Bookworm

Your Face Tomorrow, Volume 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (New Directions)What if Henry James — the patron saint of convolution — could be resurrected? What if he wrote a novel of espionage so complex it became a trilogy? Spanish writer Javier Marías has stepped in and taken on the epic task...

Sonata Mulattica (Norton) Beethoven once dedicated a sonata to a half-African musician—then revoked the dedication. Why? In her book-length poem, Rita Dove attempts an imaginative historical reconstruction of what happened.

The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comics (Abrams ComicArts) TOON Books and Raw Books co-editors Spiegelman and Mouly tunneled through archives and private collections to create this perfect anthology of classic children's comics, the spunky kids and sassy animals you may envision at the edges of your memory. Walk down memory's backs streets with us when we explore the golden age of someone else's childhood.

Chronic City (Doubleday) Jonathan Lethem began his career with Philip K. Dick-inspired science fiction, then he turned to writing the more realistic books that brought him to prominence. Here, we discuss the fusion of the two...

Nog (Two Dollar Radio); Flats / Quake (Two Dollar Radio) When Flats and Quake were published, the sixties were ending, and these novels can be said to chronicle the death of a dream. (Part I airs January 14)

Nog (Two Dollar Radio); Flats / Quake (Two Dollar Radio) In this first of two interviews, Wurlitzer takes us time-traveling back to the late 1960's when Nog was published and his first screen plays (Two Lane Blacktop, Glen and Randa) found their way onto the screen... (Part II airs January 21)

The Lacuna (Harper) What do Leon Trotsky, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera have to do with an invented author of Mayan and Incan historical romances?

Wallace Shawn’s newest play intermingles fact and fantasy in such a bizarre and original way that one would have to see (or even read) the play two or three times to get things (relatively) straight. Shawn discusses innovative theater in relation to his political beliefs as expressed in his new collection of essays.

The Museum of Innocence (Knopf)The Nobel Prize helped to set the fiction of Orhan Pamuk (and Turkish literature in general) in a contemporary global frame. Our conversation centers on the problem of national versus global literatures...

The Museum of Innocence (Knopf)Infidelity and adultery are two of the great subjects of the novel tradition — think of Anna Karenina or Madam Bovary. In this conversation, Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk discusses his own stunning contribution to this tradition.