Bookworm

Michael Silverblatt flew to Dublin for the one hundredth anniversary of Bloomsday, June 16, 1904, the day and night immortalized in James Joyce's Ulysses. He took the opportunity to talk with John Banville and poet Seamus Heaney...

Electric Light (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney celebrates the humanity of Joyce's vision...

In the Shadow of No Towers (Pantheon)Because Art Spiegelman lives within walking distance of the site of the Twin Towers, his graphic novel about 9/11 captures the panicky race to make sure his children are safe, that the world hasn't ended, and, most of all, to ensure that his dread and paranoia don't dissipate in easy ideas about "healing."

Double Vision: A Self Portrait (Knopf) Walter Abish's most-admired novel, How German Is It, was written before the writer had ever set foot in Germany. This new book, non-fiction, finds Abish on German soil, defending his imaginary Germany...

The Daydreaming Boy (Riverhead)Micheline Aharonian Marcom explores the moral, cultural and sexual consequences of genocide...  

Project X (Knopf); Love and Hydrogen (Vintage) Jim Shepard's fondness for the little guy, the day-dreaming Walter Mitty type is the focus of this conversation, leading to the big question...

  This lovely new collection features con men, killers, cult leaders, baby stealers and the occasional prophet. E.L. Doctorow reveals his affection for these disparate, desperate Americans and offers a reason for the centrality of women in these stories.

River of Shadows (Penguin); Hope in the Dark (Nation) In her poetic biography, Rebecca Solnit uses the figure of photographer Edward Muybridge to discuss a whole range of metaphysical issues...

Yellow Dog (Miramax) While examining the mysteries of Martin Amis' enigma-turned-thriller, we speculate about the future of the literary novel...

Getting Mother's Body (Random House) Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks talks about her first novel, rejecting an art of concealment for one that celebrates rollicking immediacy and oddball truth...