Books

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Arts

Horror Tropes And Human Sadness In 'Universal Harvester'

7:00am February 11, 2017

by Carmen Maria Machado

Musician and author John Darnielle's new Universal Harvester follows three connected stories in three different eras, in an unsettling fairy tale about mysterious images that appear on video tapes.

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Fires Burn — At A Distance — In Unnerving 'Separation'

7:00am February 11, 2017

by Annalisa Quinn

Katie Kitamura's new novel follows an unnamed narrator who tails her estranged, disappeared husband to Greece — while keeping the ominous surroundings and disquieting emotions at a cool remove.

After A Stroke At 33, A Writer Relies On Journals To Piece Together Her Own Story

5:24am February 11, 2017

by NPR Staff

The stroke left Christine Hyung-Oak Lee unable remember things for more than 15 minutes. As she slowly got better, she was surprised to find that grief and recovery were inextricably linked.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. His new short story collection explores the refugee experience — and draws from his own.

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'The Refugees' Author Says We Should All Know What It Is To Be An Outsider

6:35pm February 10, 2017

by NPR Staff

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam with his family when he was 4 years old. His new short story collection explores the refugee experience — and draws from his own.

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American writer, abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass edits a journal at his desk, late 1870s. Douglass was acutely conscious of being a literary witness to the inhumane institution of slavery he had escaped as a young man. He made sure to document

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Frederick Douglass On How Slave Owners Used Food As A Weapon Of Control

12:26pm February 10, 2017

by Nina Martyris

Hunger was Douglass' constant companion as a boy. As a young man, he escaped slavery and became a heroic abolitionist who revealed how food was a key tool in the immoral mechanics of slavery.

The cover of the graphic novel, which shows two shackled black wrists with a white hand gripping one of the arms.

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The Joy (And Fear) Of Making 'Kindred' Into A Graphic Novel

12:12pm February 10, 2017

by Tanya Ballard Brown

Nearly 40 years after it was published, Octavia Butler's time-travel novel Kindred has been adapted for a modern audience as a graphic novel. But reinterpreting the masterwork was a daunting task.

George Saunders' first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo.

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George Saunders Re-Imagines A President's Grief With 'Lincoln In The Bardo'

3:09pm February 09, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

The acclaimed short-story writer sets his first novel in the cemetery where 11-year-old Willie Lincoln was buried. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Lincoln in the Bardo "searing, inventive and bizarre."

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Memory And Loss Haunt The Stories In 'The Refugees'

10:00am February 09, 2017

by Michael Schaub

Viet Thanh Nguyen's new collection looks at how it feels and what it means to be a refugee. It's a wonderful group of stories that prove fiction can do more than tell stories, it can bear witness.

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'Autumn' Champions Free Spirits And The Lifeforce Of Art

7:00am February 09, 2017

by Heller McAlpin

Ali Smith kicks off a seasonally-themed quartet with this ultimately uplifting look at the lifelong friendship between a young woman and her unconventional childhood soulmate, an artistic gay man.

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Poetry To Pay Attention To: A Preview Of 2017's Best Verse

6:00pm February 08, 2017

by Craig Morgan Teicher

2017 is turning out to be a year of big change. Critic Craig Teicher highlights some of the poetry that can help guide readers through it.