Category: 3-BookTalkSometimeCommentary

James Ellroy discusses his novel American Tabloid with Harriett Gilbert and an invited audience.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Meghan O'Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and Troy Patterson compare two versions of a story by Raymond Carver - "The Bath," and "A Small Good Thing." One version was heavily edited by Gordon Lish. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the stories before listening to this audio program

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Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed Egyptian writer Alaa Al-Aswany about his bestselling novel The Yacoubian Building.

It was the Arab world’s number-one bestseller for five years running after it was published in 2002.

The Yacoubian Building interweaves the stories of a group of diverse characters who live and work in downtown Cairo.

A moving study of politics and power, sex and revenge - centred on the apartment building - the Yacoubian building, which still stands in Cairo today.

The novel offers a compelling yet daringly scathing portrayal of modern Egypt since the Revolution of 1952.

Meghan O’Rourke, Michael Agger, and Troy Patterson discuss Nicholson Baker's book, The Anthologist. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

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Half a century on from its first publication, G�nter Grass will be talking about The Tin Drum from his home in Lubeck, Germany.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Stephen Metcalf, Troy Patterson, and James Ryerson discuss J.D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

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Slate's Audio Book Club. Meghan O'Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and guest Laura Kipnis discuss Cristina Nehring's "A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century." We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program

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Slate's Audio Book Club. Meghan O'Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and Troy Patterson discuss Gay Talese's "Thy Neighbor's Wife." We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program

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This month Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed American writer Lionel Shriver.

Her prizewinning novel, We Need to Talk about Kevin, is the profoundly disturbing story of a boy who, shortly before his 16th birthday, kills seven classmates in a high school massacre.

Grippingly but unreliably narrated through the letters from his mother to his absent father, the novel raises questions about culpability, the limits of maternal love and the nature of evil itself.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Meghan O'Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and Troy Patterson discuss two short stories - John Cheever's 'The Swimmer,' and Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man is Hard To Find.' We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

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