Books

The Ethics Of Torture, Explored In A Painful Fable

10:39am January 22, 2015

by Laila Lalami

This week, the Senate released a report that details the interrogation techniques used by the CIA after Sept. 11. Author Laila Lalami grapples with the questions it raises by turning to literature.

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In 'The Evil Hours,' A Journalist Shares His Struggle With PTSD

5:35pm January 21, 2015

While embedded with troops in Iraq, David Morris almost died when a Humvee he was riding in ran over a roadside bomb. His book explores the history and science of post-traumatic stress disorder.

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'The B-Side' Sings A Sad, Sad Song

3:03pm January 21, 2015

by Tomas Hachard

Ben Yagoda uses the battle between music licensing organizations ASCAP and BMI to sketch out a broader lament about the long fade-out of the American Songbook and the segue to modern pop music.

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A Cool, Painstaking Account Of A Difficult Past In 'Fatherland'

2:14pm January 21, 2015

by Etelka Lehoczky

Nina Bunjevac tackles two troublesome subjects in Fatherland: Her Serbian nationalist father, and the occasionally violent, extremist history of his country — all in a controlled, icy-cool style.

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'Gateway To Freedom': Heroes, Danger And Loss On The Underground Railroad

11:35am January 21, 2015

While writing his new book, historian Eric Foner relied on a recently discovered record of slaves' escapes. He says the documents paint a "revealing picture" of life on the Underground Railroad.

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Three-Minute Fiction Round 10: Leave A Message After The Beep

11:07am January 21, 2015

by NPR Staff

This round of the short story contest for weekends on All Things Considered will be judged by author Mona Simpson. For Round 10, she wants original fiction with the "texture of voice."

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Resurrections, Do-Overs, And Second Lives: A 2015 Poetry Preview

3:23pm January 20, 2015

After the troubles of 2014, critic Craig Morgan Teicher offers up a full shelf of poetry for a brand new year — offering no solutions, but full of ambivalence and precision, balm and fire.

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Exclusive First Read: Scott McCloud's 'The Sculptor'

2:35pm January 20, 2015

by NPR Staff

Understanding Comics creator Scott McCloud is sometimes called the "Aristotle of comics" for his analysis of the medium. The Sculptor, a meditation on love, art and death, is his first graphic novel.

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'Whipping Boy' Is Part Memoir, Part Crime Thriller

12:03pm January 20, 2015

by Jason Heller

Allen Kurzweil's new book Whipping Boy starts out as the story of his obsessive 40-year search for the boy who bullied him at boarding school — but it becomes something much deeper and stranger.

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Book Club: Hector Tobar Answers Your Questions About 'Deep Down Dark'

11:50am January 20, 2015

by NPR Staff

Tobar says it was a "great honor" to interview the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days in 2010. They lived "one of the great adventure stories of the 21st century," he says.

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