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In 'The New Naturals,' Gabriel Bump explores grief after the loss of a daughter Dec 06, 2023

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The New Naturals follows a couple's journey from grieving their infant daughter to an underground utopia. In today's episode, literature professor Gabriel Bump tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe how his own personal loss led to the emotional stream of consciousness and acceptance of societal change in the novel.
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In 'Oath and Honor,' Liz Cheney analyzes Trump's effect on the Republican party Dec 05, 2023

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When former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney criticized Donald Trump's presidency, she says she didn't know the Republican party would turn on her. But after losing her leadership role in the party and her bid for reelection, Cheney had to reassess. Her new book, Oath and Honor, opens up about the House investigation into the January 6 attack, and her colleagues' ambivalence on impeaching Trump. In today's episode, Cheney tells NPR's Leila Fadel why she thinks it's important to talk about Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election, and how it can still pose a threat to democracy in 2024.
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Nathan Thrall's book revisits a tragic bus accident in Jerusalem Dec 04, 2023

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Today's episode is a true story that takes place in Jerusalem. In 2012, a bus collided with a semi trailer. Six Palestinian kindergarteners and a teacher burned to death. Abed Salama,, who is the father of one of the children, has to navigate physical and bureaucratic barriers as he searches for his son. In A Day In The Life of Abed Salama, author Nathan Thrall revisits the journey and the vivid people, both Palestinian and Jewish, Salama encountered. Thrall and Salama speak with NPR's Leila Fadel about the emotional odyssey and the book's new reception after the Hamas attack on Israel in October.
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'The Queen of Dirt Island' captures the bond between women in an Irish family Dec 02, 2023

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Donal Ryan's novel, The Queen of Dirt Island, centers its women characters. He tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that making the men peripheral wasn't his goal – "it just kind of happened." In today's episode, he explains how a childhood spent listening to his grandmother, sister and neighbors in his mom's kitchen inspired the voices in the book, and why he wrote with a strict word count in mind for each chapter.
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Two National Book Awards finalists take on climate extremes Dec 01, 2023

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Today's episode features interviews with two authors whose works are 2023 National Book Awards finalists — one fiction, one nonfiction. Both broach the topic of climate realities, though their books take place hundreds of years apart. First, NPR's Scott Simon chats with Hanna Pylväinen about The End of Drum-Time, which opens with a startling earthquake and centers an 1850s community of native Sámi reindeer herders in the Scandinavian Arctic. Then, Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd asks journalist John Vaillant about Fire Weather, which covers the 2016 wildfires in Fort McMurray, Canada.
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How Indian migrant workers escaped human trafficking in Mississippi Nov 30, 2023

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Today's episode is a true story that reads like a novel. In 2006, author and labor organizer Saket Soni received a call from an Indian migrant worker. He was one of hundreds of men hired by Signal International to fix hurricane-ravaged oil rigs in Mississippi and asked to pay $20,000 under the impression it would go towards green card expenses. But as Soni explains in his new book, The Great Escape, that was far from the truth. He tells Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes about the harsh conditions workers were forced to live in, and how they eventually marched all the way to D.C. to demand justice.
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Patricia Park's new YA novel captures the complexities of race and adolescence Nov 29, 2023

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Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim follows a Korean-Argentinian teen's journey to understanding who she is. Through the comfort of her multicultural home in Queens to the hallways of her ultra-woke, elite prep school in Manhattan, Alejandra grapples with academics, the politics of school lunch, and even a microaggression from her own teacher. As author Patricia Park tells Here & Now's Robin Young, it's a story about how quickly the world is changing – and how conversations about race are, or aren't, keeping up.
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Stephen Buoro's comic novel follows a young Nigerian man's obsession with whiteness Nov 28, 2023

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The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro is one of our favorite books of 2023. It focuses on a 15-year-old boy, Andy Aziza, who lives in Kontagora and uses the framework of superheroes and villains to grapple with the systemic issues in his home country of Nigeria and the African continent as a whole. In today's episode, Buoro speaks with NPR's Camila Domonoske about his protagonist's difficult feelings about his identity and country of origin, and how he balances the darkness of postcolonial violence with light-hearted, teenage issues like high school crushes.
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'Burn It Down' exposes discrimination and toxicity behind the scenes in Hollywood Nov 27, 2023

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As Hollywood was warming up for a summer of labor strikes a few months ago, Vanity Fair's Maureen Ryan came out with a new book, Burn It Down, that exposed a lot of the abuses many writers, actors and crew members were coming forth about. When the book first published, Ryan spoke with NPR's Eric Deggans about how the set of Lost became a centerpiece of her research, and how her own experience speaking out about assault at the hands of a TV executive shaped her ability to report highly sensitive stories.
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'Loot' traces the love, war and art that shaped India's colonial history Nov 25, 2023

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In her new novel Loot, Tania James writes of a 17-year-old woodworker who's commissioned to build a tiger automaton for the Indian ruler Tipu Sultan in the 18th century. The story is inspired by the real-life Tippoo's Tiger, one of the most famous sculptures in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. James' tale of colonization, war, love and art stretches across India and Europe – and as she tells NPR's Ari Shapiro, it continues to raise questions about historical artifacts and who should own them.
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