Author Interviews

Books
Arts

'The Friend' Novelist Grapples With Suicide, Grief And Student-Teacher Relationships

1:27pm January 24, 2019

by Terry Gross

Sigrid Nunez's National Book Award-winning novel is narrated by a woman grieving the suicide of her longtime friend and former writing professor, whom she slept with once.

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Journalist Jason Rezaian Recounts 544 Days In Iranian Prison

6:19am January 23, 2019

In his new book Prisoner, Jason Rezaian of The Washington Post recounts his time in Iran's notorious Evin prison. He talks with NPR's Rachel Martin about his ordeal.

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Jason Rezaian speaks during the inauguration of the Washington Post headquarters on Jan. 28, 2016.

Journalist Recounts The Absurdity And Torture Of 544 Days In Iran's Evin Prison

7:54pm January 22, 2019

by Terry Gross

After being accused of spying, Jason Rezaian was held in Iran's notorious prison for a year and a half. Throughout it all, he never considered giving up writing and reporting.

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The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, by Ben Philippe

Books

'Field Guide To The North American Teenager' Taps Into The Raw Anxiety Of Adolescence

3:57pm January 22, 2019

by Audie Cornish

Ben Philippe's debut novel follows a black French Canadian teenager grappling with his parents' divorce and the upheaval that comes with moving from Canada to Texas in the middle of the school year.

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"It feels like confessing a crime," Tommy Tomlinson says about revealing his weight in his new book, The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America.

He Was 460 Pounds. What Confronting His Weight Taught Him About Obesity In America

6:35pm January 20, 2019

by Emma Bowman

"Losing weight is figuring out something you can live with," says Tommy Tomlinson, author of the new memoir The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America.

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Environment

A Mountaineer Writes A Firsthand Report From The World's Melting Glaciers

8:02am January 20, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro speaks with journalist Dahr Jamail about his new book, "The End of Ice," on climate change and its consequences to nature and humans.

Books
Arts

There's No Rest For Anyone In 'The Dreamers'

5:29pm January 19, 2019

by Melissa Block

Karen Thompson Walker's new novel imagines a pandemic that puts victims into a deep sleep, giving them strange dreams from which they may not wake up — and panicking those still awake.

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National

'Heartbeat Of Wounded Knee' Demystifies The Modern Native Experience

7:04am January 19, 2019

by Scott Simon

David Treuer's book is a wide-ranging account of Native American life, from the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre to now. He says that, contrary to popular perception, they're fully integrated in U.S. life.

Books
Arts

In 'Holy Lands,' A Tale Of Family Drama And Pig Farming In Israel

7:04am January 19, 2019

by Scott Simon

The epistolary novel from author Amanda Sthers, newly available in English and now adapted into a feature film, is a story of reconciliation (and raising swine among Jews).

Books
Arts

Memoirist Retraces Her Journey From Survivalist Childhood To Cambridge Ph.D.

1:24pm January 18, 2019

by Dave Davies

Growing up, Tara Westover had no birth certificate, never saw a doctor and didn't go to school. She writes about her transition into the mainstream in Educated. Originally broadcast Feb. 20, 2018.

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