Category: 3-BookTalkSometimeCommentary

Troy Patterson, Jacob Weisberg, and John Swansburg discuss Hilary Mantel's book, Wolf Hall. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program

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John Boyne discusses his acclaimed novel 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' with Harriett Gilbert and an invited studio audience.

Meghan O’Rourke, Stephen Metcalf, and Troy Patterson discuss Don DeLillo's book, White Noise. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program

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Harriet Gilbert talks to Andrea Levy about Small Island, a heart-warming and tale of love and immigration during World War II.

Meghan O’Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and Troy Patterson discuss Mary Karr's memoir, Lit. 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 Indian writer Kiran Desai about her internationally bestselling work The Inheritance of Loss.

Winner of the Man Booker prize in 2006, Desai’s novel is a profoundly moving cross-continental saga that sweeps around the globe from the Himalayas to New York City to Cambridge in the UK.

Reflecting the author’s own Indian-American upbringing the novel interweaves the grand disruptions of politics with the domestic lives and loves of three memorable characters, the morose judge, his lovelorn granddaughter Sai and their devoted, long-suffering cook.

Meghan O’Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and Troy Patterson discuss Vladimir Nabokov's book, The Original of Laura. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

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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.