Books

Playwright and writer Samuel Beckett, shown here around 1970, wrote Echo's Bones at his editor's request — only to have it cut from his first collection.

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Release Of 'Echo's Bones' Resurrects Beckett's Rejected Work

7:14pm July 05, 2014

by NPR Staff

The story, which is about a man who comes back to life, was meant to be the final piece in Samuel Beckett's first collection of stories. But his original editor refused to publish it.

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A Noodle-Maker's Daughter Falls For Ballroom Dancing In 'Mambo'

1:08pm July 05, 2014

by NPR Staff

Jean Kwok, the award-winning writer of Girl in Translation, has written a new book called Mambo in Chinatown, a Cinderella story about a 22-year-old Chinese-American torn between two cultures.

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Paul Greenberg is also the author of Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food.

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'The Great Fish Swap': How America Is Downgrading Its Seafood Supply

12:09pm July 03, 2014

One-third of the seafood Americans catch is sold abroad, but most of the seafood we eat here is imported and often of lower quality. Why? Author Paul Greenberg says it has to do with American tastes.

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Books

Award-Winning Children's Book Author Walter Dean Myers Dies

11:14am July 03, 2014

by Lynn Neary

Myers captured what it was like to be young and black while growing up in the city. As he often said, he wrote books he would have wanted to read as a kid. Myers died after a brief illness. He was 76.

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A Writer Who Defied The System In 'The Zhivago Affair'

7:20pm July 02, 2014

by Ted Koppel

In their new book, Peter Finn and Petra Couvee explain the fraught history behind the Russian novel, Doctor Zhivago. And they tell the story of Boris Pasternak, the novel's brave author.

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'Friendship': A Startlingly Nice Novel By A Tough-Girl Blogger

2:49pm July 02, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

Emily Gould's first novel stars 30-something single women in New York City who are figuring out what's important in life. It's worth picking up for its sharp social observations and inspired wordplay.

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Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates and supporters stage a demonstration on the boardwalk in front of the Atlantic City Convention Center in 1964.

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'Freedom Summer' And 'The Watsons': Powerful TV About A Civil Rights Journey

4:15pm June 30, 2014

by Eric Deggans

This story in the "Book Your Trip" series features NPR TV critic Eric Deggans on two books turned TV shows about civil rights: PBS's Freedom Summer and Hallmark Channel's The Watsons Go to Birmingham.

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Colombia Advances In World Cup, Two Decades After Infamous Murder

6:27pm June 29, 2014

In 1994, star player Andres Escobar was killed just weeks after he scored an own goal in the Cup. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with Colombian-American journalist and novelist John Rojas about the crime.

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Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng's debut novel about a Chinese-American family living in 1970s Ohio. She is currently working on a second novel and a collection of short stories.

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'Everything I Never Told You' Exposed In Biracial Family's Loss

6:22pm June 28, 2014

by NPR Staff

In times of tragedy, our deepest insecurities can take over. In Celeste Ng's new novel, set in the Midwest in the late 1970s, the fear that bubbles up is related to race and identity.

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After The Rapture, Who Are 'The Leftovers'?

1:25pm June 27, 2014

Tom Perrotta's 2011 novel examined the aftermath of an unexplained rapturelike event. A new HBO series inspired by The Leftovers begins Sunday. Originally broadcast Aug. 25, 2011.

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