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Books
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For Carl Phillips, Poetry Is Experience Transformed — Not Transcribed

5:11pm August 29, 2015

by NPR Staff

Phillips' new collection is both raw and refined, drawing on intimate experience while shunning autobiography. "I become uncomfortable when people make an equation between author and poem," he says.

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Books

Edward St. Aubyn's 'A Clue To The Exit' Is Released In The U.S.

10:37am August 29, 2015

Charlie Fairburn has been told he has six months to live. He's the central character in Edward St. Aubyn's novel, A Clue to the Exit. He speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the book.

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Books
Arts

The Gentlemen Bastards Unfold Sumptuous Stories Within Stories

7:03am August 29, 2015

by Jason Heller

This weekend, the NPR Books Time Machine is rewinding Scott Lynch's swashbuckling Gentleman Bastard series, a combination fantasy of manners, heist caper and heartfelt buddy comedy. With pirates.

Did You Ever Have A Family by Brian Clegg

Books
Arts

Making Sense Of A Tragedy, One Narrator At A Time

7:03am August 29, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

June Reid has lost everyone she loves in one horrifying moment, but she's not the only one grieving. Bill Clegg's new novel tells of June's loss through the voices of those who know and encounter her.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of August 27, 2015

4:03pm August 28, 2015

The lists are compiled from weekly surveys of close to 500 independent bookstores nationwide.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of August 27, 2015

4:03pm August 28, 2015

Debuting at No. 14, Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women finds moments of grace in cafeterias, laundromats and hotel dining rooms.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of August 27, 2015

4:03pm August 28, 2015

In H is for Hawk, experienced falconer Helen Macdonald recounts her efforts to train a dangerous goshawk after her father dies. It appears at No. 8.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of August 27, 2015

4:03pm August 28, 2015

In John Grisham's Gray Mountain, a New York City lawyer turned unpaid intern stumbles upon dangerous secrets in a small Appalachian community. It appears at No. 12.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Nonfiction, Week Of August 27, 2015

4:03pm August 28, 2015

In Just Mercy, attorney Bryan Stevenson recounts his efforts to defend the poor, the wrongly condemned and women and children trapped in the criminal justice system. It appears at No. 5.

Paul Kingsnorth — seen here in front of his writing shed — used a crowdfunding platform to publish The Wake after mainstream houses didn't bite.

'The Wake' Is An Unlikely Hit In An Imaginary Language

12:37pm August 28, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

Paul Kingsnorth self-published The Wake, his tale of the 11th-century Norman conquest of England, written in a pastiche of Old and modern English — and was startled when it became a smash hit.

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