Book Talk

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Rebecca Makkai about her novel The Hundred Year House and how to tell a story backwards; guest readers Alfie Guy and Alice Baumgartner join Oppenheimer to discuss Greek mythology, coincidence, and fate.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Haley Tanner about her novel Vaclav & Lena, and eating borscht in Brighton Beach; guest readers Annie Thoms and Jessica Sager join Oppenheimer to discuss disappearing acts, becoming invisible, and magic as metaphor.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Liz Moore about her novel Heft; guest readers Brad Ridky and Deborah Cantrell join Oppenheimer to weigh in (no pun intended).

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Eleanor Henderson about her novel Ten Thousand Saints ("I wanted to write a book not just about the coming of age of young people, but the coming of age of a city"); guest readers Sam Purdy and Shifra Sharlin join Oppenheimer to discuss brothers and mothers, guilt and love.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Holly LeCraw about her novel The Half Brother; guest readers Annie Thoms and Jessica Sager join Oppenheimer to discuss heroes and outsiders, and custom, culture, and conscience.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Carol Rifka Brunt about her novel Tell the Wolves I'm Home ("I don't really like villains in books") and guest readers Deborah Cantrell and Sarah Woodford join Oppenheimer to discuss innocence lost, negative space, and the interplay of love, jealousy, and need.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Jess Row about his novel Your Face in Mine about what his book has to say about race in America, and guest readers Ian Solomon and Shifra Sharlin join Oppenheimer to discuss identity, re-invention, and what Nabokov has to do with it all.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Matthew Thomas about his novel We Are Not Ourselves ("I was writing about the American Dream") and talks with guest readers Annie Thoms and Jessica Sager about love and secrets, perception and reality, and the things we hide inside our houses.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Min Jin Lee about her novel Free Food for Millionaires ("I'm talking about gender and class and sexism and race . . . [but] my book is really about money") and discusses choosing art over affluence with guest readers Janna Wagener and Christine Kim.

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Rebecca Scherm about her novel Unbecoming ("sort of a thriller, sort of a coming of age tale, sort of a psychological suspense novel, sort of a love story," Scherm tells us), then talks with guest readers Jessica Sager and Emma Sokoloff-Rubin about what they make of the ending, who the lovers really are in this love story, and what it ultimately means to be good.