Bookends with Mattea Roach

Communication gets complicated across different languages, time zones and generations. FaceTime and translation apps can only help so much. That's the personal challenge R. F. Kuang drew on in her latest novel Taipei Story. It's about Lily, a Chinese American college student who spends the summer in a language program in Taipei, hoping to connect with her culture and family. But as things unravel, Lily starts to realize that true b...

The new novel from Marlon James is based on a rumour … but it’s no rumour that Marlon’s book is one of the year's hottest titles. The Disappearers is an epic Jamaican novel that centres on a group of gay men who were brutally attacked in Kingston in the late 1980s. The story follows the men in the aftermath of the attack, as they seek connection, new identities, understanding and revenge. Marlon calls The Disappe...

Canadian writer Anne Carson is the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. For today’s podcast, we’re diving into the archives and revisiting one of Anne’s conversations with Eleanor Wachtel on Writers & Company. Anne Carson is celebrated for poems and essays that defy the boundaries of genre. She frequently blends ancient Greek myth with modern stories of love, grief and desire. Anne spoke with...

Anita Rau Badami’s new novel, Asha in Her Garden, is her first in over a decade … and it all started with the striking image of a dying tree. On her seventieth birthday, Asha Mohan’s beloved backyard maple tree is cut down. As she watches it disappear, Asha begins to look differently at the life she’s spent years building. From her move to Canada from India, to the trials of raising her children to an act o...

Imagine the pressure of being the only woman working on an offshore oil rig. That was the reality for Y.M. Abdel-Magied … and she turned her years in the field into a thrilling novel about oil, power and survival on the water. At Sea follows Zainab, a toolpusher who is tasked with leading an all-male drilling crew on an oil rig off the coast of Australia. As Zainab navigates the complicated power dynamics of her role, she be...

How far would you be willing to go to salvage a friendship? Maybe you just need a small break ... or how about a couples therapist? Téa Mutonji’s new novel, My Person, follows longtime friends Tania and Margot. The two have been friends since childhood, but after living together for a year, Tania realizes she's not sure if she even likes Margot anymore. But leaving is not just as simple as saying goodbye, and a messy, complic...

When Michelle Good’s mother was in her 20s, she changed her name from Martha Eliza to Elizabeth to sound less Indigenous. Michelle’s new novel, Eliza Sunshine, is rooted intimately in her mother’s life … and gives her mother her name back. The novel weaves Eliza’s experiences and Michelle’s family history into a deeply personal story following three generations of Cree women. It’s also inf...

The criminal underworld of 1980s New York City. The last heist of a mostly-retired crook. A city battling for its future. Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy reaches its conclusion with his latest novel, Cool Machine. It follows Ray Carney, a former criminal who's gone mostly straight in his middle age … until he becomes entangled with a legendary criminal mastermind and is yanked back into a world he thought he left beh...

You might think that your boss is evil … but what if they were an actual supervillain? Natalie Zina Walschots brings that idea to life in her novels Hench and Villain. The series follows Anna, an auditor who does office work for the dark side. After being severely injured by a superhero, Anna is out for revenge … but it turns out that the difference between heroes and villains isn’t as clear cut as you might thi...

The phrase "unprecedented times” was repeated over and over again during the pandemic … and Malavika Kannan’s debut novel, Unprecedented Times, dives into university life during that period. The story follows Rishi, an Indian American student who’s ready to start fresh at Stanford after her strict Florida upbringing. She has big plans to shed her old skin and finally meet people just like her, but that jour...

How many of your friends are over 30 years older than you? When Marc Bendavid was 12, he met a teacher that changed his life. His debut novel, The Sapling, is about their generation-defying bond … and living in those memories in the wake of her death. So how can a meaningful friendship between a 12 year-old and a 44 year-old defy what we think about the gap between generations? And how does someone live and change through ou...

Imagine you walk into your bedroom one day … and there’s a horse going on a rampage. Better yet, it’s a horse from a childhood story that has haunted you ever since you first heard it. Who’s the first person you call? In Ali Smith’s new novel, Glyph, estranged sisters Petra and Patch are brought back together when a story from their childhood comes to life in an incredible way. But what makes a ghost ...

For cheating couples who are sneaking around, it’s paradise … but how long until the cracks start to show? Sophie Mackintosh’s new novel, Permanence, follows secret lovers Clara and Francis. Francis is married, and they’ve been stealing brief moments with each other for months. When they wake up one day in a dreamy city where they don’t have to hide, everything seems perfect … until things take...

You might be used to moving around … but you've probably never ended up in a town full of zombies, aliens and sad clowns. Jon Claytor’s new graphic novel, Nowhere, is about a young boy named Joel whose family is constantly moving. He’s trying to adjust to life in a new small town, but things get complicated when a giant, otherworldly cube appears and people start mysteriously disappearing. Jon drew from his own n...

Bad men, bee warned. Imani Thompson’s buzzy debut novel, Honey, follows a jaded PhD student named Yrsa. She’s bored with her work and frustrated with the culture at Cambridge … but when she accidentally kills a shady professor using a bee, she realizes that she may have found her calling. As Yrsa murders more men in the name of justice, she feels a greater sense of purpose in her violent mission. But can Yrsa rea...

David Baerwald is a famous songwriter who’s worked with artists like Joni Mitchell and Sheryl Crow. But when he uncovered a family history filled with spies, music, and wartime secrets … David went from notes to novels and wrote a sweeping historical debut. The Fire Agent fictionalizes the story of Ernst Baerwald, David’s real grandfather. In 1900, Ernst was recruited to become a spy. His work took him across two...

If you just let go of everything that’s out of your control … can you truly be happy? Maria Semple tests that philosophy in her new novel, Go Gentle. The story follows Adora Hazzard, a Stoic philosopher in her 50s who lives a calm, mostly happy life with her teen daughter and a coven of women friends. If you think a book about Stoicism might bore you, don’t speak too soon. This one also has art heists, divorce, a...

Maggie O’Farrell brought Shakespeare’s son out of the footnotes of history with her 2020 novel Hamnet. Its hugely successful movie adaptation made a splash at the Oscars and Maggie herself earned a nomination for the screenplay. Maggie’s new novel, Land, continues to pull from the shadows of history ... while also drawing on her own family myths. It's a sweeping epic that begins with a father-son mapmaking duo in ...

Imagine your entire family … immediate and extended … living in one apartment complex together. Karan Mahajan’s latest novel, The Complex, follows four generations of a family across India and America in the 1970s. In Delhi, most of the family lives in a crumbling residential compound. They’re the descendants of a political legend, and the family longs to return to their era of greatness. These family tens...