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Posts Tagged ‘setting’

<em>The Garden of Evening Mists</em>, by Tan Twan Eng

The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng

Shortlisted for the Booker, Tan’s novel pits Japanese atrocities in Malaya against an enduring love of their gardens.

Get Writing: Just That I Love It

Get Writing: Just That I Love It

In the illuminating introduction to her Selected Stories, Alice Munro considers the recurring setting of her fiction: “The reason I write so often about the country to the east of Lake Huron is just that I love it.”
She goes on to describe how memories of particular images from that geography will motivate her [...]

<em>Arcadia</em>, by Lauren Groff

Arcadia, by Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff’s second novel, Arcadia, gorgeously renders a commune’s rise, fall, and life-long resonance for the people who grew up within it. Unfolding as a series of snapshots, the book’s events span the birth of this late-1960s utopia and its central character, Bit Stone, to his middle age in a bleak—and imminent—dystopic future.

<em>Carry the One</em>, by Carol Anshaw

Carry the One, by Carol Anshaw

1983. Wisconsin farmhouse wedding. A horrific incident that haunts the Kenney siblings for decades to come. Jennifer Taylor calls Carol Anshaw’s new novel, Carry the One, a “compelling psychological examination of lives altered by a tragic accident.”

Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously: An Interview with Scott Nadelson

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously: An Interview with Scott Nadelson

In conversation with Julie Judkins, author Scott Nadelson discusses how the “mad mystic hammering” of Bob Dylan inspired him to become a writer, why being a formerly reluctant reader informs his teaching, and how New Jersey has evolved in his fiction from an actual place to a state of being.

Melbourne.  Santiago.  But not...

Melbourne. Santiago. But not…

National Geographic recently released a list of the “Top 10 Literary Cities.” But it seems a bit controversial to me. Here’s the ranking:
1. Edinburgh, Scotland
2. Dublin, Ireland
3. London, England
4. Paris, France
5. St. Petersburg, Russia
6. Stockholm, Sweden
7. Portland, Oregon, USA
8. Washington, D.C., USA
9. Melbourne, Australia
10. Santiago, Chile
You read that right: Portland, Oregon, is in the [...]

<em>State of Wonder</em>, by Ann Patchett

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett

In her sixth novel, State of Wonder, Ann Patchett delivers an adventure story that still rests comfortably on the shelf of Literary Fiction. Researcher Marina Singh leaves her Minnesota lab for the Amazon to investigate a coworker’s death and evaluate the research of a field team deep in the jungle.

WBUR's Zip Code Stories

WBUR’s Zip Code Stories

I live in the 02138 zip code, popularly known around here as “the nation’s most opinionated zip code,” thanks to the hordes of Harvard and MIT students. I’m not sure about that title–94720 could probably give it some competition–but I like the idea that a zip code, which is really just an arbitrary zone, [...]

Find Your Metaphor: An Interview with Daniel Orozco

Find Your Metaphor: An Interview with Daniel Orozco

Daniel Orozco’s debut has been a long time coming. Now fans of his prizewinning fiction can enjoy an entire collection, Orientation: And Other Stories. Michael Shilling calls him in Idaho to talk geographic love letters, G. Gordon Liddy, and the peculiar challenge of gimmicks.

A More Interesting Period of Time: An Interview with Donald Lystra

A More Interesting Period of Time: An Interview with Donald Lystra

Donald Lystra, who published his first novel Season of Water and Ice after retiring from a career as an engineer, talks about making the transition from engineering to writing, publishing with a small press, winning a Midwest Book Award, and what people get wrong about the 1950s.