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'The Story Of A Brief Marriage' Provides Intimate Look At Sri Lanka's Civil War

4:39pm September 07, 2016

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Anuk Arudpragasam about his debut novel, The Story Of A Brief Marriage, which takes place over the course of a single day at a displaced persons camp during Sri Lanka's civil war.

'Sad And Absurd': The U.S.S.R.'s Disastrous Effort To Create A Jewish Homeland

2:00pm September 07, 2016

Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen discusses the Soviet effort, in 1929, to create an autonomous Jewish state in the country's far eastern region. Gessen is the author of Where The Jews Aren't.

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'Everfair' Looks Into Steampunk's Dark Heart

7:00am September 07, 2016

by Amal El-Mohtar

Nisi Shawl's new alternative history novel imagines a group of socialists and missionaries who found a new nation — Everfair — as a safe haven for those fleeing Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

Jonathan Safran Foer's new novel chronicles the dissolution of a marriage against a backdrop of global crisis.

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'Here I Am' Balances Domestic Strife And Global Crisis

4:35pm September 06, 2016

by NPR Staff

Jonathan Safran Foer is back with a mammoth new novel that explores the dissolution of a marriage, and larger questions: What kind of lives are we living, and how do we respond to the world around us?

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Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer (Emily Bogle/NPR)

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'Here I Am' Grapples With Weighty Matters ... And Weighty Paragraphs

1:22pm September 06, 2016

by Heller McAlpin

Jonathan Safran Foer returns with a door-stopper of a meditation on family, identity and Judaism. It's the story of a crumbling marriage set against the backdrop of a crisis in Israel.

Amor Towles likes to write about the past, but says he is not driven by historical research. He prefers instead to play in between what is real and what is imagined. His first novel was called Rules of Civility.

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Idea For 'Gentleman In Moscow' Came From Many Nights In Luxury Hotels

5:02am September 06, 2016

by Lynn Neary

During the 20 years he worked for an investment firm, Amor Towles spent a lot of time in fancy hotels. His new novel follows a Russian aristocrat sentenced to house arrest at the Metropol in Moscow.

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Frank Underwood of "House of Cards" epitomizes the Machiavellian idea of power. But researcher Dacher Keltner argues, that's not actually an effective way to gain influence.

The Perils of Power

12:00am September 06, 2016

by Maggie Penman

We've all heard the adage that "power corrupts," but psychologist Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley has found evidence to prove it. His book is The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence.

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Books

Our Language Has 'Interesting Little Wrinkles,' Linguist Says

5:40pm September 05, 2016

by NPR Staff

John McWhorter of Columbia University says the way we use words changes, like how "literally" can now mean "figuratively." That example, he says, is a contronym, a word with two opposite meanings.

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Beatrix Potter wrote three drafts of The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots and did one watercolor illustration (above). But the book was left incomplete when she died in 1943, and it is now being published posthumously, with illustrations by Quentin Blake.

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A Kitty Leads A Double Life In Beatrix Potter's Posthumously Published Tale

1:25pm September 05, 2016

by Maureen Corrigan

The unfinished work is a curious afterword to Potter's beloved catalog. But perhaps the best thing about The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots is that it will likely send readers back to Potter's original work.

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In New Memoir, Alberto Gonzales Defends 'War On Terror' Tactics

5:03pm September 04, 2016

In his memoir True Faith and Allegiance, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defends the legacy of the Bush administration ahead of the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11.