Search results for

Jenny Offill's new book, Dept. of Speculation, uses anecdotes and bits of poetry to tell a nonlinear story of love, parenthood and infidelity. Offill tells NPR's Rachel Martin that her experiences as a mother inspired the book — but that her own marriage is far less dramatic than the one in her novel.

Rachel Joyce's new novel offers two parallel narratives: the 1972 story of Byron, an anxious schoolboy, and the present-day account of Jim, a supermarket worker who has spent most of his life in institutional care. But critic Ellah Allfrey says that the novel is made up of two distinct and unequal parts.

Saturday is the winter solstice — which means it will be the longest night of the year. For many artists and poets, that thought is far from depressing: instead, night's darkness is invigorating. Filmmaker Phil Cousineau has edited a new collection on the allure of the night, and Jeff Dowd — the inspiration for "The Dude" — wrote the foreword.

E.L. Doctorow's new novel goes inside the brain of a neuroscientist trying to outrun his memories of disaster and the daughter he gave up. He tells NPR's Scott Simon that Andrew's Brain was inspired by his own memories, and by a recurring idea of a little girl hiding her colored-pencil drawings from adult eyes.

In 1931, Harry Powers killed two women and three children at his home in Quiet Dell, W.Va. Writer Jayne Anne Phillips learned about the murders from her mother, who was a child when the deaths became a media sensation. Phillips' new novel retells the tragedy through the eyes of a young reporter.

NPR's Juana Summers speaks with Jon Kung, author of Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen, about the evolution of instant ramen noodles.

Britain is a maritime nation that a century or two ago boasted the world's largest navy. Today, the names of shipping areas in the surrounding seas are embedded in the British national psyche — thanks to the BBC's Shipping Forecast bulletin, a cultural phenomenon beloved by seafarers and landlubbers alike.

The Saudis are demanding that Yemen's president step aside after months of protest against his rule. Yet last month, the Saudis didn't stop Ali Abduallah Saleh from leaving Saudi Arabia, where he received extensive medical treatment, and returning to Yemen.

Rwandans are commemorating 30 years since the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed by government-backed extremists, shattering the small East African country.

Sotheby's June 26 auction of Thomas Taylor's watercolor illustration for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is estimated to sell for $400,000-$600,000.