This week, the Spine Crackers are joined by OG IRL friend and friend of the pod Casey to present our first ever 3-hour episode. We discuss Haruki Murakami's 2017 epic of art, trauma, family, and so much more, "Killing Commendatore!" Settle in for this one y'all! 

This week, the Spine Crackers read Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov's first English-language novel (1941) of identity, memory, exile, and language "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight." 

This week, the Spine Crackers read Sicilian crime novelist Leonardo Sciascia's early novel The Day of the Owl. Place, community, and the realities of organized crime take center stage here. Godfather eat your heart out. 

For our first ever non-fiction episode, the Spine Crackers tackle Henry Miller's pseudo-travelogue of exile, national identity, art, and the American consciousness, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. 

This week, the Spine Crackers read the highly praised "millennial fiction" novel of race, sex, and self Luster by Raven Leilani. 

This week the Spine Crackers read Yugoslavian-born author Dubravka Ugresic's strange, beautiful novel of identity, war, memory, and place The Museum of Unconditional Surrender. 

This week the Spinecrackers read Chinese author Ah Cheng's three novellas set in and around post-Maoist China, The King of Trees, The King of Chess, and The King of Children. Join us for a tipsy daoist power hour! 

This week, for their 20th episode, the Spine Crackers read French author Michel Houellebecq's controversial 2015 novel of religion, meaning-making, politics, and literature, Submission. 

This week the Spine Crackers read Hervé Guibert's brutally intimate and by turns hilarious and tragic semi-autobiographical account of AIDS and the early days of the crisis in the gay community in France. To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life. Cameos by Michel Foucault and Isabelle Adjani. 

This week the Spine Crackers are joined by enigmatic friend of the pod Morgan to discuss the almost-as-mysterious author Evan Dara and their 2013 novel of community, capitalism, and economic destitution Flee.