Author Interviews

The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths

Books
Arts

Books Hold The Key To 'The Postscript Murders'

5:45pm March 10, 2021

by Mary Louise Kelly

The woman who turns up dead at the start of Elly Griffiths' new novel billed herself as a "murder consultant" for writers. Griffiths says she was inspired by her aunt, who enjoys thinking up murders.

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Arts

In 'The Empathy Diaries,' Sherry Turkle Considers The Burden Of Family Secrets

1:45pm March 10, 2021

by Dave Davies

MIT professor Sherry Turkle was 27 when she learned that her estranged father had conducted psychological experiments on her when she was a child. She looks back on her childhood in a new memoir.

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'The Ghost Variations': A Different Take On What It Means To Be Haunted

7:34pm March 09, 2021

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Kevin Brockmeier about The Ghost Variations, a collection of 100 ghost stories that ponders what haunts us in this life and might make us linger in the next.

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Katie Engelhart details the right-to-die movement in her new book, The Inevitable. She says that many patients in the U.S. are forced to act alone, without telling friends and family, because they fear their loved ones will be prosecuted after the fact.

Inside The Fight For The Right To Die: Logistical And Ethical Challenges

3:46pm March 09, 2021

by Terry Gross

Katie Engelhart explores the complexity of physician-assisted death in the book The Inevitable. She says patients seeking to end their own lives sometimes resort to veterinary drugs from overseas.

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Biochemist Jennifer Doudna, the subject of Walter Isaacson's new biography The Code Breaker, shared a Nobel prize in chemistry in 2020 for the part she played in developing the CRISPR gene editing technology.

CRISPR Scientist's Biography Explores Ethics Of Rewriting The Code Of Life

1:48pm March 08, 2021

by Terry Gross

The Code Breaker profiles Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist key to the development of CRISPR, and examines the technology's exciting possibilities and need for oversight.

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'Until The World Shatters' Explores Jade's Role In Myanmar's Struggles

6:53am March 08, 2021

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to author Daniel Combs about his book Until the World Shatters, which explores the connection between Myanmar's jade industry and a long-running civil war.

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You're Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility by Annabelle Gurwitch

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Arts

Annabelle Gurwitch's Mid-Life Maelstrom: Divorce, Cancer, 'Downward Mobility'

8:33am March 07, 2021

by Mandalit del Barco

You're Leaving When? is a witty memoir of Gurwitch's many middle age misadventures — and it doesn't even cover the stage IV lung cancer diagnosis she received in the midst of the pandemic.

Books

Author Explores Preacher Father's Silence On Racial Injustice In 1960s Alabama

5:17pm March 06, 2021

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist John Archibald about his book, Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution.

Books

Imbolo Mbue Tells A Tale Of Corporate Greed And Environmental Destruction In New Book

3:54pm March 06, 2021

NPR's Scott Simon asks author Imbolo Mbue about her new novel, How Beautiful We Were.

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Books

Jo Owens Gives Voice To Stroke Survivor In Debut Novel 'A Funny Side Of Paradise'

11:11am March 06, 2021

The book A Funny Kind of Paradise is told from the point of view of a stroke survivor living in a long-term care facility. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with debut novelist Jo Owens.