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What Happened to Annie?


“She was found dead at 8:23 in the morning … and we were informed at half past 11 in the evening”: this is the first in a string of red flags that makes the mother of Annie Börjesson, a 30-year-old Swedish woman found dead on a beach in Scotland in 2005, question the police’s swift ruling of the case as a suicide. So swift, in fact, that it preceded Börjesson’s autopsy. Arthur Miller’s All My Sons helped to epitomize the wishful-thinking parent, unwilling to accept the death of her child. The mother in the true case of Börjesson, explored in a six-part podcast series for Sky News’s StoryCast, gives new voice and reason to the grieving, unbelieving parent. The compelling What Happened to Annie? picks up nearly 15 years after Börjesson’s death, as her family investigates recent revelations pointing not to suicide but to murder, a cover-up, and the C.I.A. (spreaker.com) —Julia Vitale

Cook

Jikoni


Being part British, Irish, French Canadian and Indian, I’ve always been drawn to restaurants that take inspiration from many regions and cultures. Jikoni, a welcoming palace of blush-pink walls and awnings, is one such restaurant, helmed by chef and founder Ravinder Bhogal, who was born in Nairobi and raised by parents of Indian heritage. Bhogal’s new cookbook, Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from an Immigrant Kitchen, includes recipes for dishes much like those found in its namesake—rich and packed with flavor—and also reveals the childhood memories that inspired each plate, all paired with sumptuous photographs. My personal favorites: paneer-stuffed Padrón peppers and potato pakoras with a tomato-and-mint salsa. ($26, amazon.com) —Bridget Arsenault

Lounge

Kermit Chair


I’ve spent entire summers sitting on poorly constructed—and downright gaudy—aluminum-and-plastic beach loungers. No longer. Thanks be to Kermit, a purveyor of high-quality wooden camping chairs, handcrafted in Tennessee. Made of local white oak, each piece is double-dipped in protective polyurethane, finished with coated nylon, and weighs only 5.3 pounds. I discovered them at the S&S Corner Shop, in East Hampton, but they were first popularized by BMW motorcyclists. The canvas can be customized in a wide range of colors, and embroidery is also available, should you want to stake a claim. With chairs this stylish, it’s not a bad idea. ($189, kermitchair.com) —Ashley Baker

Watch

Das Boot


In 1981, the German film Das Boot, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, was a sensation: at that time, there were virtually no German movies about World War II, and this one took place almost entirely inside a German U-boat. The eight-part TV series Das Boot has a broader scope, and weaves the misadventures of the crew of U-612 around the Nazi occupation on land, specifically in the seaport of La Rochelle. Lizzy Caplan (pictured) plays resistance organizer Carla Monroe, a hard-edged, sexually adventurous American Communist. (Carla comes off as a Marxist Ghislaine Maxwell.) But the story is centered on Simone Strasser (Vicky Krieps), an Alsatian-born translator torn between loyalty to Germany—and her Gestapo employer—and her sympathy for her French neighbors. The series is suspenseful and full of human drama; A French Village with ocean views. (hulu.com) —Alessandra Stanley

Issue No. 56
August 8, 2020
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Issue No. 56
August 8, 2020