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In Our Kind of Traitor, former British intelligence officer John le Carre uses his unmatched knowledge of crime and psychology to spin a smooth and satisfying spy thriller about multinational money laundering and greed.

Jean Stafford's powerful, 1947 novel chronicles the gradual dissolution of a brother-sister bond. Writer Sigrid Nunez describes the tale as a coming-of-age story, not just for the siblings but also for their relationship.

In his new novel, Philip Roth sets a fictional yet plausible polio outbreak in his New Jersey hometown. Set in 1944, Nemesis describes the fear that plagued the country in the years before the vaccine was developed.

When Alan Bennett checks his mother into a hospital for depression, he uncovers more than a few skeletons in the family closet. The British playwright's memoir dismantles the myth of the normal family in a resentful but tender tale of hardship and enduring love.

Writer Mark Feldstein says muckraking columnist Jack Anderson cut ethical corners to get Nixon exposes, and the president responded with fury. He recounts surprising details of the long-running battle between the journalist and the politician in Poisoning the Press.

Two-dimensional characters and corny dialogue plague Roth's new novel about a 1944 polio epidemic in Newark, N.J. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author pulls off a gorgeous finale, but his latest work doesn't meet the high bar he set with American Pastoral.

All aboard, armchair travelers! In Book Lust to Go, our go-to librarian shares her favorite accounts of intrepid exploration and fiction from faraway lands.

In 1971, the FBI put John Lennon under surveillance because of his anti-war activities. The INS tried to deport him a year later. Historian Jon Wiener spoke to Terry Gross in 2000 about the Nixon administration's campaign to deport Lennon — and then Wiener's own fight to get the FBI to release Lennon's files.

In Brock Clarke's extraordinary new novel, a precocious 9-year-old searches for both his estranged father and Frederick Exley, his father's favorite writer. Clarke deftly handles the plot's layers, twists and identity puzzles, and pulls off the literary equivalent of a half-court shot.

In the late 1960s, Tommy and Dick Smothers challenged those who tried to tame their wildly popular show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. TV critic David Bianculli joins host Terry Gross to talk about the legendary comedy duo who tackled political issues and censorship.