In his new novel, Want Not, Jonathan Miles digs through the garbage
Novelist Jonathan Miles can take the dreariest topics and turn them into humor. He demonstrated this Midas touch for comedy in his debut novel, Dear American Airlines, in which a…
In Daniel Woodrell’s The Maid’s Version, the Ozarks are beset by mayhem
Daniel Woodrell’s characters live in a dangerous world. In Woodrell’s telling, the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri teem with violence of endless variety. Scenes of casual cruelty, like the…
Novelist Jonathan Tropper talks with Chapter 16 about comedy and catastrophe
For thirteen years, Jonathan Tropper has been writing bestsellers that address a fundamental question: when life doesn’t turn out as you planned, what do you do next? His titles reflect…
Philipp Meyer’s The Son covers all the bases in an epic novel of Texas
The novelist who decides to write a new version of Texas history faces a number of challenges: how to separate truth from legend; where, geographically and chronologically, to begin and…
In A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra charts the crossfire of dirty wars
At a critical juncture in Anthony Marra’s first novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Ramzan, an informant for the Russian Federation and a traitor to his Chechnyan village, asks himself,…
Isabel Allende discusses her new novel, Maya’s Notebook, and explains her affection for vagabonds and the terrors of modern parenting
Isabel Allende has gained a large and devoted international readership by revealing the dark secrets and searing pains that afflict the human heart. Her stories are filled with incidents—journeys, missions,…
