Search results for

Mary H.K. Choi has a gift for creating characters so complex and real that they jump right off the page — like the eccentrically named Pablo Neruda Rind, aimless hero of her new Permanent Record.

In this recording, exclusive to NPR, Atwood returns to the world of The Handmaid's Tale, reading from her long-awaited sequel. Some 15 years after the first book, it introduces a few new voices.

A new anthology invites Palestinian writers to imagine their homeland in 2048 — 100 years after the creation of Israel. The stories are inventive, dextrous, painful, and even sometimes playful.

Robert Asprin's rollicking Myth Adventures books get their laughs from whimsy, lightheartedness, buddy-movie banter, and, um, comic myth-understandings. They're a welcome antidote to grimmer series.

Tupelo Hassman's novel about a group of teenagers at loose ends in a tiny town run by Christian fundamentalists has some dark moments, but ultimately it's as heartwarming as it is beautifully written.

Olga Tokarczuk's novel, first published in Polish in 2009, follows an eccentric recluse in a village on the Czech-Polish border who's convinced she knows why dead bodies keep turning up around her.

Chris L. Terry draws on his own experiences for this story about an unnamed biracial man whose attempts to hold on to both his white and black identities (and his gig in a punk band) cause a crisis.

Margaret Atwood's long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale brings readers new voices (and one familiar one) and a whole new view of Gilead, the dystopian theocracy that was once the United States.

Tash Aw's beautifully written new novel focuses on class issues in contemporary Malaysia, where his compelling protagonist is struggling to lead a quiet life after a long-ago murder conviction.

Graphic novelist Hazel Newlevant's memoir of their time on a youth forestry crew addresses issues of race, class and gender with delicately shaded imagery that asks readers to slow down and think.