Books

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.

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Arts

'Year of the Beast': How Tara Wray Used Photography To 'Process Fear And Uncertainty'

7:54am March 07, 2021

by Di'Amond Moore

Wray explores the difficulties of 2020, balancing the pandemic, family and work through her photography in a new book. She hopes "people will see themselves ... or loved ones in these pictures."

Once Upon a QuinceaÃ±era, by Monica Gomez-Hira

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Arts

'Once Upon A Quinceañera' Has Fairy Tale Charm

7:00am March 07, 2021

by Alethea Kontis

Monica Gomez-Hira's debut novel follows a Miami teen whose job as a party princess brings her into contact with the ex who ruined her chance to have her own quinceañera — and of course, sparks fly.

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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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.

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Arts

Reclaiming Family And Memory In 'Sparks Like Stars'

7:00am March 06, 2021

by Marcela Davison Avilés

Nadia Hashmi's new novel follows an Afghan woman who escaped the murder of her family during a coup; her comfortable life in New York City is turned upside down when a figure from the past reappears.

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Arts

Author Kazuo Ishiguro Explores Love, Loneliness And Connection In 'Klara And The Sun'

4:56pm March 05, 2021

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Kazuo Ishiguro about his new novel, Klara and the Sun, a story about a small AI girl robot created to keep teens from becoming lonely.

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Arts

James McBride's Advice For New Writers: 'A Simple Story Is The Best Story'

1:43pm March 05, 2021

by Terry Gross

McBride's most recent novel, Deacon King Kong, is set in a Brooklyn housing project in 1969. "Time and place is really crucial to good storytelling," he says. Originally broadcast Feb. 29, 2020.

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Arts

'The Committed' Remains Uncommitted — And That's Its Strength

10:00am March 04, 2021

by Thúy Đinh

Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer finds our hero a refugee again, this time in Paris, and disillusioned with communism but not ready to embrace capitalism.