Books

Erdrich's novel, The Night Watchman, is based on her grandfather's role in resisting a Congressional effort to withdraw federal recognition from her family's tribe. Originally broadcast March 4, 2020.

10 years ago, story teller Salma Hasan Ali started a blog marking the month of Ramadan called "30 Days, 30 Deeds." This year, she releases a book of stories and lessons from a decade of the blog.

The National Parks Service has often been called "America's Best Idea." But David Treuer argues that, because that came at the cost of Native American homeland, they deserve to take control.

Biblical womanhood is a pervasive concept among evangelicals. A new book by historian Beth Allison Barr argues those ideas may be more secular than scriptural.

Essay after essay, it becomes clear that writer Lauren Hough is drawing parallels between the Family and good ol' fashioned American Exceptionalism in all its various facets.

Mary Louise Kelly talks with author Ross King about his new book The Bookseller of Florence, inspired by the history of the "Street of Booksellers" found in Florence, Italy.

The winners of this year's Whiting Awards have been announced; the $50,000 prize honors emerging writers, with the aim of enabling them to concentrate full-time on their work.

Empire of Pain author Patrick Radden Keefe says the Sackler family has "thrown a lot of energy" into trying to thwart his reporting about the family's involvement in the opioid crisis.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Patrick Radden Keefe about his book Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. The book profiles the family that founded oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma.

When he was 12, Gates made a bargain with Jesus in an attempt to save his mother's life. He talks about how that altered his own life, and his new book and PBS series, The Black Church.

Dawnie Walton's sly narrative is a story about music, race and family secrets that spans five decades, centering on an interracial rock duo who strike it big in the early '70s.

Elizabeth McCracken's new story collection dazzles with verbal flexibility, insight and feeling, capturing the oddities and mixed bags, the loves and losses that make up most people's lives.