Curses have long animated literature.

Cassandra labors under a curse in “The Iliad.” Although her prophecies are true, she is never believed. Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” endure the curse of a tragic fate, predetermined, in part, because their families despise each another.

In Oyinkan Braithwaite’s long awaited second novel, “Cursed Daughters,” generation after generation of women are cursed to lose their true loves.

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Kerri Miller welcomes Braithwaite back to the MPR airwaves for a conversation about curses and karma. Can a curse can be eluded, or does it become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy? What if ancestors refuse to acknowledge a curse? Would it disappear? Or is a curse of kind of generational trauma, passed down from family to family until someone steps into the gap and breaks it?

Guest:

• Oyinkan Braithwaite is the author of the best-selling, “My Sister, The Serial Killer.” Her new novel is “Cursed Daughters.”

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“Nuremberg” opens in the spring of 1945. Hitler is dead. Many of his henchmen have died by suicide, have been arrested or have fled. The world is just beginning to grapple with the horrors committed by the Third Reich.

Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second in command, is arrested by American troops in Austria, who discover him heading west in a convoy of family and friends. Ostensibly, he intends to surrender to the Allies.

The film tells the story of the American lead prosecutor, Robert Jackson, who believed captured Nazi leadership — including Göring — should stand trial at Nuremberg. He wanted the men to answer publicly for their crimes.

But before they can have their day in court, each one will be examined by a military psychiatrist, to determine if they are mentally fit. The psychiatrist assigned to Göring, the ambitious Robert Kelley, has a secondary intent. He wants to find out what linked the defendants. Did they have a common psychiatric disorder that would explain their heinous crimes? Could their evil be diagnosed, and if so, be prevented from infecting future generations?

“Nuremberg,” which opens nationwide this weekend, stars Russell Crowe as Göring and Rami Malek as Kelley. The film is based on Minneapolis writer Jack el-Hai’s 2011 book, “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist.”

To mark the release of “Nuremburg,” Kerri Miller hosted el-Hai at MPR’s St. Paul studios to talk about the book and the movie adaptation. They also discuss the central question that animates both: If the potential for evil lurks inside all of us, how do we stop it?

Guest:

• Jack el-Hai is the author of many books, including “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist.” He lives and writes in Minneapolis.

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The Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul was packed with John Grisham fans on Thursday, Oct. 23, when the prolific author made his debut at Talking Volumes.

Host Kerri Miller started the night by asking the audience and then Grisham himself to confirm or deny a series of facts. Does Grisham breed champion sheepdogs at his home in Virginia? Has he been knighted? Does he write a sizzling sex scene for each of his books, just to prove that he can — only to take it out before he sends the manuscript to his editor?

They discussed all that and more — including his new novel, “The Widow,” which is actually more mystery than thriller, and how his first as a small-town lawyer in Mississippi led him to become an author. They also delved into how writing about the criminal justice system in America transformed the way he thought about justice.

Music was provided by Molly Maher, who brought her blend of Americana and the blues to the Fitz, and even debuted a song inspired by “The Widow.”

The two women at the center of Anna North’s new novel, “Bog Queen,” are separated by time but inexorably bound. One is a druid who lived during the Iron Age. The other is the modern forensic scientist who is called upon to investigate the druid’s perfectly preserved body after it is unearthed from a British bog.

Agnes is drawn to the mystery and even sacredness of her work. Who was this woman, and how is her body still telling her story?

But it is, as we say today, complicated. Should ancient bodies be poked and prodded for information? Should the land where they have laid for centuries be explored or left undisturbed? And what of the bog itself, with its intricate biosystems of peat and sphagnum moss? Is it, in itself, a living thing that deserves to be heard?

In “Bog Queen,” North gently probes those questions and more. She joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about what ancient wisdom offers our contemporary world.

Guest:

• Anna North’s previous novels include “Outlawed” and “America Pacifica.” Her new novel is “Bog Queen.”

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Even before Misty Copeland became the first Black woman to be named a principal dancer at the illustrious American Ballet Theatre, she electrified the world of ballet.

A prodigy who didn’t start dancing until she was 13, she grew up in a transient and often chaotic home. But after she was discovered in a Boys & Girls Club in Los Angeles by a ballet teacher who wanted to expose more kids to the art form, she quickly shot into the national spotlight. As a teen, she studied at the prestigious San Francisco Ballet School and American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive. She joined American Ballet Theatre in 2000 and was promoted to principal just five years later, becoming the first Black woman ever to earn the title in the company’s 75-year history.

Copeland stepped away from the stage in 2020, after an injury and then the pandemic forced a pause. She officially retires this October, but as she told Kerri Miller at Talking Volumes in September, she’s eager to enter the next chapter of her life where she can focus on giving back.

“Bunheads,” her book series for young dancers, is just one example. At Talking Volumes, a warm and playful Copeland talked about her love of ballet, how dance transformed her life and what comes next.

Musical guests for this special Sunday matinee Talking Volumes were Aby Wolf and Eric Mayson.

Twenty-five years ago this fall, a generation of readers met 10-year-old India Opal Buloni and her loveable, scruffy dog, Winn-Dixie — so named because Opal found the canine while he was causing chaos in the produce aisle of the local grocery store.

Winn-Dixie transformed Opal’s life, as only a dog can do.

And their story changed those who read it, as only a book can do.

“Because of Winn-Dixie” received a Newbery Honor the year it was published — a significant award for a debut children’s book. Since then, it has been translated into almost 30 language and been made into a major motion picture.

It also catapulted Minneapolis author Kate DiCamillo into the national spotlight and launched her remarkable career.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of this modern classic, DiCamillo joined Big Books and Bold Ideas host Kerri Miller in the studio to reflect on what “Because of Winn-Dixie” meant to her.

Between bouts of laughter and teasing, DiCamillo and Miller talked about the transformative experience of writing for children, which DiCamillo believes makes her a better, more hopeful person.

“I didn't know how much that hope was a part of me until I started to write books for children,” she tells Miller. “So that's part of how ‘Winn-Dixie’ changed the whole of my life — not just by letting me become a writer, but by letting me see myself a little bit better.”

When Patricia Lockwood contracted COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, she lost touch with reality. For months, she floated through her days, dealing with constant migraines and visions of gorillas lurking in the trees.

Ironically, she was mostly aware that she was cut loose from humanity. She kept notebooks filled with her wonderings and ramblings.

And when she got better, she gathered her shattered experiences into a sharp new novel, “Will There Ever Be Another You.”

Not exactly a memoir, because Lockwood wanted to be freed from the structure of facts, she describes the wild and often psychedelic experience of a long illness “stealing people from themselves.”

“You might look the same to others,” she writes, “but you had been replaced.”

Lockwood joined Kerri Miller at the Fitzgerald Theater for Talking Volumes on Sept. 25 for a funny, unpredictable and profound conversation about how any long illness can take you apart and put you back together. Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Sarah Morris provided music for the evening.

The fictional Bonhomie, Ohio, where Patrick Ryan’s new novel, “Buckeye,” is set, will be familiar to anyone who grew up in a small town.

Children ride their bikes freely. Mom-and-pop stores thrive. And sooner or later, everyone crosses paths with each other.

That sense of closeness is charming — until you have a secret to hide. Such is the case with the two couples at the center of Ryan’s sweeping saga. Cal Jenkins is born with one leg two inches shorter than the other and, thus, is unable to fight in the war. His wife, Becky, is a seer who can bridge the human and spirit worlds for those mourning their lost loved ones. Across town, Margaret is married to Felix Salt. But he doesn’t know she grew up an orphan. She doesn’t know he’s a closeted gay man.

As the years pass and the secrets deepen and unspool, Ryan takes readers on a journey to another era, where nostalgia can’t hide the pain of unrequited love and the devastating effects of war.

Guest:

• Patrick Ryan is the editor in chief of the monthly literary journal, One Story. His new novel is “Buckeye.”

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The final ballots were still being counted in the presidential election last fall when David French recorded a podcast with fellow opinion writer Patrick Healy. The theme? “It’s time to admit America has changed.”

Kerri Miller welcomed the chance to ask French to expound on what he meant then and what he’s learned since when he came to Red Wing last Thursday night as part of the Philip S. Duff Jr. Civic Lecture Series.

French is a conservative commentator, a constitutional lawyer, former senior editor at The Dispatch and an regular opinion columnist for the New York Times. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” He also is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

When the Wilder Foundation set out on a cool night in October of 2023 to count how many people in Minnesota were without shelter, the number came in at more than 10,000.

Even more sobering, if national statistics apply: Many of those unhoused people have jobs. Some even work 40 or more hours a week. But they still can’t afford to rent an apartment, buy a house or even pay the fees for a long-term motel room.

In his new book, journalist Brian Goldstone writes that there is “something scandalous” about the very concept of the working homeless in a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success.

He joins Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas this week to talk about what he learned as he followed five working homeless families in Georgia over many years. His book, “There is No Place for Us” is a sobering, heart-breaking and urgent call for action to solve this national crisis.

Guest:

• Brian Goldstone has written for a number of national publications, including The New York Times, Harper’s and The New Republic. His new book is “There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.”

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