John Powers reviews the author's memoir of his time in hiding — the result of a fatwah calling for his murder after the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Waging Heavy Peace is about his music, raising two sons with special needs, and his own medical conditions, which have included polio, epilepsy and a brain aneurysm.
Showtime's Homeland, which swept this year's Emmy Awards, returns this weekend -- as does another Showtime drama, Dexter. Critic David Bianculli says there's a rich bounty of returning series -- and Homeland is the "most topical and meaningful drama on television."
Frances Ashcroft's new book details how electricity in the body fuels everything we thing, feel or do. She tells Fresh Air about discover a new protein, how scientists are like novelists and how she wanted to be a farmer's wife.
Rian Johnson's action-thriller can't dodge the frustrating elements of most time-travel tales, but the film's characters, performances and stylization add up to an experience that critic David Edelstein believes is the right amount of happy and tragic.
The Oscar-nominated actress plays the forbidding wife of a cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. She tells Fresh Air it was an opportunity to play a character type she'd never played before.
In his first novel, J.R. Moehringer writes from the point of view of Willie Sutton, whom he calls the "greatest American robber." Moehringer says writing historical fiction helped him deal with the anger he felt toward banks after the global financial crisis in 2008.
The freewheeling saxophonist and his small group from the 1970s came together for a live concert in 2007 -- their first together in more than two decades. Now, a recording has been posthumously released on CD, and critic Kevin Whitehead says it's like they never went away.
The actress played Kelly Kapoor on The Office, a role she also wrote and produced. Now she runs a new Fox comedy, The Mindy Project, in which she stars as an obstetrician whose personal life is a mess. Kaling tells Fresh Air that her late mother inspired her character's career.
Charles Rowan Beye has been married three times -- to two women and a man. Now, over age 80, he looks back on his life and asks, "What was that all about?" Critic Maureen Corrigan says Beye's memoir, subtitled "A Gay Man's Odyssey," is a complex, poignant addition to the sexual canon.
The Analog Players Society provides some of the best evidence since the rise of Vampire Weekend that formerly exotic international music -- particularly African rhythms and accents -- has become an everyday part of modern popular tunes.
Ken Tucker says that Charmer is a song cycle about getting rid of a cynical frame of mind; about distancing yourself from people who are dragging you down.
Journalist Robert Draper's article for The Atlantic traces how the redistricting process has been manipulated for electoral gain. It has created increasingly solid Republican or Democratic congressional districts, which has led to more representatives who are unwilling to compromise, Draper tells Fresh Air.
Writer-director Stephen Chbosky brings his 1999 young adult novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower to the screen. Critic David Edelstein says the result may be better than the book -- a project that communicates the trials of high school in a way that is both painful and elating.
In his new book, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind, author David Cay Johnston examines the fees that companies have added over the years that have made bills incrementally larger. He tells Fresh Air that companies are misusing language to "confuse people."
The Scottish actress plays Margaret Thompson, a young Irish widow who marries a corrupt politician on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. MacDonald, who got her start in Trainspotting, tells Fresh Air that she enjoys playing a "strong character" for a change.
Susanna Moore tells the sage of an ambitious girl, a family's artistic fortune and a world at war. Young heroine Beatrice Palmer is whisked off to Berlin where she is put to work packing up priceless artwork in a wealthy family's mansion.
In his new book, Doug Saunders says there are those who believe immigration and high birth rates will make Muslims a majority in Europe in coming decades -- and their hostility to Western values makes them a threat. Saunders tells Fresh Air that such fears are based on inaccurate assertions of fact.
