Book News & Features

Chinese writers and publishers are being celebrated this week at BookExpo America — the industry's largest trade event in North America. Free speech advocates are supporting silenced Chinese writers.

The debate over whether digital books are better continues. Yet in the age of Amazon, the number of independent booksellers is up. The revival is fueled, at least in part, by digital natives.

As part of the Future Library project, Margaret Atwood's Scribbler Moon will not be read until 2114. Trees, that will be made into paper for that text, were planted last year in Norway.

M.G. Vassanji's book, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, wrestles with questions of identity in a story about a young Indian boy coming of age in 1950s Kenya, a time of great political unrest.

The British mystery writer was known for her Inspector Wexford series and in her later years became active in Labour Party politics. NPR's Petra Mayer has this remembrance.