Author Interviews

Books
Arts

The Zig-Zagging History Of The Number Zero

10:17am March 02, 2015

There was a time when a zig-zagging line didn't mean two, and a circle didn't mean zero. NPR's Eric Westervelt talks with Amir Aczel about the origins of our numbers and his book, Finding Zero.

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"Nana, how come we don't have a car?" CJ asks. "Boy, what do we need a car for?" Nana replies. "We got a bus that breathes fire."

Books
Arts

On Board A City Bus, A Little Boy Finds The Route To Gratitude

10:15am March 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

In Last Stop on Market Street, a little boy goes on a journey with his grandmother. Along the way he meets many interesting passengers and learns to recognize the blessings right in front of him.

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Books
Arts

Dangerous Freedoms And Fading Memories In 'Find Me'

10:13am March 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

Imagine a future where an epidemic that erases memories (and eventually kills) takes over the country: That's the setting for the first novel from celebrated short story writer Laura Van Den Berg.

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Bass Reeves, depicted here in an illustration from Joel Christian Gill's Tales of the Talented Tenth, was one of the first African-American U.S. marshals. Click here for a closer look.

Books
Arts

'Strange Fruit' Shares Uncelebrated, Quintessentially American Stories

10:12am March 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

Have you heard of Bass Reeves? Richard Potter? Spottswood Rice? "Box" Brown? If not, illustrator-historian Joel Christian Gill says, you're missing out on some of the best stories in American history.

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"I think it's a terrible critical sin to try to be different," says Robert Christgau, whose memoir Going into the City is a look back at his five decades of music writing.

Robert Christgau Reviews His Own Life

6:07pm March 01, 2015

by NPR Staff

One of rock music's most loved, feared and prolific scribes, the 72-year-old Christgau says he knew early on that he liked criticism better than journalism: "I didn't want to get into people's faces."

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Monsoon clouds loom over New Delhi, the city at the center of Raj Kamal Jha's new novel.

Books
Arts

For An Author In India's Capital, 'Hope, In Many Ways, Is Fiction'

5:44pm March 01, 2015

by NPR Staff

In his novel She Will Build Him a City, Raj Kamal Jha weaves the reality he sees as a journalist in New Delhi — where many gravitate looking for a better future — into a fictional, magical world.

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Kazuo Ishiguro is also the author of The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.

Books
Arts

The Persistence — And Impermanence — Of Memory In 'The Buried Giant'

10:40am February 28, 2015

by NPR Staff

Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in a decade follows an old couple on what might be their last journey: Hunting for memories of a son they think they had, in a land covered with memory-shrouding mists.

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Mohsin Hamid is also the author of three novels, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke.

Pakistani Author Mohsin Hamid And His Roving 'Discontent'

10:40am February 28, 2015

by NPR Staff

Mohsin Hamid combines the personal and political in his new book, Discontent and Its Civilizations. NPR's Scott Simon talks with the Pakistani author about his new collection of essays.

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Books
Arts

'The Sellout' Is A Profane Riff On Race And Culture

10:40am February 28, 2015

In Paul Beatty's new satirical novel, The Sellout, the narrator wants to re-segregate his hometown outside of Los Angeles. NPR's Scott Simon talks to the author about using humor to write about race.

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From Naked Mole Rats To Dog Testicles: A Writer Explores The Longevity Quest

4:03pm February 27, 2015

"Nature knows how to let animals live a very long time," says Bill Gifford, whose latest book is Spring Chicken, a look at the history of anti-aging schemes and current ways people try to live longer.

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