Fiction About Lives in Ukraine

<p>Literature isn’t a horse race. Taste is subjective, and artistic value can’t be measured in terms of “winners" and “losers.”</p><p>That doesn’t mean it’s not fun to try.</p><p>The book world’s awards season officially kicked off on Oct. 9, when the Hungarian novelist Laszlo Kr ... Show More

<p>Nicholas Boggs’s “Baldwin: A Love Story,” is many things at once. It’s a comprehensive biography of James Baldwin. It’s a nimble excavation of Baldwin’s work, filled with astute literary analysis of his books and prose. And, most pressingly, it’s an argument for a new critical ... Show More

<p>On Nov. 10, 1975, during a calamitous storm, the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk below the waves of Lake Superior. All 29 men aboard went down with the vessel. With no survivors and no eyewitnesses, there’s always been a sense of mystery to what is arguably the most famous shipwreck in ... Show More

<p><em>They were in a boat all alone on a foggy night in the middle of the Pacific ocean. But they weren’t alone. A strange voice cries out in the darkness, in search of food, but he is unwilling to be seen. The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson, </em>that’s next on The ... Show More

<p>American novelist and screenwriter Michael Cunningham is best known for his 1998 novel ‘The Hours’, which became a ‘New York Times’ bestseller and won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘The Best American Short Sto ... Show More

<p><span>Robin Wall Kimmerer is an unlikely literary star. A botanist by training—a specialist in moss—she spent much of her career at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry. But, when she was well established in her academic work, having ... Show More

<p>Jonathan Lethem is a man of many lives. For one, because of his repeated return to New York as both setting and muse in novels such as Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, and Chronic City, he may be New York’s closest thing to having a bard. But Lethem is known as well ... Show More

Clarice Lispector's Água Viva is the subject of this episode of Backlisted. Like several of Lispector's remarkable novels, this slim book caused a sensation when first published in her native Brazil in 1973. Exquisitely written and daringly abstract, it stands as one of its autho ... Show More

In this week’s episode, Kendra talks with Kristen Arnett about her most recent novel, With Teeth, which out now from Riverhead. Check out our Patreon page to learn more about our book club and other Patreon-exclusive goodies. Follow along over on Instagram, join the discussion in ... Show More

<p><strong>In today's episode, Deborah Goodrich Royce joins me to talk about her latest book, <a href= "https://amzn.to/3jV6naQ">Reef Road</a>. We discuss the personal story behind her book and the role of generational trauma in her writing niche, which she calls "Identity Thrill ... Show More