This week, best-selling author Russell Shorto never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: “You’re a writer―what are you gonna do about the story?” The result is Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob. (more…)
This week, George Saunders discusses his new work, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. He pairs iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev,...
Few contemporary writers have examined the inner life with the intensity and candor of Karl Ove Knausgaard. His latest is “The School of Night.”...
“Alphabetical Diaries” by Sheila Heti contains a decade’s worth of thoughts, arranged in alphabetical order. The book is a chronicle of the self, of...
