A film about a man trying to fund a gender-affirming operation by robbing a bank sounds like a modern-day plot. But 50 years ago, that was the scenario for the classic film 
Dog Day Afternoon. We're featuring our interviews with director Sidney Lumet and with Al Pacino, who starred as the bank robber. Lumet gave his lead license to take the role as far as he wanted, and then pushed Pacino to do more. "It's really one of the best pieces of movie acting I've ever seen. It was blinding in its intensity, agonizingly painful," he told Terry Gross in 1988.
Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews 
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai which has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.  
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