Jon Ronson's captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame.

A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Through social media, justice has been democratized and the silent majority are getting a voice. But are we using our voice for good?

Instead we are mercilessly finding people’s faults and defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those who position themselves outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.

In this prescient, unnerving yet often hilarious book, Jon Ronson meets the victims of modern public shamings and, in doing so, plunges us deep into the heart of a very modern terror: the terror of being found out. Full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws – and the very scary part we all play in it – this is Jon Ronson at his very best.

A Sunday Times Book of the Year when first published, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

"He is such an exceptional writer . . . A perfect sense of comic timing throughout, but he manages to deal with profound subjects . . . Such a great book. We're buying it!" - The BBC Radio 2 Arts Show

"A magnificent book, subtly argued, often painfully funny and yet deeply serious . . . I'm not sure I can recommend it highly enough." - Daily Mail

"A work of original, inspired journalism, it considers the complex dynamics between those who shame and those who are shamed, both of whom can become the focus of social media's grotesque, disproportionate judgments." - Financial Times

"Certainly, no reader could finish it without feeling a need to be gentler online, to defer judgment, not to press the retweet button, to resist that primal impulse to stoke the fires of shame." - The Times

"Ronson is our current master of smarter-than-average pop nonfiction that combines social science, investigative journalism and no shortage of style." - Saturday Paper (Australia)

"Ronson's finely attuned ear for dialogue and his skilfully deployed nebbishness ensure a pacy but discomfiting read." - The Australian

"So You've Been Publicly Shamed is an interesting commentary on human behaviour and its consequences." - The Register

"immensely readable." - Independent

"A brilliant, thought-provoking book - a fascinating examination of citizen justice, which has enjoyed a great renaissance since the advent of the internet." - Tatler

"Amusing and thought-provoking." - Daily Telegraph

"As in his previous books, Ronson's style is to take us with him wherever the story goes, curiosity his guide . . . Shamed is not a critique of those at the fringes of our society, it's about us - or at least the very many of us who take to Twitter to heap vitriol on those we feel deserve it." - Metro

"Jon Ronson is one of the funniest writers we have." - Red

"Hugely entertaining." - National

"Engrossing and terrifying." - New Statesman

"Ronson specialises in writing witty, wide-eyed, free-wheeling books . . . He is full of curiosity, and writes in a friendly, slightly faux-naif voice, but with strong moral antennae." - Mail on Sunday

"Compulsively readable." - Observer

"So You've Been Publicly Shamed is possibly [Ronson's] most ambitious project yet . . . a brilliantly articulated, sensitively rendered attempt to reform the world." - Independent

"Fascinating, insightful and amusing and should be read by everyone." - Women24

"Everyone who has any kind of online presence - including anonymous below-the-line commenters - will find this book gripping." - Spectator

"[A] simultaneously lightweight and necessary book." - Esquire

"I was mesmerized. And I was also disturbed." - Forbes

"Gutsy and smart. . . Without losing any of the clever agility that makes his books so winning, he has taken on truly consequential material and risen to the challenge." - The New York Times

"Read this book. Then tell someone else about it. Make sure you leave it in a place where an unsuspecting teen is lingering, they too could benefit from these timely fables of the digital world." - Wairarapa Times

"This is a book that will grip you and really make you think about 21st century society in a different way, definitely one to read, and one to read now." - New Zealand Library Blogspot

"Ronson's facts are gathered first-hand, his experiences conveyed with sharp observations of scene and character, and his conclusions logical. As contemporary society becomes ever more connected, Ronson's lessons will become even more important." - Sunday Star Times

"Witty . . . clever and thought-provoking." - Publishers Weekly

"This book really needed to be written." - Salon

"One of our most important modern day thinkers, Jon Ronson . . . has written one of the most therapeutic books imaginable." - US News & Word Report

"I very much enjoyed Jon Ronson's salutary examination of what happens when the internet turns on you . . . One stupid picture, one misplaced joke, and your life can be completely trashed. The book examines a very dark corner of the times we live in but manages to be both entertaining and humane." - Telegraph

"The non-fiction book of the year - an alarming examination of victims and victimisers in the new social media sport of mob justice." - The Guardian

"[Ronson] takes on one of the most egregious perils of life in the age of social media - the whopping magnification of some gaffe or misstep or downright lie - to the point that it achieves life-wrecking powe . . . there's a lot to learn from his funny, insightful look at this red-hot topic." - The New York Times, Top Books of 2015

"Yes, it's a breezy read at the sentence level, but Ronson's latest book evokes a sense of dread that lingers." - TimeOut, Best Books of 2015