Author Interviews

Books
Arts

'Pachinko' Is A Family Saga Of Exile, Discrimination ... And Japanese Pinball

8:31am February 06, 2017

by Lynn Neary

The multibillion-dollar pinball industry is dominated by Korean Japanese, an immigrant community that has been ill-treated for generations. Author Min Jin Lee explores that history in a new novel.

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Books

Reading '300 Arguments' Is Like Jumping In Someone's Mind

8:11am February 05, 2017

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with author Sarah Manguso, whose new book of aphorisms, 300 Arguments, tackles motherhood, love, and suicide.

Books
Arts

Coming To Terms With Depression In 'This Close To Happy'

3:47pm February 04, 2017

by NPR Staff

Novelist and critic Daphne Merkin's new memoir This Close to Happy chronicles a life spent struggling with depression, from love-starved childhood to hard-won equilibrium: Not cured, but functional.

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Books

'A Separation' Is A Story Of Adultery And Searching

7:57am February 04, 2017

An unnamed woman separates from her husband. He disappears, and she goes to look for him in Greece. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Katie Kitamura about her latest novel, A Separation.

Barely a week after assuming office, President Donald Trump set off a worldwide firestorm when he decided to temporarily ban migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from all over the world from entering the United States.

Fortress America: What We Can — And Can't — Learn From History

12:00am January 31, 2017

President Trump's executive order on refugees left travelers stranded at airports worldwide. To some, the scenes evoked images of Jewish refugees during World War II. We investigate the parallels.

A photo of a patient receiving care in the hospital.

Doctor Considers The Pitfalls Of Extending Life And Prolonging Death

2:28pm January 30, 2017

In Modern Death, Dr. Haider Warraich says a slow dying process, during which patients move in and out of hospitals or nursing homes, is a "very recent development in our history as a species."

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This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

Books
Arts

'This Is How It Always Is' Was Inspired By Its Author's Transgender Child

9:49am January 30, 2017

by NPR Staff

Still, Laurie Frankel says, her book is fiction. "The nice thing about my life is that it's pretty boring, which is really how you want your life to be — but not how you want your novel to be."

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Books
Arts

Translating The Untranslatable: 'Between Dog And Wolf'

6:47pm January 28, 2017

Russian author Sasha Sokolov wrote Between Dog and Wolf, which had been deemed untranslatable from the original Russian since 1980. Alexander Boguslawski translated the work to English in December.

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Books

In Comic 'Deathstroke,' Taking Revenge For Victims Of Chicago Gun Violence

8:11am January 28, 2017

DC Comics' Deathstroke has an unusual storyline this week: Chicago mothers hire an assassin to avenge children killed by gun violence. Writer Christopher Priest and illustrator Denys Cowan explain.

Books
Arts

Renowned Biographer Patricia Bosworth Writes A Chapter From Her Own Life

8:11am January 28, 2017

by NPR Staff

The Men in My Life chronicles a 10-year period during which Bosworth married, divorced, finished college, became an actress, and worked alongside some of the biggest movie stars of the 1950s.