New Books Network

Literature May 10, 2022

Lea

Ariela Freedman

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Lea Roback was a feminist and labor activist who was raised in a large Jewish family in Quebec, Canada. In the novel Lea (Linda Leith Publishing, 2022), Ariela Freedman describes a …

Historical Fiction May 3, 2022

Murder on the Sea Witch

A Redmond and Haze Mystery Book 7

Irina Shapiro

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Jason Redmond, a US Civil War surgeon, never expected to step into his father’s shoes as the heir to an English earldom. When he first shows up to claim his …

Asian Review of Books April 28, 2022

Too Far from Antibes

Bede Scott

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Jean-Luc Guéry is a man down on his luck. Middling journalist, gambling addict, alcoholic. Yet when news of his brother’s murder in Saigon reach him in France, Guéry drops everything …

Recall This Book April 21, 2022

Madeline Miller on Circe (GT, JP)

Madeline Miller

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

In this rebroadcast, John and Brandeis neuroscientist Gina Turrigiano (an occasional host and perennial friend of Recall this Book) speak with Madeline Miller, author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Circe …

Literature April 19, 2022

The Lamps of Albarracin

Edith Saavedra

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

The Lamps of Albarracin tells the story of Sarita, who looks back on her life before and after the Inquisition arrived in her town. It’s 15th century Spain, and Sarita …

Think About It April 18, 2022

Ardythe Ashley on Oscar Wilde

Book Talk 51

Ardythe Ashley

Hosted by Uli Baer

Secretly his unconscious body, still flickering with life, is spirited away by to an island monastery in the Venetian lagoon where he recovers his health and joie de vivre. From …

Historical Fiction April 11, 2022

Danger on the Atlantic

Erica Ruth Neubauer

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

From the years leading up to and into the French Revolution, we move forward in time to 1926. In Danger on the Atlantic (Kensington Publishing, 2022), Jane Wunderly, who left her home …

Literature March 29, 2022

River Aria

Joan Schweighardt

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Today I talked to Joan Schweighardt about her novel River Aria (Five Directions Press, 2020). It’s 1928 and Estela Euquério Hopper, of Manaus, Brazil, is the star vocal pupil of a world-renowned …

Literature March 28, 2022

The Last Professional

Ed Davis

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

This is a story of America! Lynden Hoover, a young man on the brink of a new beginning, cannot embrace it without confronting the traumas of his past. Help …

Historical Fiction March 22, 2022

The School of Mirrors

Eva Stachniak

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

France in 1755 is a country of extremes. The streets of Paris are filled with the poor and downtrodden, whereas just a few miles away lies the Palace of Versailles …

Literature March 22, 2022

The Benefits of Eating White Folks

Leslie T. Grover

Hosted by Yakir Englander

Today I talked to Leslie T. Grover about her book The Benefits of Eating White Folks (Jaded Ibis Press, 2022). The Sickness, a disease with unknown origins, is killing white children in …

Historical Fiction March 14, 2022

I Must Betray You

Ruta Sepetys

Hosted by Ian Drake

Ruta Sepetys is an acclaimed “crossover” author (read by both young people and adults) of historical novels. In her latest novel I Must Betray You (Philomel Books, 2022) published by Philomel …

Historical Fiction March 11, 2022

Murder in the Cloister

Tania Bayard

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

There is a great temptation, when writing about the past, to sanitize its circumstances and attitudes to make the characters more palatable to present-day readers. Tania Bayard, who has written …

Historical Fiction February 25, 2022

The Last Grand Duchess

A Novel

Bryn Turnbull

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Interest in the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 has only increased since the centenary of the Romanovs’ assassination in 1918. Bryn Turnbull tackles this familiar story …

Novel Dialogue February 17, 2022

Promises Unkept

Damon Galgut with Andrew van der Vlies

Damon Galgut and Andrew van der Vlies

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Guest host Chris Holmes sits down with Booker Prize winning novelist Damon Galgut and Andrew van der Vlies, distinguished scholar of South African literature and global modernisms at the University …

Historical Fiction February 11, 2022

An Impossible Impostor

Deanna Raybourn

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Starting a new historical mystery series is always fun, but summarizing one at book 7 creates a certain conundrum: how to convey the essence of a character and her development …

Literature February 8, 2022

In the Shadow of Dora

A Novel of the Holocaust and the Apollo Program

Patrick Hicks

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

In the Shadow of Dora by Patrick Hicks (Stephen F. Austin University Press 2020) explores the space program’s path from the Dora Mittelbau concentration camp in 1940’s Nazi Germany, to …

Novel Dialogue February 3, 2022

On Being Unmoored

Chang-rae Lee Charts Fiction with Anne Anlin Cheng

Chang-rae Lee and Anne Anlin Cheng

Hosted by Aarthi Vadde and John Plotz

Season three of Novel Dialogue launches in partnership with Public Books and introduces some fresh new voices into the mix. John and Aarthi welcome Chris Holmes, Emily Hyde, Tara Menon …

Recall This Book January 20, 2022

Caryl Phillips Speaks with Corina Stan

Caryl Phillips and Corina Stan

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

Our second January Novel Dialogue conversation is with Caryl Phillips, professor of English at Yale and world-renowned for novels ranging from The Final Passage to 2018’s A View of the …

Historical Fiction January 5, 2022

Sunday's Orphan

Catherine Gentile

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Even for someone trained from birth to manage a farm, stepping into an inheritance at the age of twenty is not easy. Yet this is the situation facing Promise Mears …