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The million-copy bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed and the award-winning BBC podcast Things Fell Apart moves to Penguin for his first book in eleven years, a darkly comic true crime mystery set within the masculinity crisis, The Castle.

I honestly have no clue what is going on.
This is very weird.
We left. Was completely fucked. All good now.

When Jon Ronson received a series of disquieting texts after his son Joel had been lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England under false pretences late one evening, it set Ronson Sr. off on an extraordinary adventure into a world of unmoored men on a desperate search for purpose, whatever the cost.

Why did the wealthy scion of a gilded age tycoon entice Jon’s son to his castle on the pretext of a party, when the reality was something else entirely? Could Jon uncover what was really going on inside that strange castle? Why was a popular online lawncare influencer wrongly implicated in a bizarre plot to traumatize millions of unsuspecting children? And, more pressingly, why are two recently paroled murderers on their way to pay Jon an ominous visit?

Against the backdrop of the sometimes moving, often disturbing masculinity crisis, Jon follows the trail of those men who are acting out, checked out or just plain out of time. Drawing on his trademark brand of humour, psychological insight and unrivalled prescience, and told in the riveting style of a true crime thriller, The Castle marks Jon Ronson’s triumphant return to the written page in his darkest and most wildly enjoyable journey yet – deep into the recesses of the Castle and the secret lives of men.

PRAISE FOR JON RONSON:

‘Simultaneously frightening and hilarious’ The Times

‘Funny and compulsively readable’ Louis Theroux

‘His scalpel-sharp journalistic mind comes wrapped in disarming, diffident warmth’ Miranda Sawyer, Guardian

‘Ronson is one of our most important modern-day thinkers’ US News & World Report

‘Funny and thought-provoking . . . original, inspired journalism’ Financial Times

‘Gutsy and smart’ New York Times

‘Simmering with humour, weirdness and pathos’ Sunday Times

‘A diligent investigator and a wry, funny writer, Ronson manages to be at once academic and entertaining’ Boston Globe

‘The belly laughs come thick and fast – my God, he is funny’ Observer

© Jon Ronson 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026