Gessen had recalled the area as "desolate" when he threw the launch party for n+1 a mere eight years ago. That party was also a moment of crystallisation. "I remember having to get more alcohol and seeing a long line for the elevator outside," he said. "I couldn't believe the interest – right from the start it turned out there were a lot of people who were really excited by this." →

I liked the part where they described touch football: “On a bright, perfectly dry spring morning he could be found in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where he and a group of friends meet regularly on Saturdays to play touch football – essentially American football minus the tackling.”