Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews : NPR (2024)

Nickolai Hammar/NPR

Watch: Salman Rushdie on the moment he was attacked on stage, and why he felt lonely

April 17, 2024 • Salman Rushdie is a storyteller. So when you ask him to describe the day, in 2022, when he was attacked and nearly killed by a young man with a knife, Rushdie paints a vivid picture.

Katie Currid for NPR

An immersive museum in Kansas City allows kids to explore their favorite books

April 17, 2024 • A new museum in Kansas City is designed for kids to be immersed in their favorite books, including classics like Goodnight Moon.

PEN America

Report: Last year ended with a surge in book bans

April 16, 2024 • According to PEN America, 4,349 books were banned from schools between July and December 2023, more than the entire previous school year. More than 3,000 of those bans were in Florida.

Elsa/Getty Images

'Lucky Girl' is the global journey of a Paralympic medalist

April 16, 2024 • In the book, Lucky Girl, Paralympic medalist Scout Bassett says she felt lost until she found running.

Atria Books

It's a wild ride to get to the bottom of what everyone's hiding in 'A Better World'

April 16, 2024 • A very sinister thriller with a dash of science-fiction and full of inscrutabilities, Sarah Langan's novel is as entreating and creepy as it is timely and humane.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths/Penguin Random House

Two nights before the attack, Salman Rushdie dreamed he was stabbed onstage

Fresh Air

April 16, 2024 • Rushdie was onstage at a literary event in 2022 when he was attacked by a man in the audience: "Dying in the company of strangers — that was what was going through my mind." His new book is Knife.

W. W. Norton & Company

Why Patricia Highsmith's most famous creature, Tom Ripley, continues to fascinate

April 15, 2024 • Sinister and visually stunning, the new Netflix series Ripley reminds us why Patricia Highsmith's book The Talented Mr. Ripley continues to influence popular culture.

Random House

5 takeaways from Salman Rushdie's new memoir 'Knife'

April 15, 2024 • Nearly two years after the renowned author was stabbed on stage in Chautauqua, N.Y., Rushdie's new memoir unpacks everything he's been feeling since the attack.

Juleus Ghunta

Growing up, he struggled to read. Then a young teacher saw his potential

April 15, 2024 • Juleus Ghunta is a published children's author and award-winning poet. But growing up, he could barely read. That was until a teacher saw his potential.

Luke Medina/NPR

Books We Love: Love And Romance

April 15, 2024 • NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you're looking for. From the meet cutes to the happy endings and through all the ups and downs in between, we're recommending great books for people who love love and romance.

Celadon Books

In 'Like Happiness,' a woman struggles to define a past, destructive relationship

April 12, 2024 • Ursula Villarreal-Moura's debut novel movingly portrays its protagonist coming to terms with an imbalanced, difficult, and sometimes harmful friendship that was also a key part of her life for years.

Flatiron Books

'The Familiar' is a romance, coming-of-age tale, and a story about fighting for more

April 11, 2024 • In her new novel, Leigh Bardugo drags readers into a world of servitude, magic, power struggles, and intrigue — one where there isn't a single character that doesn't have a secret agenda.

Excerpts from the works of the 2024 Whiting award winners

April 10, 2024 • The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

The Whiting Foundation

10 writers win 2024 Whiting Awards for emerging authors

April 10, 2024 • Each writer will receive $50,000 to help support their craft — one of largest awards granted to new authors.

Penguin Random House

Seizures, broken spines and vomiting: Scientific testing that helped facilitate D-Day

Fresh Air

April 10, 2024 • Biomedical engineer Rachel Lance says British scientists submitted themselves to experiments that would be considered wildly unethical today in an effort to shore up the war effort.

Kaitlyn Mikayla/Simon & Schuster

'Magical Overthinking' author says information overload can stoke irrational thoughts

Fresh Air

April 9, 2024 • Author and podcast host Amanda Montell says our brains are overloaded with a constant stream of information that stokes our innate tendency to believe conspiracy theories and mysticism.

NPR

International Booker Prize shortlist for 2024 spans three continents

April 9, 2024 • The International Booker Prize celebrates fiction that's been translated into English. This year's shortlist, announced Tuesday morning, features books in six languages from three continents.

McClelland & Stewart/Random House/Doubleday Canada/SJP Lit

One of these novelists will receive the $150K Carol Shields Prize

April 9, 2024 • The shortlist for the Carol Shields Prize was announced Tuesday morning. The award recognizes "creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States."

Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images

A guide to Stephen King

April 9, 2024 • Stephen King is one of the most successful living writers. He's written more than 50 books that have sold hundreds of millions of copies. And his works have been adapted into a number of classic films, including The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, and It. This month marks the 50th anniversary of his first novel, Carrie, so we are revisiting our guide to Stephen King.

Francisco Seco/AP

Isabel Allende tells a story of impossible love in 'Lovers at the Museum'

April 8, 2024 • We spoke with the prolific, 81-year-old author about her new short story — a powerful allegory of the human condition and the mystery of love — and also AI and what's she's working on now.

John Barth, innovative postmodernist novelist, dies at 93

April 3, 2024 • John Barth, the playfully erudite author whose darkly comic and complicated novels revolved around the art of literature and launched countless debates over the art of fiction, died Tuesday.