Category: 3-BookTalkSometimeCommentary

Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed Spanish writer and historian Javier Cercas about his haunting novel Soldiers of Salamis.

Internationally feted and winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2004, Soldiers of Salamis delves into the painful history of Spain's Civil War through the gripping, death-defying story of fascist soldier Sanchez Mazas.

In his meditation on the nature of heroism and humanity in war, of remembrance and forgetting after war, the narrator moves from cynical indifference through fascination to wholehearted empathy as the true hero of the story eventually emerges centre stage.

Slate’s Audio Book Club discusses Emma Donoghue’s Room, a best-selling novel about a 5-year-old boy raised by his mother in a shed where she has been held prisoner since before he was born.

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In Eat the Rich the inimitable American satirist P.J. O'Rourke tours the world trying to understand why some countries 'have' and some countries 'have not'.

He talks to Harriett Gilbert and answers questions about his book from a live studio audience and listeners around the world.

Hanna Rosin, Ann Hulbert, and Nina Shen Rastogi discuss Amy Chua's book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

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Harriett Gilbert talks to the acclaimed German writer Bernhard Schlink about his explosively controversial novel, The Reader, at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.

Made into an Oscar-winning Hollywood film with Kate Winslet The Reader tells of law student Michael Berg who, nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

Emily Bazelon, Hanna Rosin and Margaret Talbot discuss the new translation of Gustave Flaubert's nineteenth century French classic Madame Bovary. Relive your college days with this dissection of the original desperate housewife.

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Meghan O’Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Michael Agger  discuss Jaimy Gordon's book, Lord of Misrule. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

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Damon Galgut's internationally acclaimed novel is the story of an idealistic medical graduate who arrives at an isolated South African hospital to take up a year's community service.

Damon discusses his novel The Good Doctor, and answers questions from BBC World Service listeners around the world.

In this week’s gabfest, DoubleX's Emily Bazelon and Hanna Rosin, along with The New Yorker’s Margaret Talbot, discuss Nicole Krauss’ latest novel, Great House. They discuss why this novel is less light hearted than Krauss’ last one, The History of Love.

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

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