NPR's Book of the Day Folgen

Today's episode is all about two books that find parallels across long stretches of time. First, an interview with Barbara Kingsolver and former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro about Kingsolver's novel Unsheltered, which finds striking similarities between an 18th century "utopian" community and 2016 America. Then, NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Daniel Mason about his novel North Woods, which follows the inhabitants of a plot of land across hundreds of years.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The new novel by Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors, is a project of historical fiction immersed in the culturally rich island of Penang in the 1920s. A once revered, now flailing British writer arrives to visit a friend and find inspiration for a new book. What he uncovers – secret affairs, a murder trial, and deeply complicated relationships – proves to be more than he expected. In today's episode, NPR's Ari Shapiro asks the author about using the real writer W. Somerset Maugham as his protagonist, and about what writing from the perspective of the Brits reveals about imperialism.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hugo Contreras, the protagonist of Raul Palma's new novel, is a babaláwo; he can cleanse evil spirits. Except he doesn't really believe in the whole thing. So when he's able to strike up a deal with a debt collector – get rid of the ghosts in his house in exchange for a clean slate – he assumes he can mostly fake it. In today's episode, Palma joins NPR's Scott Simon to discuss A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, and how the concept of debt – not just financial, but personal, too – stirs up a lot of trauma for Hugo.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy