Literary Figures: Novelists

When the main character in Laura Zigman's new comic novel is dumped, she looks for explanations in the mating habits of animals. Hence the unusual title of this novel, "Animal Husbandry." It's Zigman's first novel, but it's not her first experience in the publishing world. She worked as a book publicist for a decade.

Novelist Russell Banks and Canadian Film Director Atom Egoyan discuss their new film “The Sweet Hereafter”. The film is adapted from Banks’ 1991 novel. It’s the story of how a small town deals with a tragic school bus crash. Banks has written 12 novels which include: “Affliction,” “Rule of the Bone,” “Searching for Survivors,” “The Book of Jamaica,” and “Continental Drift.” Egoyan is best known for “Exotica” a film that won the International Critics Prize for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Humorist and writer Garrison Keillor. In his new book, "Wobegon Boy," (Viking) Keillo transports one of his characters from Lake Wobegon to manage an upstate New York public radio station. Keillor hosts "A Prairie Home Companion" on National Public Radio on Saturday evenings, and authored "Lake Wobegon Days, Leaving Home," and "The Book of Guys."

Writer John Updike. His new novel, "Toward the End of Time" (Knopf) is a chronicle of one man's life in America in the year 2020. Updike will read passages from the novel and answer questions posed by an audience in addition to the regular interview. Updike is the author of over forty volumes of work, and has received two Pulitzer prizes, the American Book Award, and two National Book Critic's Circle Awards. (Interview recorded at and for The Free Library of Philadelphia)

Author Don DeLillo on his new novel "Underworld." (Scribner) This 827-page work weaves in and out of the latter half of this century, incorporating modern icons such as Frank Sinatra, Lenny Bruce, and J. Edgar Hoover. The novel's first scene visits the Giant-Dodgers pennant game of October 3rd, 1951 -- also the date of the first nuclear test in the Soviet Union.

Poet, editor, and novelist Seamus Deane. His first novel, Reading in the Dark," (Knopf) came out earlier this year, a chronicle of a boy growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1950's. Deane recounts the story of a family haunted by a missing uncle and his tie to the greater Troubles surrounding them all. "Reading in the Dark" was short-listed for the United Kingdom's esteemed literary prize, the Booker. Deane is the editor of the Norton "Field Day Anthology," the definitive collection of Irish literature.

Novelist Paul Auster has written a new memoir about his struggling years as a young writer, "Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure" (Henry Holt). Auster has written eight novels, including "The New York Trilogy" and the screenplay for the film "Smoke."

Novelist Edmund White has just completed his semi-autobiographical trilogy. The new novel The Farewell Symphony (Knopf) focuses on gay life from the 1960’s to the present. His other books include A Boy’s Own Story,The Beautiful Room is Empty,Genet: A Biography, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, The Joy of Gay Sex, and Caracole.

Author Cheryl Pearl Sucher is the daughter of holocaust survivors. Her debut novel, The Rescue of Memory (Scribner), draws on her own experiences. It is about a young woman who must come to terms with the impact of the holocaust on her parents and her aunt, who were victims of the camps. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Novelist Arundhati Roy. Her popular novel "The God of Small Things" is being called obscene, and is in danger of being banned in India. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)