Jasper Fforde
Three separate interviews in which Jasper Fforde discusses the Thursday Next series, his Nursery Crime novels and Shades of Grey, the first in a trilogy set in a future world recognizable as our own - but only just.
Abraham Verghese
An interview with Abraham Verghese about his life and writing and in particular about his extraordinary 2009 novel Cutting for Stone, set in 1960s and '70s Ethiopia and 1980s New York.
Martha A Sandweiss
An interview with Martha Sandweiss in which she discusses her book Passing Strange, a biography of Clarence King who lived a double life—as the celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter named James Todd, married to Ada with whom he had five children.
Amy Greene
Amy Greene talks about her first novel, Bloodroot, which brings her native Appalachia—and the faith and fury of its people—to rich and vivid life.
It was just after dusk when the accident happened. As
usual, Jack Perdu was walking through theYale University
campus with his nose buried in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Although he was only in the ninth grade, he had an afterschool
job helping the head of the university’s Classics
department on her new English translation. It was the day
after Christmas so there were no professors around, which
meant that there was no reason for Jack to look up out of
his book. But suddenly he heard a shout.
“Hey, Jack!”
Jack stopped walking and looked up. A girl in a
puffy blue parka was running toward him across the
brick walkway between the Yale library and Elm Street.
Her hair was in braids, and she was frantically waving
at him.
“It’s Tanya,” she panted when she reached him.“I’m in
your English class.”
“Oh,” said Jack. He knew who she was, but, like most
of the kids at Hyde Leadership High School, she’d never
spoken to him before.
“I was just going to the store to return this pair of
pants my mother got me for Christmas,” she explained,
pulling a pair of brown corduroys out of a plastic bag.
“They’re pretty awful, aren’t they?”
Jack, who was wearing a pair of pants very much like
them, didn’t say anything. Tanya didn’t seem to notice.
“Anyway, I can’t remember what book we’re supposed to
read over break.When I saw you, I knew you’d know.”
“Of Mice and Men,” said Jack.
Tanya grinned. “I bet you’ve read it already.”
Jack gave a noncommittal shrug. He’d actually read it
a few years earlier.
“You live here, right?” Tanya pointed vaguely at the
stone residential colleges, which surrounded the walkway
on either side.
Jack nodded.
“And let me guess, your dad’s a professor?”
“He’s the chair of the Archeology department.”
Tanya smiled. “That’s why you’re so smart.You know
every poem in class before we even read it.”
“Not really,” he murmured, though he usually did.
“Is your mom a professor too?”
Jack shivered and pulled his cap tighter over his unruly
thatch of hair.“No,” he said.“She’s dead.”
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” said Tanya.
“It’s okay. It happened a long time ago. I was six.”
Tanya’s eyes widened.“What happened?”
Jack looked around her for an escape route.“A scaffold
fell on her in New York City,” he murmured. “It was a
windy day.”
“That’s horrible!”
“It happened a long time ago,” he repeated. Eight years
ago this month, he thought, but didn’t say it. He looked
down at the book in his hands.
“What are you reading? It doesn’t look like the Mice
and Men book.”
Jack held up the book so she could see the spine.
“Metamorphoses.” Tanya wrinkled her nose. “Is that a
book about insects or something?”
“It’s a book of Greek myths.”
Tanya shook her head.“You’re too smart to be in high
school, Jack. You should be a professor or something
yourself.”
“I’ve got to go,” he said. And before she had a chance
to say anything else, he flipped open the Metamorphoses
and started walking toward Elm Street. He’d heard it all
before.
As he hurried away, Jack focused on how to properly
translate the Latin word occidit. He had just started Book
Ten of the Metamorphoses, which contained his favorite
myth, the story of the musician Orpheus. After a snakebite
kills his bride, Eurydice, Orpheus descends into the
underworld to bring her back. Jack had gotten as far as
the snake attack, after which Eurydice occidit. Occidit could
mean that the snake “killed her” or “cut her down,” but it
could also mean that she “perished.” Some people might
not think there’s much of a difference between these possibilities,
but Jack did. You could perish in an accident
and no one is to blame. But when you’re killed, a killer—
in Eurydice’s case, the snake—is at fault.
Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies—of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss—that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.
Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. But her mother is in rehab, and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. And when a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, her already-worn thread of faith begins to unravel.
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in Norfolk. But when a child's bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, and Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help, Ruth finds herself in...
Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole –and the grown woman whose story is no less...
The Coral Thief, as riveting and beautifully rendered as Ghostwalk, Rebecca Stott’s first novel, is a provocative and tantalizing mix of history, philosophy, and suspense. It conjures up vividly both the feats of Napoleon and the accomplishments of those working without fame or...
I rarely read anything before this. Years ago I picked this one up and couldn't put it down. It changed me into a book nut. It was a wonderful ...
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I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. Shame on me. This book was wonderful, lyrical, entertaining - all the makings of a wonderful ...
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The book held so much for the reader but in the end I felt robbed. The evolution of Trudy was disturbing and somewhat insulting. She came across as ...
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Justice Department still has issues with Google Settlement(Feb 05 2010) The Department of Justice dealt a serious blow Thursday evening to the chances that the Google Book Search settlement will gain court approval later this...
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Hachette formally adopts 'agency model'(Feb 05 2010) Hachette Book Group USA became the second major U.S. publisher to officially announce its intention to move to an agency model for the sale of e-books....
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