A 10-year-old girl, Louisa, and her father take a walk on breakwater in Japan, where her family is living. Louisa is later found on a beach – her father has disappeared. She and her mother are left on their own – but the tragedy doesn't bring them closer together, at least for a long time. Susan Choi's new novel Flashlight follows this family across generations and a vast historical expanse. In today's episode, Choi speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about why her protagonist fends off love, her interest in the historical tensions between Korea and Japan, and the benefit of writing in chronological order.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayNotes: include dig reviews; past books covered on NPR; any author profiles.
.The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
This episode was originally released in 2016 in the days after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It is re-released every year on the anniversary of the incident.
If you are listening to me speak these words and can understand what I’m saying, then you are a human being. If you are a human being, you are also a mammal, and if you are a mammal, you have hair….or at least the biological capability to produce hair.
But why exactly do we have hair? What function does it serve? Why do we have less than other animals? And why do people have different types of hair?
Learn more about hair, what it does, and how it works on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
The North American prairie is home to bison, elk, wolves and bald eagles – and it's disappearing at a rapid rate. In their new book Sea of Grass, writers Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty chronicle the forces behind the loss of this ecosystem. In today's episode, they join Here & Now's Chris Bentley at a prairie outside of Chicago for a conversation about their research. They discuss the innovations in industrial agriculture that have transformed the prairie to farmland, the ecological consequences of that change, and what could be done to restore parts of the prairie.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
In the year 1800, the last year of the 18th century, the world was on the precipice of radical change.
The scientific revolution, the agricultural revolution, and the industrial revolution had all begun, but were yet to hit full swing.
There were also literal revolutions afoot. Countries began overthrowing their leaders or colonial masters, a trend which would only continue in the next century.
Learn more about the world in the year 1800 on the 1,800th episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Yrsa Daley-Ward's new novel The Catch has a mind-bending premise. Clara and Dempsey are twin sisters raised separately after their mother's mysterious death. Then, on their 30th birthday, Clara swears she sees her mom on a city bus. But there's a catch: Her mom is the same age as the twins – 30. In today's episode, Daley-Ward speaks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about what happens when we desperately want something to be true. They discuss writing as a kind of wish-fulfillment, the book's dedication to readers who have lost a parent, and Well-Read Black Girl's new publishing imprint.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday