KCRW's Bookworm

Sjón places classic epics side-by-side with Icelandic sagas of past centuries. We discuss how literature comes from literature and one story gives birth to the next.

We are never prepared to discover our parents are fallible; Simpson's protagonist investigates his parents' lives but most of what he uncovers he doesn't wish to know.

VanderMeer's trilogy chronicles expeditions orchestrated by a government agency called the Southern Reach into a dangerous landscape where reality and unreality blur.

For Jeff Jackson, starting a novel is an invocation. There's an idea that telling our stories is cathartic but sometimes what you've really done is turn up the volume.

Emma Donoghue found the San Francisco she uncovered while researching for her novel far more modern than the Dublin she grew up in a century later.

Lorrie Moore's darkly humorous stories follow middle-aged men and women in states of lonely desperation trapped by the absurdities of their everyday lives.

Dustin Long speaks of the disappointment his generation has grown to expect at having prepared for a life that isn't there.

Love can become a false Eden. Michelle Huneven's protagonist retreats to the Sierras to write her dissertation but upon accepting a lover begins to dwell in their affair.

Irish author John Banville has written a new novel under his crime-fiction pseudonym, Benjamin Black, and in the guise of Raymond Chandler.

Originally from Beijing, Yiyun Li thought she would be a scientist. Writing in her non-native English, she addresses the emotional brutality of our time.

T.C. Boyle's latest book demonstrates the breadth of his years as a story-teller. Now in his 60's he is turning towards the uncertainties of age and our planet's destiny.

Warren Lehrer's interest in the look and shape of books has led him to become "an illuminated novelist." We discuss the future of books, authorship and print itself.

Valerie Martin on her fascination with the ship Mary Celeste, found floating with no crew off the coast of Spain in 1872. She says she does not believe in ghosts, but?

Hilton Als' first book in 14 years is a series of essays that defy easy categorization. His "white girls" are neither necessarily girls nor white?.

Richard Powers says his new novel reveals that there's little difference between a passion and an idea.