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Reclaiming Family And Memory In 'Sparks Like Stars'

7:00am March 06, 2021

by Marcela Davison Avilés

Nadia Hashmi's new novel follows an Afghan woman who escaped the murder of her family during a coup; her comfortable life in New York City is turned upside down when a figure from the past reappears.

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Author Kazuo Ishiguro Explores Love, Loneliness And Connection In 'Klara And The Sun'

4:56pm March 05, 2021

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Kazuo Ishiguro about his new novel, Klara and the Sun, a story about a small AI girl robot created to keep teens from becoming lonely.

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James McBride's Advice For New Writers: 'A Simple Story Is The Best Story'

1:43pm March 05, 2021

by Terry Gross

McBride's most recent novel, Deacon King Kong, is set in a Brooklyn housing project in 1969. "Time and place is really crucial to good storytelling," he says. Originally broadcast Feb. 29, 2020.

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'The Committed' Remains Uncommitted — And That's Its Strength

10:00am March 04, 2021

by Thúy Đinh

Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer finds our hero a refugee again, this time in Paris, and disillusioned with communism but not ready to embrace capitalism.

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'Home Is Not A Country' Imagines The Lives We Could Have Led

7:00am March 04, 2021

by Nayantara Dutta

Safia Elhillo's novel follows a first-generation Muslim American girl who, bullied at school, longs for the homeland she's never really known and the alter ego who represents a more confident self.

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'Klara And The Sun' Is A Masterpiece About Life, Love And Mortality

9:41am March 03, 2021

by Maureen Corrigan

Narrated by a robotic "artificial friend," Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel offers readers a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, by Michael Moss

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There Are So Many Flavors Of Potato Chips; 'Hooked' Looks At Why

7:55am March 03, 2021

by Barbara J. King

Investigative reporter Michael Moss explores how some food companies tweak their products to take advantage of evolved biology, creating room for novelty that triggers the brain to make us want more.

Books

Looking Again At A Doctor's Old Rhymes, Seuss Works Haven't Kept Up With The Times

5:20pm March 02, 2021

by Neda Ulaby

Dr. Seuss Enterprises has announced it will end publication of six titles deemed to contain racist imagery. The books include And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo.

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How Bellingcat's Online Sleuths Solve Global Crimes Using Open Source Info

1:31pm March 02, 2021

by Terry Gross

Eliot Higgins is the founder of an online collective that picks apart conspiracy theories and investigates war crimes and hate crimes using clues from the Internet. His new book is We Are Bellingcat.

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Britain's MI5 Spy Agency Proves More Comic Than Tragic In 'Slough House'

11:06am March 02, 2021

by John Powers

Mick Herron's brilliantly plotted series follows a group of maladroit MI5 agents who've somehow blown it with the agency. The latest installment is a timely novel set in a post-Brexit U.K.

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