Bookworm

The Intimates (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Ralph Sassone, a first novelist, on the vicissitudes of — what else — the first novel.

When the Killing's Done (Viking)
T.C. Boyle's newest novel contains elements of sea-adventure story and eco-thriller. Bringing together the themes of his life's work, he explores the interstices of the green-movement and the animal rights community...

House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer's Journey Home (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)
Busy writing for film and television, for his first book in over a decade, Mark Richard provides a decidedly unconventional autobiography, a spiritual journey through some of the most unusual underworlds the soul can encounter...

The Lotus Eaters (St. Martin's Griffen)

Night Soul and Other Stories (Dalkey Archive Press)
Joseph McElroy is well regarded as one of the most demanding living American writers. His work is usually innovative and difficult. But in this collection of short stories, his first, stories of tenderness, often about care for children, predominate.

How can writing provide consolation? Writer Isabel Allende talks about her daughter's death and the events and feelings that led to the publication of this memoir.

The novels of T.C. Boyle are well known for addressing complex concerns about the environment and endangered species. In this brief interview, we prepare for the February publication of Boyle's most exciting environmental novel, When the Killing's Done.

The Lover's Dictionary (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Caribu Island (Harper Collins)

David Vann builds his first novel out of dire materials: his father took his own life, and his stepmother's parents died in a murder/suicide...

Luka and the Fire of Life (Random House)