Marginalia

Gail Honeyman is from Scotland, but she was in the states recently on a book tour for the paperback release of her debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. 

Katie Williams has three books under her publishing belt--two books written for young adults and now one that falls into the general fiction category. But don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing "general” about it.

Tell the Machine Goodnight is slightly futuristic, but I’d hesitate to categorize it as science fiction. The characters, too, fight generalization. Their voices are unique and so are their experiences. The character development, the dialog, the writing--well… everything works. 

If you’ve been a Marginalia fan for a while, Rebecca Makkai’s is a voice you’ve heard before. She stopped by the studios in 2016 to talk about her book of short stories, Music for Wartime.

Makkai is also a novelist, and we spoke recently about her third novel, The Great Believers, which was released this past Tuesday. In The Great Believers, Makkai takes a look at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in Chicago.

When Peter Coviello was a young college professor, he fell in love, got married, and became a step parent. When that marriage fell apart, he suffered the heartbreak of that failed marriage but more profoundly--the heartbreak of potentially losing a connection with his step daughters. 

Like the protagonist in her book, author Jana Casale doesn’t like to strike matches, like the protagonist, she moved coast-to-coast with her tech engineer husband, and like the protagonist, Casale has never read Noam Chomsky. But don’t let these details fool you into thinking the book is autobiographical.

I recently spoke with Jana Casale about her novel, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky. Here’s our conversation:

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The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky by Jana Casale was published by Knopf.

Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita.

Tin Man is the latest release by author--and performer--Sarah Winman. The novel is a departure from her previous works and reinforces the actress' creative diversity.

If you're a fan of Winman, it's likely because of her work on the screen and stage. But the British actress's latest success has been on the page, most recently with her third novel, Tin Man.

"It was published almost a year ago. It was published in late July, nine...  nineteen... Good Lord, where am I?" she laughs.

In her new novel, The Female Persuasion, Meg Wolitzer explores three questions: What does it mean to be powerful? How do people measure their impact upon the world? And does all of this look different for men than it does for women? 

I recently spoke with Wolitzer to talk about these questions and more. 

Here’s our conversation:

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The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer was published by Riverhead Books.

Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita.

Author Jonathan Miles says that his book, Anatomy of a Miracle,  tells the story of the miraculous recovery of a veteran paralyzed during the war in Afghanistan and the subsequent investigation by the Vatican. But layered upon that, it’s also a story about explanations we use in processing life. And finally, it’s a love story. I recently caught up with Jonathan Miles to talk about Anatomy of a Miracle and it’s many layers. Here's our conversation:

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Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles was published by Hogarth.

With the publication of his most recent story collection, The Price of the Haircut, Brock Clarke now has 4 novels and 3 story collections on his list of published works. Punctuated with Clarke’s sardonic humor, the new collection is delightfully dark, yet hopeful at times. 

Irish author Maggie O’Farrell is best known for her fiction, with a half-dozen novels on her bibliography. But her newest work is non-fiction: a collection of essays about her brushes with death.