Books

Books
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'Thirteen Ways' Lifts Darkness Through Storytelling

3:02pm October 14, 2015

by NPR Staff

Colum McCann's latest book, Thirteen Ways of Looking, takes on parenthood, loss and just how arbitrary life can be. McCann says talking about traumatic experiences can be "a fantastic catharsis."

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Elvis Costello: 'There Is No Absolute Right And Wrong About Music'

2:22pm October 14, 2015

by NPR Staff

Throughout his memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, Costello grapples with parallels to his father's life. "In the end, music was playing in the room when my father left this earth," he says.

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Books

National Book Awards Winnow Field Of Finalists

9:24am October 14, 2015

The shortlist for the awards went public Wednesday, halving the number of nominees to 20 finalists. David Greene talks to NPR editor Barrie Hardymon and contributor Glen Weldon about their favorites.

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Finalists Unveiled For This Year's National Book Awards

8:23am October 14, 2015

by Colin Dwyer

Lauren Groff, Terrance Hayes, Sally Mann and Ta-Nehisi Coates are among the 20 writers still in the running for the prestigious literary prize. Soon, that number will be whittled to just four winners.

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Arts

'The Rest Of Us' Is Apocalypse-Adjacent

7:03am October 14, 2015

by Tasha Robinson

Patrick Ness' wry new young adult novel wonders what happens to the normal kids who have to make their lives in the margins of the explosive adventures depicted in mainstream young adult fantasy.

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Arts

Elvis Costello's 'Unfaithful Music' Is Defiantly Fun

6:39pm October 13, 2015

by Michael Schaub

The musician's new autobiography doesn't follow the conventions of memoir — it jumps around in time from his childhood to his days in the pop-rock trenches, and it doesn't shy away from ugly moments.

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Arts

Marlon James Wins Man Booker Prize

6:07pm October 13, 2015

by Petra Mayer

James is the first Jamaican author to win the prestigious literary award, for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. It's based on a real 1976 assassination attempt on reggae star Bob Marley.

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Arts

'Shards' Puts A Fantastic Twist On Jewish Mythology

2:43pm October 13, 2015

by Jason Heller

Matthew Kressel kicks off an Old Testament-flavored fantasy trilogy with this story of a man, abducted by a demon, who learns he's one of 36 hidden saints whose existence preserves the Earth.

Books
Arts

This 'Clasp' Doesn't Quite Hold Together

1:43pm October 13, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Sloane Crosley's new novel, The Clasp, follows a group of disaffected 30-somethings who gather for a classmate's posh wedding — but the casual misanthropy of the characters dims the book's pleasures.

Revisiting Rabin's Assassination, And The Peace That Might Have Been

1:34pm October 13, 2015

Twenty years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed by a Jewish religious zealot. Dan Ephron, author of Killing a King, discusses the assassination and its effect on the peace process.

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