News on Books

Writer Anthony Veasna So was a rising figure in the literary scene until he died in December. His stories captured the fullness of queer, Cambodian American life.

It's a particular pleasure to see our splintered country through the eyes of Margarita Gokun Silver, a determined and appreciative emigree, in 'I Named My Dog Pushkin.'

Maggie Smith's new poetry collection considers the human tendency to search for universal truths — but she looks for those truths in things we can see every day, as ordinary as rosebushes and rocks.

"Being Clem," the final book in the YA "Finding Langston" trilogy, follows a young boy during World War II after his father is killed. Scott Simon talks with author Lesa Cline-Ransome about it.

Scott Simon speaks with Claire Luchette about their debut novel, "Agatha of Little Neon." It's the story of four young nuns who are reassigned to a half-way house in Rhode Island.

Sometimes books can be a literal escape, not just a figurative one. Our critic Alethea Kontis recommends three fantasy novels that helped her along the way as she escaped an abusive relationship.

Six Crimson Cranes and The River Has Teeth — two new July YA novels — both focus on monstrous mothers and folkloric family magic. But apart from that, they couldn't be more different.

This summer, Code Switch is laser-focused on books that teach us about freedom. Today, we're in conversation with a romance novelist whose own identity helped inform a rich cast of characters.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with writer Jaime Lowe about her new book, Breathing Fire, which tells the stories of the incarcerated women who are part of California's wildfire crews.

William Gardner Smith wrote the story of a Black writer who, like Smith himself, moved to Paris to pursue a freedom he couldn't find in America. New York Review Books is releasing a new edition.