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  • Liane Moriarty on her novel 'Here One Moment' and on writing 'women's fiction'
    2025/07/16
    In Liane Moriarty's Here One Moment, a woman on a flight from Tasmania to Sydney, Australia looks around at her fellow passengers and reveals how each of them will die. Moriarty says the idea for the novel – which is now out in paperback – came to her during a time when she was contemplating her own mortality. In today's episode, the author speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about putting her characters in difficult situations and being known as an author of women's fiction.

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    12 分
  • 'The Last Sweet Bite' is a cookbook that documents the way conflict changes cuisine
    2025/07/15
    Michael Shaikh's The Last Sweet Bite is filled with recipes, but it's also a document that reflects the way conflict alters cuisine. The project, which blends travel writing, memoir and the traditional cookbook structure, profiles six regions impacted by war, violence and genocide. In today's episode, Shaikh joins NPR's Leila Fadel for a conversation that touches on how he went from covering human rights abuses in conflict zones to creating this non-traditional cookbook.

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    8 分
  • In Ann Patchett's latest, a mother tells her daughters about a seminal summer
    2025/07/14
    The author Ann Patchett has talked about her decision to focus on her writing and to forgo entering the world of motherhood. But in her latest book, Tom Lake, the main character Lara made a different choice: She chose being a mother over pursuing acting and the fame that may have come with it. In today's episode, Patchett speaks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the decision to make Lara a mother who is reveling in time spent with her daughters, sharing the tale of one seminal summer before they were born.

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    9 分
  • New books ask how we can protect threatened land in the Amazon rainforest and Hawaii
    2025/07/11
    Two new books ask how we might protect vulnerable ecosystems in the Amazon rainforest and Hawaii. First, journalist Dom Phillips was reporting in the Amazon when he and a colleague were shot and killed. Phillips was in the middle of writing a book – and now, that project, How to Save the Amazon, has been completed by his widow and a team of contributors. In today's episode, Alessandra Sampaio, Phillip's widow, and co-author Jonathan Watts join NPR's Ari Shapiro to discuss the challenges they faced in completing the book. Then, Sara Kehaulani Goo's new book, Kuleana, chronicles her family's effort to hold onto ancestral land in Hawaii. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about her own complex relationship with Hawaii and what tourists might consider before they visit.

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    17 分
  • With novel 'Among Friends,' Hal Ebbott says he wanted to take friendship seriously
    2025/07/10
    In Hal Ebbott's debut novel, Among Friends, two wealthy New York families are spending a weekend in the country. They've gotten together for decades – but one act ruptures their close ties. In today's episode, Ebbott tells Here & Now's Asma Khalid that he's drawn to story premises where a lot happens in a tightly-contained space. They also discuss Ebbott's interest in writing about an event's aftermath more than the event itself, his decision to write a world where marriage orbits friendship, and how he landed on the book's ending.

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    11 分
  • David Litt's new memoir is about finding common ground through surfing
    2025/07/09
    Former Obama speechwriter David Litt and his brother-in-law, Matt, couldn't be more different. But during the pandemic, Matt taught Litt how to surf. The time they spent together out on the water created what Litt refers to as "neutral ground" – a space that isn't coded as liberal or conservative. In today's episode, Litt speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about his new memoir, It's Only Drowning. They discuss the way surfing changed Litt's approach to fear, political discussions, and his perceptions of Matt.

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    9 分
  • In the new speculative novel 'Weepers,' mourning is outsourced to professionals
    2025/07/08
    In Peter Mendelsund's novel Weepers, many in the world are concerned they'll be replaced by smart machines. But a cowboy poet named Ed has found work in the American Southwest. He's a professional weeper, part of a group of union workers hired to mourn at funerals. In today's episode, Mendelsund tells NPR's Scott Simon that the novel was inspired, in part, by the author's own experience with depression and "oversensitivity."

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    8 分
  • Ten years later, Ta-Nehisi Coates says 'Between the World and Me' is no longer his
    2025/07/07
    Ten years ago, Ta-Nehisi Coates published Between the World and Me, written as a letter to his then-15-year-old son. The book was released shortly after a shooting at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston left nine people dead – and it became a literary phenomenon as many Americans searched for answers about the state of race relations in the United States. In today's episode, Coates reflects on the 10 year anniversary of Between the World and Me. He speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about the book's dedication, efforts to ban his work, and the role of writers in the public sphere.

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    8 分