New Books Network Podcast

Historical Fiction November 21, 2023

The Winthrop Agreement

A Novel

Alice Simpson

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Rivkah Milman is just one of the thousands of young women who fled their homes in Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century, looking for better prospects in New York—where …

Literature November 14, 2023

Paradise Undone

A Novel of Jonestown

Annie Dawid

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

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Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown by Annie Dawid, (Inkspot Publishing 2023), opens long after 917 people died by drinking cyanide or by lethal injection on November 18, 1978. It’s …

Literature November 7, 2023

The Good Time Girls Get Famous

Kim Taylor Blakemore

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

K. T. Blakemore’s Wild-Willed Women of the West Series (The Good Time Girls and The Good Time Girls Get Famous) opens when Ruby Calhoun’s former dancehall partner Pip Quinn, shows …

Historical Fiction October 19, 2023

The Boy in the Rain

Stephanie Cowell

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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Robert Stillman, an eighteen-year-old Londoner, has few expectations when he travels to Nottingham to study with the Reverend George Langstaff. Life has not treated Robbie well recently: his mother’s death …

Literature October 11, 2023

Suleiman's Ring

A Novel

Sherif M. Meleka

Hosted by Tugrul Mende

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Today I talked to Sherif Meleka about his novel Suleiman’s Ring (Hoopoe, 2023) An enchanted ring brings good fortune to an Egyptian oud player in this compelling novel combining elements …

America and Beyond with Paul Starobin October 2, 2023

On the Secrets of Writing Historical Fiction

A Discussion with Burt Solomon, author of "The Murder of Andrew Johnson"

Burt Solomon

Hosted by Paul Starobin

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The Murder of Andrew Johnson (Forge, 2023) is the third in Burt Solomon’s John Hay Mystery trilogy. Our conversation explores the art and craft of writing historical fiction. What licenses …

Historical Fiction September 18, 2023

Harlem After Midnight

Louise Hare

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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After a tumultuous journey across the Atlantic (detailed in last year’s Miss Aldridge Regrets), Lena Aldridge has reached New York City only to discover that the Broadway show that lured …

Historical Fiction September 1, 2023

The Last Saxon King

A Jump in Time Novel (Book One)

Andrew Varga

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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Daniel Renfrew is a typical American sixteen-year-old. His main gripe when the story opens is that his dad insists on home schooling even though Daniel would much prefer attending the …

Literature August 31, 2023

Ravage & Son

Jerome Charyn

Hosted by Bob Batchelor

Ravage & Son (Bellevue Literary Press, 2023) by Jerome Charyn is a novel set in the Lower East Side of New York City in the early years of the twentieth …

Historical Fiction August 18, 2023

The Witch and the Tsar

Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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Any novel set in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533–1584) is an instant draw for me; that is, after all, the setting for most of my own …

Recall This Book August 3, 2023

Joshua Cohen’s "The Netanyahus" (JP, Eugene Sheppard)

Novel Dialogue Crossover

Joshua Cohen

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

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In this episode (originally aired by our partner Novel Dialogue) John and his Brandeis colleague Eugene Sheppard speak with Joshua Cohen about The Netanyahus. Is the 2021 novel a Pulitzer-winning …

Literature August 1, 2023

Kantika

A Novel

Elizabeth Graver

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

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Today I talked to Elizabeth Graver about her new novel Kantika (Metropolitan Books, 2023). Rebecca Cohen and her family live in Istanbul, until they lose all their wealth and are forced to …

Literature July 18, 2023

The Isolated Séance

Jeri Westerson

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

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Today I talked to Jeri Westerson about her book The Isolated Séance (Severn House, 2023). It’s 1895, and Tim Badger, who is quite familiar with the inside of a jail cell, and …

Historical Fiction July 17, 2023

Endpapers

Jennifer Savran Kelly

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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Today I talked to Jennifer Savran Kelly her new book Endpapers (Algonquin Books, 2023). Dawn Levit has reached a crossroads in life. What seemed like a stable relationship with a gay roommate is …

Literature July 4, 2023

Shadows We Carry

A Novel

Meryl Ain

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

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Meryl Ain's Shadows We Carry (Sparkspress, 2023) is a follow-up to the author’s 2020 novel, The Takeaway Men, focuses on fraternal twins Bronka and JoJo Lubinski, now in college and figuring …

Literature July 2, 2023

The Torqued Man

A Novel

Peter Mann

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

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Today I talked to Peter Mann about his book The Torqued Man (Harper Perennial, 2022). Berlin—September, 1945. Two manuscripts are found in rubble, each one narrating conflicting versions of the life of an …

Historical Fiction June 30, 2023

The Seeing Garden

Ginny Kubitz Moyer

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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Nineteen-year-old Catherine Ogden appears to have everything: youth, wealth, birth, breeding, and beauty. No one in New York high society is surprised when she attracts the attention of William Brandt …

Historical Fiction June 20, 2023

A Fatal Illusion

Anna Lee Huber

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

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A Fatal Illusion (Berkley Books, 2023)—the eleventh installment in Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby Mysteries featuring Kiera and Sebastian Gage—opens in Yorkshire in 1832. The two of them have come …

Academic Life June 15, 2023

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea

A Discussion with Debra Magpie Earling

Debra Magpie Earling

Hosted by Christina Gessler

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Today’s book is: The Lost Journals of Sacajewea (Milkweed Editions, 2023), by Debra Magpie Earling, which is a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea. Among the …

Literature June 9, 2023

Sisu's Winter War

Liisa Kovala

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Today I talked to Liisa Kovala about her new novel Sisu's Winter War (Latitude 46, 2022). Meri Saari made a promise to her dying mother she would keep the family together, but she …