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The Castle

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What to expect

The million-copy bestselling author of The Psychopath Test returns with a shocking, darkly comic trip to the furthest reaches of the masculinity crisis

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 from his son Joel who’d been lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, it sets Ronson Sr. off on an adventure into an underworld of unmoored and disaffected men.

As Jon deepens his investigation into the castle and the wider ‘man crisis’ – where some are feeling tossed around in a sea of conflicting ideologies of what it means to be a man – 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, with catastrophic results? And more pressingly, why are two recently released murderers on their way to pay Jon a visit?

From the death of utopian factory towns to the false promise of YouTube influencer culture, Jon shows us our rapidly changing world like never before, and the men caught in the middle. A world drained of purpose, of collapsing institutions, where a new era of disinhibited behaviour has taken hold of our online and real-world selves. And as the castle mystery twists and turns into a cat-and-mouse story, will Jon be able to discover its terrifying secret hidden from the world?

THE CASTLE marks Jon Ronson’s triumphant return to the written page. Utterly hilarious and criminally entertaining, this is one of our greatest non-fiction writers at the top of his game: diagnosing our societal frailties in a narrative of blistering pace, insight and intensity.


The audiobook is narrated by the author and features original music composed by Joel Ronson, plus an exclusive bonus chapter drawn from his acclaimed BBC podcast Things Fell Apart, creating a uniquely immersive listening experience.

'Ridiculously compelling and wonderfully weird . . . The Castle is vintage Ronson: wise, timely and extremely funny' LOUIS THEROUX
© Jon Ronson 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

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 subtle (and not so subtle) currents that are currently roiling our existence . . . one of the scarier aspects of this book is the way the ante seems always to be upping, across its various stories and characters. It's a dogged feat of investigation from one of our greatest non-fiction storytellers
PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE
Ridiculously compelling and wonderfully weird, this is a book that helps us understand why so many men seem to be unravelling, 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
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
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
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
Ronson delivers a by turns amusing and harrowing report on the desultory state of contemporary men . . . brilliant . . . Ronson’s intuitive but still rigorous approach makes this a blockbuster portrait of men gone mad
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Ronson provides exacting details and insider perspectives . . . A mesmerizing work of gonzo journalism at its most intriguing
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
The Castle is compellingly nuanced in its social analysis as Ronson arrives at outcomes that are both concerning and empathetic
Booklist, starred review
The Castle is by turns funny and frightening, dark and disarming
BookPage, starred review
Author Jon Ronson
Narrator Jon Ronson
Duration 8 hours and 52 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405982085
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Gender studies: men and boys, Humour, Media studies: internet, digital media and society, Psychology of gender, Social, group or collective psychology
Availability AU, GB, IE

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