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How are we going to talk about what happened to us one day when it's over? That question is at the heart of Yann Martel's new novel Beatrice and Virgil. Host Liane Hansen interviews Martel about his new book, his first novel since the Man Booker Prize-winning Life of Pi.

The author of Life of Pi returns with a story that arranges a stuffed donkey and monkey in an allegory about the Holocaust. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says Beatrice and Virgil is ambitious and at times artful, but ultimately misguided.

Nearly 4,000 listeners submitted short stories during this round of the Three-Minute Fiction contest. Novelist Ann Patchett will pick the winner and read it on air. Until then, we're bringing you excerpts of stories that have caught our eye. This week, NPR's Susan Stamberg reads a passage from "Bird Man" by Jeanne Martin of Seattle.

Roman Polanski's deliciously unsettling new film, The Ghost Writer, is a dark pearl of a movie, made with the flair and precision of a director suddenly returned to the height of his powers. Kenneth Turan says it could spark a creative renaissance for the controversial filmmaker.

Hollywood studios and the recording industry have railed against infringement, but fair use advocates say as long as people are creating something new out of copyrighted work, it's fair game.

At the start of the 20th century, poisoning was one of the easiest crimes to get away with. Until, that is, Dr. Charles Norris developed an early form of forensic medicine. Author Deborah Blum's new book, The Poisoner's Handbook, follows New York's first trained chief medical examiner as he solves a series of sensational cases.

A group of guards from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has collaborated on a new art and literary magazine called Sw!pe. Many say the artwork and museumgoers they spend their day watching seep into the work they make when they go home.

Wherein a young Provencal woman falls for a man far below her station, with tragic results.

The poached fish patties have been called the national dish of the Ashkenazi, the Jews of Eastern Europe. But as tastes change and Jews travel far from Europe — to places like the West Coast of the United States — they have found new ways to keep the tradition alive.

Michael Lewis, who wrote the best-seller Liar's Poker, is back with a new book examining those who profited from shorting subprime mortgages. In The Big Short, Lewis profiles extreme characters — outsiders — who are the sane people in an insane world.