NPR: Books We Like
'Death And The Penguin' Captures Post-Soviet Reality
Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov writes short, surrealistic stories full of dark comedic surprises. His latest is The Case of the General's Thumb, but critic John Powers suggests starting with his 1996 novel, Death and the Penguin. It's a fast-paced, witty read and what Powers calls "an almost perfect novel."
'Pride And Prejudice' Meets 'Clue' At 'Pemberley'
Mystery writer P.D. James, now 91, has written a suspenseful sequel to Jane Austen's classic. Death Comes to Pemberley picks up six years after Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have wed. Maureen Corrigan says the story is "a glorious plum pudding of a whodunit."
Brutal And Perfect 'Third Reich': Bolano's Final Gift
Not long after Chilean novelist Roberto Bolano died in 2003, his heirs found an unpublished manuscript written more than 20 years ago. The Third Reich chronicles a month in the life of Udo Berger, a young German war game prodigy — and explores the origins of the brutality that lurks within us all.
A Quaint, Compelling 'Pilgrim' Tale In The New World
The year is 1622, and a tormented English Puritan strikes out for the Plymouth Plantation in Hugh Nissenson's moody, intelligent novel. Critic Maureen Corrigan says The Pilgrim is a work of straightforward historical fiction — of the sort that you don't see so much anymore.
'Micro': Crichton's Larger Than Life Nanotech Novel
When Crichton died of cancer in 2008, he left behind an unfinished techno-thriller. Superb science-writer Richard Preston has completed Micro, the story of young scientists who get shrunk to a size smaller than ants when a nanotech invention is used for evil.
Two Men Try To Make Sense Of The 'Cosmos'
For the first time, Witold Gombrowicz's 1967 Polish novel Cosmos has been translated directly into English. Wordplay and aphorisms don't get lost in the translation of this feathery existential crisis — in which two men obsessively hunt down the person responsible for the death of a sparrow.
Just 'Alice': The Portrait Of A James Sister
With siblings like William and Henry James, it's easy to be forgotten. But Alice James, the sickly younger sister of two famously brilliant minds, has proved herself unforgettable. In Jean Strouse's biography Alice James, the author revisits a woman who had a salty wit, but a chronic cold.
A '20s 'Scrapbook' Tells One Girl's Vintage Adventure
Author Caroline Preston's visual tour de force The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt uses a kaleidoscopic collage of historical clippings, trinkets and baubles to tell the story of a young girl aspiring to be a writer in the Roaring '20s.
A Critic To Remember: Pauline Kael At The 'Movies'
American film critic Pauline Kael was a brash, exuberant female writer at a time when most of her colleagues were buttoned up — and male. The Age of Movies, a new collection of selected essays and movie reviews from Kael, showcases the gutsy and passionate style that made her a household name.
A Persian Poem Soars In 'Conference Of The Birds'
Czech-born artist Peter Sis makes a case for the printed page with a gorgeously illustrated retelling of a 12th century Sufi poem. In The Conference of the Birds, Sis crafts a richly inked parable of a flight of birds that speaks to the painful but beautiful human journey toward understanding.