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We talk to Mary Pipher about her new memoir, A Life In Light: Meditations On Impermanence.
And poet, therapist and translator Anita Barrows talks with us about her stunning debut novel, The Language of Birds.
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We speak with Jonathan Lee about his historical novel The Great Mistake. It’s about the man who’s called “The Father of Greater New York,” Andrew Haswell Green.
Then, Michael Mechanic takes us on a tour into the lives of the super-rich and what their astronomic wealth says about America. His book is Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live- and How their Wealth Harms Us All.
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We talk with Antonio Scurati about his international bestseller about Mussolini, M: Son of the Century. It won the prestigious Strega Prize.
Then Tsering Yangzom Lama tells us about her powerful novel of Tibetan exile and resilience, We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies.
Antonio Scurati
Benito Mussolini came to power in circumstances that are resonant with the crises we face today: economic turmoil for the masses, disenchantment with elites that fail to govern, and the erosion of democracy.
In his international bestseller, M, Antonio Scurati takes a deep dive into the mind of the dictator and the social conditions he was able to exploit in his rise.
By combining fiction with documentary evidence and meticulous historical research, Scurati has invented a new genre, which he calls the “documentary novel.”
M is a cautionary tale that we would all do well to heed.
Tsering Yangzom Lama
In today’s world, thirty people become refugees every minute and 68 million people have been displaced (almost certainly an undercount.)
One of the earliest post WWII refugee crises happened in 1959, when Mao’s People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet. About 80,000 Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, were forced to escape to India and Nepal, uprooted from their ancestral villages and way of life. Many people died during that exodus.
Tsering Yangzom Lama’s parents were among those who fled. She was born in Nepal. Yet there was much about her family’s history that she was unaware of growing up.
Her acclaimed debut novel We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies tells the story of the Tibetan diaspora. But it also brings alive the rich history, traditions and culture of Tibet.
Named a most anticipated book of the year by The Millions and Ms. and among the
Washington Post’s 10 Noteworthy Books for May, 2022, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a story of courage, survival resilience by an extraordinary young writer.
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We talk with NoViolet Bulaweyo about her powerful allegorical novel about the fall of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the chaos and opportunity that rose in its wake. It’s called Glory.
Then, Jennifer Haigh tells us about her new novel, Mercy Street. It’s a gripping tale about abortion: its defenders and its antagonists.
We also hear Theresa Davis reading her poem “What to Do When a Politician Tries to Fall into Your Vagina Feet First.”
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We talk with Lee Kravetz about his stunning literary mystery, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P.
Then, as more states pass laws attacking transgender families, we listen back to a clip from my 2019 interview with Mimi Lemay about her memoir of her transgender son, What We Will Become.
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We talk with Malinda Lo about her award winning novel, Last Night At The Telegraph Club. It’s a YA historical novel about a Chinese American lesbian.
Then Syed Masood tells us about his new novel, The Bad Muslim Discount. It’s a poignant, funny and profoundly human novel about Muslim immigrants finding their way in modern America.
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We talk with graphic artist Joe Lee about his stunningly illustrated book, Forgiveness: The Story of Eva Kor, Survivor of The Auschwitz Twin Experiments.
Then Valerie Martin tells us about her new novel I Give It To You. It’s a many-layered tale about what happens when an Italian friend tells a writer a story about her family in Mussolini’s Italy.
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We talk with Ruth Ozeki about her wonderful new novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness. It’s a coming-of-age/Hero’s Journey that is heart-wrenching, inspiring, funny and deeply wise.
Then, writer Hilma Wolitzer tells us about her retrospective collection of stories, Today A Woman Went Mad In The Supermarket. It spans decades of stories about an ordinary couple, written in extraordinary prose.
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This week: two novels exploring love, trauma and the legacies of war. Both are based on true stories from World War II.
First, Jai Chakrabarti tells us about his novel A Play for the End of the World. It centers around a play written by Rabindranath Tagore that was put on by orphans in Warsaw just before they were taken to the death camp. Then, the same play is re-staged decades later, in India, as another act of resistance against tyranny.
Then, personal trauma and collective trauma intersect with a love story. We talk with Caroline Lea about her new novel The Metal Heart. It’s set on an Orkney Island during WWII, where Italian prisoners and British islanders find conflict and common ground.
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We talk with HonorÁ©e Fanonne Jeffers, award-winning poet and now novelist, about The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois, just out from Harper Collins.
Then, two young women build a literary empire around poetry and life lessons. We talk with Jade Dee and Wilnona Marie, the And I Thought Ladies.
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We talk with Megha Majumdhar about her breakout debut novel, A Burning. It follows three characters in today’s India: one, a young Muslim woman falsely accused of terrorism, and two others who must choose between justice and self-interest.
Then, rural America isn’t just poverty, opioid addiction and despair; it’s also community, resilience, and some remarkable young women.
We talk with Gigi Georges about Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America.
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We talk with journalist Nina Burleigh about Trump’s failure on Covid and what that says about our public health system—and capitalism. Her book is Virus: Vaccinations, the CDC, and The Hijacking Of America’s Response To The Pandemic.
Then, we shift gears to consider a remarkable debut novel by Celia Jeffries, Blue Desert. It’s about freedom and limits, secrets and what happens when a young British woman falls in love with the chieftain of a Tuareg tribe in Morocco in the early years of the 20th century.
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Today we talk with DC Comics & Warner Brothers comic book editor Joseph Illidge about his career in comic books, bringing diverse voices to the super hero genre.
We also hear a sneak preview of our interview with recycling maven Jennie Romer about her book Can I Recycle This?
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Parkinson’s disease. It’s an epidemic—and growing. We talk with Dr. Michael Okun about the book he co-authored, Ending Parkinson’s Disease: A Prescription for Action. He tells us about symptoms, causes, and new treatments.
But first, we talk with novelist Lionel Shriver about her latest foray into burning questions for our times. This one asks, as per its title, Should We Stay Or Should We Go. Should we cut our lives short before reaching possible decrepitude or should we stick around for come what may?
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We talk with Judy Batalion about her book, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos.
Then, another WWII story—this time fiction—told through an unforgettable cast of characters: we talk with Lissa Evans about V for Victory, the sequel to Crooked Heart.