Books & Literature

The Russian poet Joseph Brodsky once said that prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. Our current lockdown can't be compared to being locked up, but with so much surplus time on our hands, many of us are eager for stories that will help us escape endless thoughts of COVID-19. Here are three that did that for me: Unorthodox, Baghdad Central, and Abigail.

It's hard to focus right now. So recommending a book can seem, well, out-of-touch. Unless, that is, the recommendation is for a novel that's so absorbing, so fully realized that it draws you out of your own constricted situation and expands your sense of possibilities. For me, over the past 10 days or so, the novel that's performed that act of deliverance has been The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel.

Lily King's new novel centers on a woman who's spent six years working on her own novel. It's a story of ambition — and what happens when the markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.

James McBride is best known for his memoir, The Color of Water, about being the son of an African American father and a white mother. His new novel, Deacon King Kong, takes place in 1969, in a Brooklyn housing project, similar to the one he grew up in., and involves the wide consequences of a shooting.

Erdrich's new novel, The Night Watchman, was inspired by her grandfather, who chaired the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and fought a Congressional initiative to move native people off their land.

Writer's block can be temporary — or it can be massive and long lasting. After her third short story collection, Honey, came out in 1993, Elizabeth Tallent fell victim to a rockfall, avalanche, total-impasse-of-the-imagination writer's block and didn't publish another book for 22 years.

In 2014, wilderness explorer Roman Dial experienced every parent's nightmare when he learned that his son, then 27, was missing in a remote Central American rainforest, thousands of miles away.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says this is the only dystopian novel she's ever read where images of doom and baseball diamonds co-exist.

Hotchner, who died Feb. 15, met the famed novelist in '48, and went on to adapt several of his works for TV. Hotchner's memoir, Papa Hemingway, detailed their friendship. Originally broadcast in 1999.

Deepa Anappara's debut novel defies characterization. Set in a sprawling Indian slum, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line centers on a trio of kids who venture out to look for a missing classmate.

Maureen Corrigan reviews a debut non-fiction book about the murder of two female hitchhikers in 1980.

Eilene Zimmerman's new book is about her ex-husband's death from the effects of cocaine and opiod addiction. He was a high powered, wealthy lawyer, and the father of two children. Until his death she didn't know about his addictions.

Amy Rigby was a sheltered Catholic teen from the Pittsburgh suburbs when she moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design and fell in love with the '70s punk scene.

Jones, who died Jan. 21, co-founded the British comedy troupe in 1969, and went on to direct and co-star in the 1979 Python film Life of Brian. Originally broadcast in 1987.

It was over a year ago that I began to hear off-the-charts recommendations from trusted booksellers about a novel called American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins. The novel's circle of admirers has since swelled to include the likes of Stephen King, Sandra Cisneros, John Grisham and Julia Alvarez.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new edition of collected novels by Jean Stafford. A collection of her short stories won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1970.

How the Trump and Kushner families immigrated to the U.S. and built their fortunes, a talk with Andrea Bernstein, author of American Oligarchs.

After writing about the lives of girls for decades, Peggy Orenstein, turns her attention to boys in the #Metoo era. Her new book is 'Boys and Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the new Masculinity.'

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. In 2016, Springsteen reflected on how he and his music were shaped by home, roots, family and community.

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. The Nobel Prize winner, who died in 2019, spoke about aging and regret in this 2015 interview.