Books

Books
Arts

Dark, Disturbing And Playful, 'Seventh Day' Takes On Modern China

3:06pm January 19, 2015

by Nishant Dahiya

In Yu Hua's new novel, a recently dead man decides to attend his own funeral and ends up wandering a strange sort of afterlife, full of characters whose stories reflect the troubles of modern China.

Cover detail of The Girl from Human Street.

A Memoir Of A Family's Diaspora, And A Mother's Depression

11:25am January 19, 2015

by NPR Staff

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen looks back on his life and asks: Could a family's constant movement — four countries in four generations — contribute to a mother's struggle with mental illness?

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Books
Arts

It's A Chump's Life In 'Amnesia'

5:52am January 18, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

Peter Carey's new novel starts with a sad-sack disgraced reporter tasked with writing the biography of a notorious hacker, but reviewer Jason Sheehan says there's a jarring change of gears halfway.

A year after his cancer diagnosis, Henning Mankell is working on a new novel, and he just directed Shakespeare's Hamlet in his adopted country of Mozambique.

'Wallander' Author Henning Mankell On The Catastrophe Of Cancer

9:11pm January 17, 2015

by Martin Scholz

The famed Swedish author of the Kurt Wallander mystery novels was diagnosed a year ago — "a catastrophe for me," he says; since then, he's talked more about the disease than the drama of forensics.

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom cover detail

Books
Arts

Illustrated Memoir Recalls Marching In Selma At Just 15

6:59pm January 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

Lynda Blackmon Lowery was still a child when she joined the legendary 1965 march. Now she's written a book for young readers about the experience, called Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom.

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Deborah Voigt regularly hosts and performs in the Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD series.

A 'Down-To-Earth Diva' Confronts Her Flaws And Good Fortune

11:57am January 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

In a frank new memoir, soprano Deborah Voigt reveals her troubles with obesity, alcohol and bad relationships, along with her many triumphs in opera houses the world over.

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Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of January 15, 2015

4:03pm January 16, 2015

The lists are compiled from weekly surveys of close to 500 independent bookstores nationwide.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of January 15, 2015

4:03pm January 16, 2015

In Tim Johnston's Descent, two parents search for their daughter after she goes missing in the Rocky Mountains. It debuts at No. 14.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of January 15, 2015

4:03pm January 16, 2015

Rory Vaden provides a high-energy approach to productivity in Procrastinate On Purpose. It debuts at No. 13.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of January 15, 2015

4:03pm January 16, 2015

In Lisa Genova's Still Alice, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning in her life after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. It appears at No. 14.