Doubleday 'James' revisits Huck Finn's traveling companion, giving rise to a new classic March 18, 2024 In a fever dream of a retelling, America's new reigning king of satire has turned a loved classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, upside down, placing Huck's enslaved companion Jim at the center.
Celadon Books In 'The Manicurist's Daughter,' a refugee family goes on after its matriarch's death March 15, 2024 Author Susan Lieu transforms her acclaimed 2019 one-woman show — 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother -- into a memoir of her family after the death of her mother due to botched plastic surgery.
Vintage The stories in 'Green Frog' are wildly entertaining and wonderfully diverse March 14, 2024 Gina Chung's collection is a fantastic medley of short stories that dance between literary fiction, fable, Korean folklore, and science fiction — and one that's full of emotional intelligence.
W. W. Norton & Company Big-box store workers find themselves shut out of the American Dream in 'Help Wanted' Fresh Air March 13, 2024 Adelle Waldman's novel is a workplace ensemble set in a Costco-like store. But, because Help Wanted is a group portrait, it tends to visit, rather than settle in with, its working class characters. Big-box store workers find themselves shut out of the American Dream in 'Help Wanted' Listen · 5:31 5:31 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1238010097/1238321571" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Big-box store workers find themselves shut out of the American Dream in 'Help Wanted' Listen · 5:31 5:31 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1238010097/1238321571" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Cover of The Extinction of Irena Rey Bloomsbury Publishing hide caption toggle caption Bloomsbury Publishing Books 'The Extinction of Irena Rey' asks: Can anything be truly individual and independent? March 8, 2024 Jennifer Croft's novel, centered on a group of translators working on a book, is surprising at every turn, moving from profound observations about nature, art, and communication — to surreal events.
NPR 3 collections take the poetic measure of America in the aftermath of the pandemic March 7, 2024 New collections The Gone Thing, Silver and Modern Poetry offer, if not a solution to trying times in America, then a kind of truth-telling companion, a mirror with a real person on both sides of it.
Flatiron Books 'Anita de Monte Laughs Last' is a complex dissection of art, gender and marriage March 6, 2024 Xochitl Gonzalez's novel looking at relationship power dynamics is a thought-provoking and brilliantly entertaining triumph that surpasses the promise of her popular debut Olga Dies Dreaming.
NPR Kennedy Ryan's new novel, plus 4 other new romances by Black authors March 5, 2024 Black romance authors have been some of the leading advocates for change in the books industry. This Could Be Us, the latest by bestselling author Kennedy Ryan, hits shelves today.
Founded in 1955, the Village Voice stopped publishing print editions in in 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images This oral history of the 'Village Voice' captures its creativity and rebelliousness Fresh Air March 4, 2024 Tricia Romano's The Freaks Came Out To Write chronicles the passion and talent that made a great American newspaper — and the forces that killed it. This oral history of the 'Village Voice' captures its creativity and rebelliousness Listen · 8:38 8:38 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1235199478/1235822109" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
This oral history of the 'Village Voice' captures its creativity and rebelliousness Listen · 8:38 8:38 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1235199478/1235822109" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Pantheon A man fights expectations in 'I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together' March 2, 2024 Maurice Vellekoop's graphic memoir is an impressive book by an artist, a cartoonist, staking a claim — presenting a life lived willfully resisting other people's inconsistent, harmful attitudes.
MCD Sloane Crosley mourns her best friend in 'Grief Is for People' February 28, 2024 Russell Perreault hired Crosley when she was 25 and the two became very close. He died by suicide in 2019. Her first full-length book of nonfiction is a noteworthy addition to the literature of grief.
Knopf Tommy Orange's 'Wandering Stars' is a powerful follow up to 'There There' February 27, 2024 An eloquent indictment of the effects of the massacre, dislocation and forced assimilation of Native Americans, it is also a heartfelt paean to the importance of family and of ancestors' stories.
Bloomsbury Publishing Dishy-yet-earnest, 'Cocktails' revisits the making of 'Virginia Woolf' Fresh Air February 26, 2024 Philip Gefter's Cocktails with George and Martha traces the evolution of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — from Broadway sensation, to Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Dishy-yet-earnest, 'Cocktails' revisits the making of 'Virginia Woolf' Listen · 7:05 7:05 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1233892185/1233967076" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Dishy-yet-earnest, 'Cocktails' revisits the making of 'Virginia Woolf' Listen · 7:05 7:05 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1233892185/1233967076" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Little, Brown & Company 'Splinters' is a tribute to the love of a mother for a daughter February 20, 2024 In different variations of her signature, beautifully frank language, Leslie Jamison writes about her fantasy of stability and her uncertainty as to whether it's a dream she actually wants fulfilled.
Penguin Random House You'll savor the off-beat mysteries served up by 'The Kamogawa Food Detectives' Fresh Air February 19, 2024 Hisashi Kashiwai's charming novel centers on a diner where carefully reconstructed meals help unlock mysteries of memory and regret. You'll savor the off-beat mysteries served up by 'The Kamogawa Food Detectives' Listen · 7:47 7:47 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1231349691/1232496887" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
You'll savor the off-beat mysteries served up by 'The Kamogawa Food Detectives' Listen · 7:47 7:47 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1231349691/1232496887" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Random House Kelly Link's debut novel 'The Book of Love' is magical, confusing, heartfelt, strange February 15, 2024 Short-story writer Kelly Link's first novel delves into the complications of love and friendship, family drama, grief, resilience, and the power of adaptability, while delivering a supernatural tale.
NPR Valentine's Day Looking for love? You'll find it in 2024 in these 10 romance novels February 14, 2024 Who says romance is reserved for Valentine's Day? Love stories are a treat to be savored year-round. Here are some of the best romance novels hitting the shelves in the first half of the year.
Soft Skull 'I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both' is a rare, genuinely successful rock novel February 13, 2024 Mariah Stovall manages to convey the essence of punk and emo through the prose itself; this is an excellent novel, compassionate and filled with a sparkling intelligence about the human condition.
Harper 'Fourteen Days' is a time capsule of people's efforts to connect during the pandemic February 12, 2024 The novel is an ambitious project, written by 36 authors yet achieving a unified voice of sorts, as every character narrates their story simply, casually, allowing themselves digressions and asides.
Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR Move over, senior center — these 5 books center seniors February 10, 2024 These books, including Roxana Robinson's Leaving, which comes out on Tuesday, all concern older women — some in their 60s, others in their 90s — who fully intend to enjoy all their years.
A person dressed as Bigfoot makes their way through the snow during a blizzard in Boston in January 2015. John O'Connor's The Secret History of Bigfoot explores the myth and its lingering appeal. Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images Is Bigfoot real? A new book dives deep into the legend February 9, 2024 The Secret History of Bigfoot is a smart, hilarious, and wonderfully immersive journey into the history of Bigfoot, the culture around it, the people who obsess about it, and the psychology behind it.
NPR Super Bowl 2024 Pregame the Super Bowl with our favorite football fiction February 8, 2024 Of course, leave it to the gigantic nerds at NPR to throw a literary tailgate ... but to thine own self be true, even if it means getting stuffed into your locker later this afternoon.
Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR Books from Mexico, Netherlands, and Japan bring rewrites of history, teen tales February 8, 2024 Books from writers Álvaro Enrigue, Simone Atangana Bekono, and Kiyoko Murata may not come from the same place — but they still work in conversation with each other.
Algonquin Books 'Your Utopia' considers surveillance and the perils of advanced technology January 30, 2024 The best of Bora Chung's new stories impart a feeling of disorientation, evoking worlds that seem at first like utopias only to disclose, upon deeper inspection, dystopias.
Knopf In 'Martyr!,' an endless quest for purpose in a world that can be cruel and uncaring January 29, 2024 Engaging and wildly entertaining, Kaveh Akbar's debut novel will undoubtedly be considered one of the best of the year because it focuses on very specific stories while discussing universal feelings.