Best New Yorker Articles of 2011

The Justice Department clearly wronged Senator Ted Stevens. Did it also wrong one of his prosecutors?

Short story about a physically deformed girl who is adopted by a Native American couple and lives with their family on a reservation.

Sri Lanka’s brutal victory over its Tamil insurgents.

Short story about the relationship between a young Arab boy in Egypt and the family maid in the aftermath of his mother’s death.

Fiction, from 2011: “If they had heard even the kitchen door they might have had a moment to prepare.”

John Seabrook on crowd studies, human crushes, and the effort to prevent stampedes and deaths in places where large groups gather, such as stadiums and festival grounds.

Short story about the father of a thirteen-year-old boy who recalls the violent fantasies he had when he was younger.

The economies of the Arab world lag behind the West. Is Islam to blame?

David Foster Wallace's short story about a boy whose ambition is to be able to press his lips to every square inch of his body.

Raffi Khatchadourian writes about the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and how the BP oil spill devastated the local environment.

Can a stressful childhood make you a sick adult?

Lauren Collins’s 2011 Profile of the shoe designer Christian Louboutin. “The sole of each of Louboutin’s shoes is lacquered in a vivid, glossy red. Like Louis XIV’s red heels, they signal a sort of sumptuary code, promising a world of glamour and privilege.”

Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy.

Fiction by Keith Ridgway: “He told her about the violence. How they went and beat people up. He told her about Price. He told her about the gunshot. He told her about the two policemen who had picked him up by the Emirates. He told her about the deal they gave him. This was the story.”

How Kazakhstan is building a glittering new capital from scratch.

Burkhard Bilger on David Eagleman, a professor of neuroscience who became obsessed with studying the brain’s biological clocks after a near-fatal childhood accident.

The F.B.I. needs informants, but what happens when they go too far?

Hilton Als’s 2011 Profile of the actress and activist Jane Fonda. When she was young, Fonda said, “being a woman meant being a victim, being the loser, being the one that’ll be destroyed.”

Short story about an eleven-year-old boy’s journey on board a ship from Colombo, Ceylon, to England.

Jane Mayer on an N.S.A. whistle-blower’s prosecution under the Espionage Act.

Rachel Aviv writes about the problem of patients diagnosed with a psychotic illness who insist that they are not mentally ill.

Sarah Stillman on how the U.S. Army uses numerous workers, many of whom are exploited and poorly informed of their rights, to staff jobs in war zones.

Short story, set in Florida, about a woman who becomes homeless and loses funding for her studies after her boyfriend breaks up with her.

New York City’s top prosecutor takes on Wall Street crime.

How far can a youth-culture idol tweak China’s establishment?

Jennifer Kahn profiles a pioneer of virtual reality who questions what technology has wrought.

Elisabeth Badinter’s contrarian feminism.

A breakup, in reverse: a short story by Justin Torres.

What happened that night in Abbottabad.

The queen of video-game acting.

The view from inside the Syrian crackdown.

Rebecca Mead on the self-help guru Timothy Ferriss, who urges readers to "hack yourself” using a kind of hyperkinetic entrepreneurialism of the body and soul.

After 9/11 transfixed America, the country’s problems were left to rot.

The murder of a reporter who exposed Pakistan’s secrets.

Rebecca Mead’s 2011 profile of fashion muse Daphne Guinness.

Lauren Collins on the world of IKEA. “The company’s vision, one executive said, is ‘to create a better life for the many.’ ”

A conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012’s top battlegrounds.

Andrew Stanton, the director of “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E,” faces the complications of live action.

They floated into the afternoon in their little stucco submarine, the blinds shut against the sunlight and the swamp cooler whistling on the roof...

In Charleston, a quest to revive authentic Southern cooking.

A pianist of strong opinions.

Early one morning, a week or so later, I stepped over to the oval mirror in the upstairs hall, as I did every morning before leaving for work...

Jane Kramer on foraging with the chef René Redzepi, whose restaurant, Noma, in Copenhagen, had then been twice named the best in the world. “Foraging is treasure hunting,” he says.

George Packer profiles Peter Thiel, the libertarian Silicon Valley billionaire who heads the venture-capital firm Founders Fund.

Can a former political radical lead Brazil through its economic boom?

After the United States demanded the extradition of a drug lord, a bloodletting ensued.

Burkhard Bilger writes on how global warming is causing the world’s deserts to grow, and how reforestation schemes like the Great Green Wall may help.