Stories to Read in 2019

Here are stories from 2018 that captured Longreads editors’ imaginations as deserving of ongoing attention.

以下是 2018 年的故事，激发了 Longreads 编辑的想象力，值得持续关注。

If you like these, you can sign up to receive our weekly email every Friday.

如果您喜欢这些，您可以注册以每周五接收我们的每周电子邮件。

Danielle JacksonWriter and contributing editor, Longreads

丹妮尔·杰克逊（Danielle Jackson）作家兼特约编辑，Longreads

## Always Open, The Eureka Hotel (Jamey Hatley, Strange Horizons)

## 永远开放，尤里卡酒店（杰米·哈特利，奇异地平线）

The July 30 issue of Strange Horizons, a monthly journal dedicated to speculative fiction, focused on narratives of the southeastern United States, and were all written by indigenous authors and other writers of color.

7 月 30 日出版的《Strange Horizons》是一本专门报道推理小说的月刊，重点关注美国东南部的叙事，全部由土著作家和其他有色人种作家撰写。

In the stories they selected and nurtured, editors Sheree Renee Thomas, Erin Roberts, and Rasha Abdulhadi brought to light a multiciplicitious South, ripe with the region’s “history, music, food, language,” yet sensitive to the hauntings and challenges still left unresolved.

在他们挑选和培育的故事中，编辑谢里·蕾妮·托马斯 (Sheree Renee Thomas)、艾琳·罗伯茨 (Erin Roberts) 和拉莎·阿卜杜勒哈迪 (Rasha Abdulhadi) 揭示了一个多元化的南方，该地区的“历史、音乐、美食、语言”已经成熟，但对仍未解决的困扰和挑战非常敏感。

My favorite story of the issue, “Always Open, the Eureka Hotel,” by Memphis-born writer Jamey Hatley, is an innovative, life-stirring feat of storytelling that resists the boundaries of genre and the page itself to dive deep into the interiors of its characters, into the heart and marrow of a place.

本期我最喜欢的故事是出生于孟菲斯的作家杰米·哈特利 (Jamey Hatley) 创作的《永远开放的尤里卡酒店》(Always Open, the Eureka Hotel)，这是一个创新的、激动人心的故事讲述壮举，它突破了类型和页面本身的界限，深入到角色的内心深处，深入到一个地方的核心和骨髓。

A young Black girl in Jim Crow Mississippi has been caught in an affair with a mysterious, blues-playing lover; her protective father and brother drive her North, toward Chicago, away from the trouble her lover can bring.

密西西比州吉姆·克劳的一名年轻黑人女孩被发现与一位神秘的布鲁斯演奏情人有染；她的父亲和兄弟开车送她向北，前往芝加哥，远离她的爱人带来的麻烦。

Guided by the Negro Motorist Green Book and the Negro Yearbook and Directory, the family journeys through sundown towns and has a menacing encounter with a white police officer.

在《黑人驾车者绿皮书》和《黑人年鉴和指南》的指导下，一家人穿越日落小镇，并与一名白人警察发生了险恶的遭遇。

Their stop in Memphis at the Eureka Hotel changes the young girl’s life: “You thought you were hungry for what your lover could teach you, but you were hungry for yourself.”

他们在孟菲斯尤里卡酒店的停留改变了这个年轻女孩的生活：“你以为你渴望得到你的爱人可以教你的东西，但你渴望的是你自己。”

Based on deep research (with thorough footnotes!) into Southern foodways, the traditions of conjure and rootwork, and the queer history of the blues, Hatley has created a world in between the real one and a fictional one, between now and the past, to reveal something truer about the South and feminine longing and hope than anything I’ve read in a long time.

基于对南方饮食方式、魔术和根源的传统以及布鲁斯的酷儿历史的深入研究（带有彻底的脚注！），海特利创造了一个介于真实与虚构、现在与过去之间的世界，以揭示比我长期以来读过的任何东西都更真实的关于南方和女性的渴望和希望。

Sari BottonEssays editor, Longreads

Sari Botton 长篇读物散文编辑

## Neither of my parents was exactly who I thought they were.

## 我的父母都不是我想象的那样。

(Elizabeth Wurtzel, The Cut)

（伊丽莎白·沃策尔《The Cut》）

Agent and former editor Betsy Lerner once wrote, “Editing Elizabeth Wurtzel is like editing a hurricane, like producing Courtney’s albums, like mainlining sticky blue ink.” Wurtzel’s writing is explosive, raw, and bracingly candid.

经纪人兼前编辑贝特西·勒纳 (Betsy Lerner) 曾写道：“编辑伊丽莎白·沃策尔就像编辑一场飓风，就像制作考特尼的专辑，就像主线粘稠的蓝色墨水。”伍策尔的写作充满爆炸性、原始性和令人振奋的坦诚。

It’s often stream-of-consciousness and slightly disorganized.

它通常是意识流的并且有点混乱。

It isn’t for everyone, but I am a huge long-standing fan.

它并不适合所有人，但我是它的忠实粉丝。

I’ve devoured her memoirs (not just Prozac Nation but also her addiction/recovery memoir, More, Now, Again) and greet every personal essay she writes with baited breath.

我如饥似渴地读了她的回忆录（不仅是《百忧解国家》，还有她的成瘾/康复回忆录《更多，现在，再一次》），并用引诱的呼吸迎接她写的每一篇个人文章。

Wurtzel has always taken the supremely shitty cards life has dealt her — crippling depression, addiction, advanced breast cancer — and written bravely and compellingingly about them, definantly busting stigmas at every turn.

伍特泽尔总是接受生活给她带来的最糟糕的牌——严重的抑郁症、毒瘾、晚期乳腺癌——并勇敢地、令人信服地写下它们，在每一个转折点都坚决地打破耻辱。

Turns out the deck held at least one more difficult suprise for her.

事实证明，这副牌至少给她带来了一个更困难的惊喜。

In this essay, Wurtzel reveals the bombshell that was recently dropped on her — that her father was not Donald Wurtzel, but rather civil rights era photojournalist Bob Adelman.

在这篇文章中，伍策尔揭露了最近落在她身上的重磅炸弹——她的父亲不是唐纳德·伍策尔，而是民权时代的摄影记者鲍勃·阿德尔曼。

But there’s more to this piece than just that revelation; there’s also an admirable balancing of her anger with thoughtfulness and compassion as she tries to put into context and make sense of her mother’s choice to keep the secret of her affair (and her daughter’s true paternity) for 50 years.

但这篇文章的意义远不止于此。当她试图结合背景并理解她母亲选择保守她的外遇（以及她女儿真正的父亲身份）50年的秘密时，她在愤怒与体贴和同情之间取得了令人钦佩的平衡。

Oh, she drew one more shitty card: The piece was published the week between Christmas and New Years, when everyone is checked out, and shortly after New York Magazine added a pay wall that doesn’t work properly and leaves long term subscribers (like me) no choice but to wait for the print edition to arrive.

哦，她又画了一张糟糕的卡片：这篇文章是在圣诞节和新年之间的一周出版的，当时每个人都已结帐，不久之后《纽约杂志》添加了一个无法正常工作的付费墙，让长期订阅者（像我一样）别无选择，只能等待印刷版到达。

Dana SnitzkyBooks editor, Longreads

达纳·斯尼茨基 (Dana Snitzky) 长读图书编辑

## The Screwer and the Screwed (Lauren Oyler, The Baffler)

## 螺丝人和螺丝钉（Lauren Oyler，The Baffler）

This is one of my favorite book reviews of 2018, about one of 2018’s most overlooked books, authored by one of our least-known greatest living writers.

这是我 2018 年最喜欢的书评之一，是关于 2018 年最被忽视的书之一，作者是我们最不知名的最伟大的在世作家之一。

Luckily living.

幸好还活着。

As Oyler recounts, DeWitt once wrote that she had tried to impart to an interviewer that “there is a genuine risk of suicide if too much work is disrupted and destroyed.” The problem is systemic, DeWitt was trying to tell the interviewer.

正如奥勒回忆的那样，德威特曾经写道，她曾试图向采访者传达这样的信息：“如果太多的工作被打乱和破坏，确实存在自杀的风险。”德威特试图告诉采访者，这个问题是系统性的。

The publishing industry is “committed to the disempowerment of the author at every single stage,” and a writer like her can come to be haunted by the “dead books” that “the system strangles….in the head.”

出版业“致力于在每个阶段剥夺作者的权力”，像她这样的作家可能会被“系统扼杀在头脑中的死书”所困扰。

DeWitt is often painted as an “unlucky” author because of her harrowing publishing backstory (white-out plays a terrifying role), a backstory which Oyler covers in perfect accord with her critical analysis of DeWitt’s latest work — because with DeWitt, the art and the artist are very much not separable.

德威特经常被描绘成一个“不幸”的作家，因为她令人痛苦的出版背景故事（涂白扮演了可怕的角色），奥勒所讲述的背景故事与她对德威特最新作品的批判性分析完全一致——因为对于德威特来说，艺术和艺术家是不可分割的。

In fact, the book Oyler reviews here is a collection of short stories in which DeWitt is very obviously, though masterfully, criticizing that professional class of people who tinker with artists’ work in order to maximize profits — or, more to the point, the people who idiot-proof smart people’s work in order to maximize profits.

事实上，奥勒在这里评论的书是一本短篇小说集，德威特在其中非常明显地批评了那些为了利润最大化而对艺术家的作品进行修补的专业人士——或者更重要的是，为了利润最大化而对聪明人的作品进行防白痴的人。

After all, as Oyler says, “in the business of books, being smart doesn’t get you very far.”

毕竟，正如奥勒所说，“在图书行业，聪明并不能让你走得太远。”

Oyler understands DeWitt as, rather than an unlucky author, a cursedly perceptive one, attuned to the absurdity of a publishing industry that is little interested in art, which bullies writers of genius (of which DeWitt is certainly one — as Oyler puts it, DeWitt’s first novel The Last Samurai is “conspicuously a masterpiece”) to be less idiosyncratic or experimental.

奥勒认为德威特不是一个不幸的作家，而是一个敏锐的洞察力的作家，适应了对艺术不感兴趣的出版业的荒谬，它欺负天才作家（德威特无疑是其中之一，正如奥勒所说，德威特的第一部小说《最后的武士》“显然是一部杰作”）不那么特异或实验性。

Her bad luck is not that her genius isn’t recognized; it’s that she too clearly recognizes that a great deal of the editing she’s experienced has been an attempt to dumb her down.

她的不幸并不是她的天才不被认可，而是她的天赋不被认可。而是她太清楚地认识到，她所经历的大量编辑都是为了让她变得愚蠢。

In an exciting and frisson-y synthesis of reviewer and subject, Oyler adopts DeWitt’s viewpoint to criticize another of DeWitt’s (totally sympathetic!) reviewers for not truly understanding what art is.

在评论家和主题的令人兴奋和颤抖的综合中，奥雷尔采用德威特的观点来批评德威特的另一位（完全同情！）评论家没有真正理解艺术是什么。

It makes for a harsh and very DeWittian ending to a review-cum-indictment of a book industry that worships “at the altar of the blurb.”

这为对“在简介的祭坛上崇拜”的图书业的评论和控诉做出了严厉且非常德维特式的结局。

Mike DangEditor-in-chief, Longreads

Mike DangLongreads 主编

## Ira Glass’s Commencement Speech at the Columbia Journalism School Graduation (Ira Glass, This American Life)

## 艾拉·格拉斯在哥伦比亚新闻学院毕业典礼上的毕业演讲（艾拉·格拉斯，《美国生活》）

It’s no surprise that Ira Glass is a pro at delivering speeches given the countless monologues he has recorded at This American Life, and I was delighted that he made his commencement speech available to the masses.

毫不奇怪，艾拉·格拉斯（Ira Glass）是演讲专家，因为他在《美国生活》中录制了无数的独白，我很高兴他向大众公开了他的毕业典礼演讲。

There are so many gems in this speech, but I especially loved his bit about editing:

这篇演讲中有很多精彩内容，但我特别喜欢他关于编辑的部分：

I believe that gifted editors are rarer than talented reporters.

我相信有才华的编辑比有才华的记者更稀有。

If you have the knack for it, I just wanna say: go for it.

如果你有这个诀窍，我只想说：放手去做吧。

I really want to give you a nudge of encouragement in that direction.

我真的很想在这个方向上给你一点鼓励。

It’s a wonderful job and journalism needs you.Editing is crucial because in my experience anything you try to make – what YOU want is for the story to be AMAZING.

这是一份很棒的工作，新闻业需要你。编辑至关重要，因为根据我的经验，你尝试做的任何事情——你想要的就是让故事变得精彩。

But what the story wants to be is MEDIOCRE OR WORSE.

但这个故事想要的却是平庸或更糟糕。

And the entire process of making the story is convincing the story to not be what it wants to be, which is BAD.And turning it from the bad thing it’s trying to be, where the sources are inarticulate, and you don’t know how to structure it, and the structure you make doesn’t work, into the shining gleaming jewel that you have in your heart …

制作故事的整个过程就是说服故事不是它想要的样子，这是糟糕的。把它从它试图成为的坏事，来源不明确，你不知道如何构建它，你制作的结构不起作用，变成你心中闪闪发光的宝石......

that is editing!

那就是编辑！

I believe that gifted editors are rarer than talented reporters.

我相信有才华的编辑比有才华的记者更稀有。

If you have the knack for it, I just wanna say: go for it.

如果你有这个诀窍，我只想说：放手去做吧。

I really want to give you a nudge of encouragement in that direction.

我真的很想在这个方向上给你一点鼓励。

It’s a wonderful job and journalism needs you.

这是一份很棒的工作，新闻业需要你。

Editing is crucial because in my experience anything you try to make – what YOU want is for the story to be AMAZING.

剪辑是至关重要的，因为根据我的经验，你尝试做的任何事情——你想要的就是让故事变得精彩。

But what the story wants to be is MEDIOCRE OR WORSE.

但这个故事想要的却是平庸或更糟糕。

And the entire process of making the story is convincing the story to not be what it wants to be, which is BAD.

制作故事的整个过程都在说服故事不是它想要的样子，这是糟糕的。

And turning it from the bad thing it’s trying to be, where the sources are inarticulate, and you don’t know how to structure it, and the structure you make doesn’t work, into the shining gleaming jewel that you have in your heart …

并将其从它试图成为的坏事，来源不明晰，你不知道如何构建它，而你构建的结构不起作用，变成你心中闪闪发光的宝石......

that is editing!

那就是编辑！

He also has this really great bit in there about how to get people to care about stories that have a difficult time breaking through the current news cycle, like coverage about refugee camps, which people don’t like to hear about because it’s depressing.

他在其中也有关于如何让人们关心那些难以突破当前新闻周期的故事的非常精彩的内容，例如有关难民营的报道，人们不喜欢听到这些报道，因为它令人沮丧。

I’d quote this too, but at this point, you should just go ahead and read the whole thing.

我也会引用这一点，但此时，你应该继续阅读整篇文章。

Catherine CusickAudience editor, Longreads

凯瑟琳·库西克（Catherine Cusick）长读读者编辑

## ‘The Trains Are Slower Because They Slowed the Trains Down’ (Aaron Gordon, The Village Voice)

## “火车变慢是因为他们减慢了火车速度”（亚伦·戈登，乡村之声）

Aaron Gordon‘s Village Voice story on how a single accident two decades ago set New York City’s transit system on a path to disaster led me to his mesmerizing series on the L Train Shutdown (that wasn’t), which led me to subscribe to Gordon’s newsletter Signal Problems, which led me, a lifelong New Yorker, to give up and move to Texas.

亚伦·戈登 (Aaron Gordon) 的《乡村之声》(Village Voice) 故事讲述了二十年前的一次事故如何使纽约市的交通系统走上灾难之路，这让我读到了他关于 L 号列车停运（事实并非如此）的迷人系列文章，这让我订阅了戈登的时事通讯《信号问题》，这让我这个终生的纽约人放弃并搬到了德克萨斯州。

Okay, the subway led me to give up and move to Texas.

好吧，地铁让我放弃并搬到了德克萨斯州。

It was bad.

很糟糕。

It was really, really, really bad.

这真的非常非常糟糕。

I’m still reading Signal Problems for the top-notch transit reporting, which remains admirably rational in the face of the lingering stress and perennial fury millions of straphangers feel after being physically trapped inside so much bureaucratic chaos.

我仍在阅读一流的交通报道《信号问题》，面对数以百万计的流浪者在如此多的官僚混乱中所感受到的挥之不去的压力和常年的愤怒，该报道仍然保持着令人钦佩的理性。

I still just wish I could understand — really, truly, honestly understand — why what should be a world-class subway system is so incredibly broken.

我仍然希望我能够理解——真正地、真正地、诚实地理解——为什么应该是世界级的地铁系统却如此令人难以置信地破损。

Thanks to Gordon bringing so much needed order to the whole morass, I’m that much closer to finally grasping what in the world was ever even happening.

感谢戈登给整个困境带来了如此多的秩序，我离最终了解世界上正在发生的事情又近了一步。

That much closer…

更接近了……

from afar.

从远处。

Because I’m not doing it while my blood pressure rises on the 2/3 platform at 116th and Lenox anymore.

因为当我的血压在 116 号和 Lenox 的 2/3 平台上上升时，我不会再这样做了。

Ethan ChielFact-checker and contributing editor, Longreads

Ethan Chiel 事实核查员和特约编辑，Longreads

## Trashed (Kiera Feldman, ProPublica)

## 垃圾（Kiera Feldman，ProPublica）

It feels a bit like cheating to recommend Kiera Feldman’s “Trashed” series as a story to read, since it consists of 15 stories to date, but it’s worth reading them all.

推荐 Kiera Feldman 的“Trashed”系列作为一个故事来读感觉有点作弊，因为它迄今为止由 15 个故事组成，但都值得一读。

Feldman has done a magisterial job chronicling the nocturnal world of New York City’s commercial trash haulers, a big business with a long and shady history.

费尔德曼完成了一项权威的工作，记录了纽约市商业垃圾运输商的夜间世界，这是一个有着悠久而阴暗历史的大企业。

The series covers (among other things) how dangerous conditions are for workers, ersatz “independent” unions that fail to protect workers, and how the industry lobbies against reform.

该系列报道（除其他外）涵盖了工人的工作环境有多么危险，未能保护工人的假“独立”工会，以及该行业如何游说反对改革。

These are stories of corruption and abuse that really aren’t to be missed.

这些都是不容错过的腐败和虐待故事。

Aaron GilbreathEditor and essayist, Longreads

亚伦·吉尔布雷斯（Aaron Gilbreath）Longreads 编辑兼散文家

## Skiing & Booze: Does Colorado Have A Drinking Problem?

## 滑雪和饮酒：科罗拉多州有饮酒问题吗？

(Tracy Ross, 5280 Magazine)

（特雷西·罗斯，5280 杂志）

One of my closest childhood friends just died from liver failure.

我儿时最亲密的朋友之一刚刚死于肝功能衰竭。

I admit this loss might have produced a bias in me as a reader, but even before he died, Tracy Ross’ story for 5280 resonated deeply.

我承认，这种损失可能让我作为一名读者产生了偏见，但即使在他去世之前，特雷西·罗斯 (Tracy Ross) 为 5280 写的故事也引起了深刻的共鸣。

Drinking has become so casually integrated into the daily lives of many outdoorsy types who skate, hike, bike, and snowboard, like myself, that it’s easy to disregard alcohol’s harmful effects on otherwise healthy active people.

对于像我这样喜欢滑冰、远足、骑自行车和滑雪板的许多户外运动人士来说，饮酒已成为日常生活的一部分，因此很容易忽视酒精对健康活跃的人的有害影响。

There’s the beer at lunch.

午餐时有啤酒。

Drinks after work.

下班后喝酒。

Trail running can include beer carbo-loading, just as a day on the slopes involves frequent stops at the bar for many people.

越野跑可以补充啤酒中的碳水化合物，就像许多人在滑雪场上度过一天需要经常在酒吧停留一样。

Of course, dinner requires wine.

晚餐当然需要酒。

Ross looks specifically at the role drinking plays in Colorado’s skiing culture, but her examination extends beyond the Rockies’ slopes to include American outdoor recreation at large.

罗斯专门研究了饮酒在科罗拉多州滑雪文化中所扮演的角色，但她的研究范围超出了落基山脉的滑雪场，涵盖了整个美国的户外休闲活动。

Mixing reporting with her own personal experience as a boozy skier, she shows how party culture and outdoor culture have merged too closely for everyone’s health, and shows how those of us who are accustomed to dopamine rushes and risk-taking are more inclined to abuse alcohol.

她将报道与自己作为酗酒滑雪者的个人经历相结合，展示了派对文化和户外文化如何过于紧密地融合在一起，影响每个人的健康，并展示了我们这些习惯了多巴胺激增和冒险的人如何更容易酗酒。

Don’t get me wrong: cold beer pairs well with many things, and I love sipping Scotch.

不要误会我的意思：冰啤酒与很多东西都很搭配，我喜欢喝苏格兰威士忌。

But Ross’ story asks us to reconsider alcohol’s place in our lives.

但罗斯的故事要求我们重新考虑酒精在我们生活中的地位。

Maybe it’s time to drink less and shred more?

也许是时候少喝多切碎了？

Why can’t we just enjoy the outdoors on our own sometimes?

为什么我们有时不能独自享受户外活动？

These are fair questions, even if your liver still functions properly.

即使您的肝脏仍然正常工作，这些都是公平的问题。

Matt GilesEditor and head of fact-checking, Longreads

Matt Giles Longreads 编辑兼事实核查主管

## Kanye West Vs Fame (Paul Thompson, Noisey)

## Kanye West Vs Fame（保罗·汤普森、Noisey）

You’d be forgiven if you forgot Kanye West released an album this past year.

如果您忘记坎耶·韦斯特去年发行了一张专辑，那也情有可原。

Ye—his eighth studio record—burned brightly for just a moment, just long enough for you to remember to download after its listening party in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but forgotten after albums he produced for Kid Cudi and Nas dropped in subsequent weeks.

《Ye》——他的第八张录音室唱片——仅仅短暂地火爆了一阵子，只够你在怀俄明州杰克逊霍尔的试听派对后记得下载，但在他为 Kid Cudi 和 Nas 制作的专辑在接下来的几周内发行后，你就忘记了它。

We had instantaneously all moved on.

我们立刻就全部继续前进。

Think about how incredulous that sounds: from The College Dropout to Yeezus (and sure, Life of Pablo, with which he is likely still tinkering), Kanye’s discography had always felt alive long after the first stream or download.

想想这听起来有多么难以置信：从《大学辍学》到《Yeezus》（当然还有《巴勃罗的一生》，他可能仍在修改），坎耶的唱片在第一次播放或下载后很长一段时间内一直让人感觉充满活力。

We all vividly remember, though, the other Kanye news of 2018: the MAGA hat, the Oval Office visit, the TMZ ramblings about slavery and the subsequent “Kanye, I don’t think you’re thinking anything.”

不过，我们都清楚地记得 2018 年 Kanye 的其他新闻：MAGA 帽子、访问椭圆形办公室、TMZ 对奴隶制的漫谈以及随后的“Kanye，我认为你什么都没想”。

When Paul Thompson‘s essay dropped this October, I read it, and then I reread it.

当保罗·汤普森的文章今年十月发表时，我读了它，然后又重读了它。

Kanye was an artist that I truly believed to be groundbreaking, revolutionary, and insightful.

我坚信坎耶是一位具有开创性、革命性和洞察力的艺术家。

Thompson’s thorough examination of his influence as an artist, and explanation of its waning power—which he rightly notes isn’t just limited to Kanye—was one of the most impactful pieces I’ve read all year.

汤普森对他作为一名艺术家的影响力进行了彻底的审视，并对其日渐减弱的影响力进行了解释——他正确地指出，这不仅限于坎耶——是我一年中读过的最有影响力的文章之一。

It’s not that Kanye has run out of ideas.

坎耶并不是没有想法了。

It’s that the genesis and power of those ideas is unrecognizable from the Kanye who dominated pop culture these past two decades.

这些想法的起源和力量对于过去二十年主导流行文化的坎耶来说是无法识别的。

Krista StevensSenior editor, Longreads

克里斯塔·史蒂文斯（Krista Stevens）Longreads 高级编辑

## Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women (Shiho Fukada, Bloomberg Businessweek)

## 日本的监狱是老年妇女的避风港（Shiho Fukada，彭博商业周刊）

## Dying Alone in Japan: The Industry Devoted to What’s Left Behind (Adam Minter, Bloomberg Businessweek)

## 在日本孤独死去：整个行业致力于遗留下来的东西（亚当·明特，彭博商业周刊）

## A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death (Norimitsu Onishi, The New York Times)

## 日本一代人面临孤独的死亡（Norimitsu Onishi，纽约时报）

When I look back on my reading for Longreads in 2018, there were three stories that share a thread that remain in my thoughts.

当我回顾 2018 年的 Longreads 阅读时，有三个故事的主线一直萦绕在我的脑海中。

All three concern the utter loneliness of aging in Japan.

这三者都与日本老龄化带来的极度孤独有关。

With a population of 127 million people, Japan has the most rapidly aging society on the planet.

日本拥有 1.27 亿人口，是地球上老龄化速度最快的社会。

At Bloomberg Businessweek, Shiho Fukada wrote of how some elderly Japanese women have become serial petty criminals.

深田志保 (Shiho Fukada) 在《彭博商业周刊》上撰文讲述了一些日本老年妇女如何成为连环小罪犯的故事。

Their aim?

他们的目的是什么？

To receive a jail sentence, where they’re sure to receive regular meals and companionship — two things they struggle to find on the outside.

入狱后，他们肯定会得到定期的膳食和陪伴——这两件事是他们在外面很难找到的。

Also at Bloomberg Businessweek, Adam Minter wrote of a booming industry in Japan: firms whose speciality is cleaning out the apartments of deceased Japanese who have no close relatives to rehome their possessions.

同样在《彭博商业周刊》上，亚当·明特 (Adam Minter) 谈到了日本一个蓬勃发展的行业：公司专门清理已故日本人的公寓，这些人没有近亲可以重新安置他们的财产。

Finally, and perhaps the most poignant of the three, at the New York Times, Norimitsu Onishi wrote of a phenomenon that’s becoming so common in Japan that it now has a name: the “lonely death.” It’s a situation where elderly individuals often live in extreme isolation, albeit only a few feet from neighbors on all sides, “trapped in a demographic crucible of increasing age and declining births.” Their fate?

最后，也许是这三者中最令人心酸的一个，大西纪光在《纽约时报》上写道，一种在日本变得如此普遍的现象，现在有了一个名字：“孤独的死亡”。在这种情况下，老年人往往生活在极端孤立的环境中，尽管与四面八方的邻居只有几英尺的距离，“陷入了年龄增长和出生率下降的人口严峻考验”。他们的命运？

A “lonely death” where their body may remain undiscovered in their small government apartment for days (or even years) because family is distant both physically and emotionally, and friends have all long since passed away.

这是一种“孤独的死亡”，他们的尸体可能在政府的小公寓里几天（甚至几年）都未被发现，因为家人在身体和情感上都疏远了，朋友也早已去世。

I’m forever haunted by the thought of the two Japanese woman — mere acquaintances — who live across a courtyard from one another and agree to a pact to avoid the saddest of fates:

我永远被两个日本女人——只是熟人——的想法所困扰，她们住在一个院子对面，并同意签订一项协议以避免最悲惨的命运：

So Mrs. Ito asked a neighbor in the opposite building for a favor.

于是，伊藤女士向对面大楼的邻居求助。

Could she, once a day, look across the greenery separating their apartments and gaze up at Mrs. Ito’s window?Every evening around 6 p.m., before retiring for the night, Mrs. Ito closed the paper screen in the window.

她能否每天一次透过隔开公寓的绿地，抬头凝视伊藤女士的窗户？每天晚上 6 点左右，伊藤女士在睡觉前都会关上窗户上的纸纱窗。

Then in the morning, after her alarm woke her at 5:40 a.m., she slid the screen back open.“If it’s closed,” Mrs. Ito told her neighbor, “it means I’ve died.”Mrs. Ito felt reassured when the neighbor agreed, so she began sending the woman gifts of pears every summer to occasionally glance her way.

然后到了早上 5 点 40 分，闹钟把她吵醒后，她又重新打开了屏幕。“如果屏幕关闭了，”伊藤女士告诉她的邻居，“那就意味着我已经死了。”邻居同意后，伊藤就放心了，于是她开始每年夏天给这位女士送梨子礼物，偶尔看她一眼。

So Mrs. Ito asked a neighbor in the opposite building for a favor.

于是，伊藤女士向对面大楼的邻居求助。

Could she, once a day, look across the greenery separating their apartments and gaze up at Mrs. Ito’s window?

她能否每天一次越过分隔他们公寓的绿地，抬头凝视伊藤女士的窗户？

Every evening around 6 p.m., before retiring for the night, Mrs. Ito closed the paper screen in the window.

每天晚上六点左右，睡觉前，伊藤女士都会关上窗纱。

Then in the morning, after her alarm woke her at 5:40 a.m., she slid the screen back open.

早上 5 点 40 分，闹钟把她吵醒后，她重新打开了屏幕。

“If it’s closed,” Mrs. Ito told her neighbor, “it means I’ve died.”

“如果门关着，”伊藤女士告诉她的邻居，“那就意味着我已经死了。”

Mrs. Ito felt reassured when the neighbor agreed, so she began sending the woman gifts of pears every summer to occasionally glance her way.

邻居同意后，伊藤女士就放心了，于是她开始每年夏天给这位女士送梨子礼物，偶尔看看她。