Religion & Spirituality

Apelfeld is a Holocaust survivor; his family was sent to a concentration camp, despite their being non-practicing Jews. This history informs much of Apelfeld's work, including his new novel, For Every Sin.

Spiegelman edits the underground comics magazine Raw. He is best known for graphic novel Maus, about his father's experiences in Nazi concentration camps, which was widely celebrated. Raw recently featured a new chapters in that story.

Author Philip Roth was in part responsible for getting the Czech novelists Life with a Star translated into English and published stateside. Book critic John Leonard says it stands out among the myriad, Kafka-esque books about the Holocaust.

Novelist Taghi Modarressi. His new novel, The Pilgrim's Rules of Etiquette, is set in Iran after the Islamic revolution. It revolves around an aging academic, well acquainted with the ways and mores of the West, and his family and friends as they deal with the fear and poverty during the Iran-Iraq War. But when his prize student is killed at the front, the academic, who until now has closeted himself away with his philosophical pursuits, must acknowledge the meaninglessness of his efforts when compared to the chaos of contemporary Iran.

Physicist James Trefil. His writings have been praised for bringing the complexities of modern science to the general reader. One of his best-known books, Meditations At Sunset, won wide praise for his ability to explain the wonders of the physical world in ways the layman can comprehend. His other books include The Moment of Creation and Meditations at 10,000 Feet. His latest book, Reading The Mind of God, explores the sequence of events that led to the discovery of universality - the principle that the laws of nature on earth apply throughout the universe.

Novelist, essayist, and reporter Barbara Grizutti Harrison. Her new book is called "Italian Days." It's a chronicle of her travels through Italy, but it's also more introspective, influenced by her parents Italian heritage and her conversion to Catholicism after a childhood spent in the Jehovah's Witnesses.

NFL referee Jerry Markbreit (MARK-brite). His book, Born To Referee, is an inside look at the world of football through the eyes of a referee. Markbreit began calling the shots at high school games and made his way up to the pros.

Writer Saul Bellow. His short stories and novels have won him three National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize. His newest novel is "The Bellarosa Connection," a story about the meaning of memory.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Saul Bellow's new book, "The Bellarosa Connection."

Violinist Shlomo Mintz. Mintz was born in Moscow and emigrated with his family two years later to Israel. He made his concerto debut at age 11 with Zubin Mehta, and has continued to appear with Mehta each season since. Mintz is considered one of the foremost violinists of this generation.

Historian and author Frederic Morton. Morton's new book is "Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914." In it, Morton examines that city on the eve of the First World War. Book critic John Leonard described the mix of intellectualism, arts, and political intrigue going on in Vienna at that time as "waltzing on the edge of the abyss." Morton's previous book, "A Nervous Splendor," looked at Vienna in 1888 and '89.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews an English translation of the novel, "The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman," by Polish writer Andrzej Szczypiorski. Although it was a bestseller in Europe, the novel was banned in Poland because of the writer's involvement with Solidarity. With the recent political changes, Szczypiorski's book is now published in Poland and in July he was elected to the Polish Senate.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Labyrinth of Exile," Ernst Pawel's (pronounced "Powell") biography of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionist movement.

Writer Stefan Kanfer. Kanfer's latest book is called "A Summer World: The Attempt to Build a Jewish Eden in the Catskills, from the Days of the Ghetto to the Rise and Decline of the Borscht Belt." The Borsht Belt nurtured a generation of comics and defined a culture. Kanfer talks about the lives of the people who frequented the Catskill resorts, and the reason those resorts are now in decline.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan shares her thoughts on David Lodge's "Souls and Bodies."

Filmmaker Robert Young. Young's new movie, "Triumph of the Spirit," tells the true-life story of a young fighter who was imprisoned at Auschwitz during the Second World War. While being held there, the Nazis forced him to box other prisoners, the loser being sent to the death ovens. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Robert Loggia, and Edward James Olmos. Young's earlier credits include "Dominick and Eugene" and "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez."

Spiritual teacher RAM DASS. Ram Dass' book, "Be Here Now," was a widely used spiritual guide during the early 70s. Ram Dass followed that book up with several others, among them "The Only Dance There Is" and "How Can I Help?" Ram Dass started out as Harvard professor Richard Alpert. While at Harvard in the early 60s, Alpert joined with Timothy Leary and others in the early psychedelic experiments. That led him to investigations of meditation and spiritual practices.

Writer Judith Miller. She's deputy media editor of The New York Times and author of the new book, "One, by One, by One: Facing the Holocaust." Miller visited six countries (including the U.S.) to examine how the Holocaust is remembered. (published by Simon & Schuster)

Comedian David Brenner. He's written a new book about the pitfalls of traveling.

Clarinetist Don Byron. Byron's black, but he plays klezmer, the music created from the mixture of American jazz and European jewish culture. Byron's an alumnus of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and he performs on a new anthology album called "Live At The Knitting Factory." It's on A&M records.