方式》和《新黑暗时代》一书的作者，他这篇富有洞察力的文章以狮子鱼为中心，以及一些人认为该物种在地中海的“入侵”。

Bridle uses an unexpected diving encounter with the fish as a starting point to explore nonhuman migration over millennia due to geological and climatic change, imperialism, and colonialism.

布莱德尔以一次意外的潜水遭遇鱼类为起点，探索了数千年来由于地质和气候变化、帝国主义和殖民主义造成的非人类迁徙。

“On my second dive, I met a lionfish,” they write.

“在第二次潜水时，我遇到了一条狮子鱼，”他们写道。

“This was not the first time I had done so: I remembered their prickly, languorous form from a reef three thousand miles to the south, some twenty years ago, off the west coast of Africa.

“这不是我第一次这样做：我记得大约二十年前，在非洲西海岸以南三千英里的珊瑚礁上，它们多刺、慵懒的形状。

But I did not expect to meet them here, in the northwest corner of the Aegean, in a deep gulf of a different ocean.” Always take the time to read the latest from Bridle.

但我没想到会在这里遇见他们，在爱琴海的西北角，在另一个海洋的深处。”请务必花时间阅读 Bridle 的最新动态。

I very much enjoyed these thought-provoking observations on the ocean, migration, and deep time.

我非常喜欢这些关于海洋、迁徙和深时的发人深省的观察。

—CLR

—CLR

## 10.

## 10.

Fortunate Son

幸运儿

Tony Ho Tran | Slate | August 13, 2025 | 5,565 words

托尼·霍·陈 |板岩| 2025 年 8 月 13 日 | 5,565 字

Going home is always fraught; going home to the place you fled, 50 years after the end of the war that decimated it, is something altogether different.

回家总是充满忧愁；在摧毁这座城市的战争结束 50 年后，回到你逃离的地方，这是完全不同的事情。

Tony Ho Tran’s family trip to Vietnam—which, coincidentally, took place exactly five decades after the fall of Saigon—sets the stage for him to wrestle with his own upbringing, his parents’ past, and the complicated history so many millions share.

托尼·霍·特兰 (Tony Ho Tran) 的全家越南之行——巧合的是，这次旅行发生在西贡陷落整整 50 年之后——为他提供了一个舞台，让他思考自己的成长经历、父母的过去以及数百万人共同经历的复杂历史。

It’s part travelog, part family dramedy, and all heart.

这部分是旅行日志，部分是家庭喜剧，而且是全心全意的。

—PR

——公关