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'The Fishermen' Ventures Into Dark Waters

12:19pm April 15, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Chigozie Obioma's novel follows a group of young boys who disobey their elders to spend afternoons fishing on the banks of an unlucky river, and the terrible consequences that flow from that choice.

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'The Children's Crusade': A Heavily Plotted Family Saga To Dive Into And Savor

5:13pm April 14, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Ann Packer's latest is about a young Navy doctor who, after the Korean War, builds a house south of San Francisco. Fifty years later, his four adult children argue over the property.

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'Gutshot' Is Gloriously Grand Guignol

12:22pm April 14, 2015

by Colin Dwyer

Amelia Gray's new story collection is brimming with gore, guts, madness and deviance. Reviewer Colin Dwyer says Gray is reclaiming a place in literature for our bloody, clumsy, inconvenient bodies.

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Revisiting The Night Abraham Lincoln Was Shot 150 Years Ago

8:01am April 14, 2015

On this day in 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln. Renee Montagne talks to author James Swanson at Ford's Theatre. (This piece initially aired on Feb. 12, 2009 on Morning Edition).

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German writer Günter Grass arrives at Günter Grass-Haus, a museum in Luebeck, Germany, for his 80th birthday celebration on Oct. 27, 2007.

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Günter Grass, Who Confronted Germany's Past As Well As His Own, Dies At 87

7:53pm April 13, 2015

by Tom Vitale

In 2006, the Nobel prize-winning author of The Tin Drum admitted that as a teen during World War II, he had served with the Waffen-SS — the combat unit of the Nazi Party's elite military police force.

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German writer GÃ¼nter Grass, seen here in 2006, died at a clinic in LÃ¼beck, Germany. He was 87.

Günter Grass, Nobel-Winning Author Of 'The Tin Drum,' Dies At 87

4:02pm April 13, 2015

by Krishnadev Calamur

Grass was one of Germany's leading intellectuals after World War II, but admitted in 2006 that he had served in the Waffen SS. News of his death was announced by his publisher.

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Practicing 'Extreme Medicine,' From Deep Sea To Outer Space

3:00pm April 13, 2015

Dr. Kevin Fong explores how humans survive extremes of heat, cold, outer space and deep sea. He compares the exploration of medicine with the "explorers of the 20th century and every age before them."

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How Young People Went Underground During The '70s 'Days Of Rage'

1:46pm April 13, 2015

Bryan Burrough's new book describes the Weather Underground and other militant groups' tactics to protest the government. He interviews former radicals who had never gone on the record before.

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From Harpies To Heroines: How Shakespeare's Women Evolved

6:43pm April 12, 2015

by NPR Staff

In her new book Women of Will, Tina Packer traces Shakespeare's maturation — and, she argues, the corresponding transformation of his female characters from caricatures to fully-realized humans.

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Adventures In Vietnam — Street Food, Love And Taking Chances

11:01am April 12, 2015

by NPR Staff

Journalist Graham Holliday moved to Vietnam in the '90s and immersed himself in the culture through food. That meant getting "a little bit" poisoned, finding the best Bún chả — and meeting his wife.

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