Chapter 16 - Part 541

Epic Achievement

Tracy Barrett’s brilliant reimagining of the Odyssey is a treat for young-adult readers

By Fernanda Moore | December 24, 2010

December 24, 2010 With King of Ithaka, Tracy Barrett, a senior lecturer in Italian at Vanderbilt University, takes her place in a long line of Odyssey-tweakers. Writers as diverse as the Greek tragedians, James Joyce, and the Coen brothers have helped themselves to what Aeschylus called “slices from the banquet of Homer”—and with varying degrees of success. Barrett’s version turns out to be a wonderfully surprising, thoroughly delightful coming-of-age tale, which has been chosen on of School Library Journal‘s Best Books of 2010.

Chekhov in Memphis

Novelist Richard Bausch adds the Dayton Literary Peace Prize to a shelf full of awards

By Clay Risen | December 23, 2010

December 23, 2010 When novelist Richard Bausch was a child, his father would tell him about his days in the army, many of them spent slogging alongside hundreds of thousands of other Allied soldiers up the Italian Peninsula during World War II. These weren’t bedtime stories: what was supposed to be a quick conquest took nearly two years to complete, and 60,000 Allied soldiers, 50,000 Germans, and 50,000 Italian soldiers and partisans died in the process. It was the bloodiest theater in Western Europe. One of those stories became the basis for Bausch’s latest novel, Peace, which is dedicated to his father and which won the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Connecting the Landscape with the Quiet of the Sky

Amy Greene talks with Chapter 16 about her gorgeous new novel, Bloodroot

By Margaret Renkl | December 22, 2010

December 22, 2010 Amy Greene’s first novel—a multigenerational epic called Bloodroot—is getting the kind of attention that most debut novelists can only dream about, garnering reviews in publications as far-flung as The Boston Gobe and Entertainment Weekly. Greene found time in her eighteen-city tour to answer a few questions from Chapter 16.

Mr. On the Way Up

Chapter 16 talks with Adam Ross about the most talked-about debut novel of the year

By Margaret Renkl | December 21, 2010

December 21, 2010 By the time Knopf announced last winter—in an open letter to booksellers by legendary editor Gary Fisketjon, no less—that it would launch Nashville novelist Adam Ross’s debut book, Mr. Peanut, with a print run of 60,000 copies, and that it would be published in fourteen countries, chatter in the book world had already begun. The book officially hit shelves in June, by which time the chatter had grown to a roar, with Michiko Kakutani calling it “dark, dazzling” and Ross himself “an audacious new writer.” Ross took time to discuss his novel with Chapter 16 before the launch event at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville.

Ties That Bind

Author-physician Abraham Verghese talks with Chapter 16 about his dual career and his latest novel, Cutting For Stone

By Paul V. Griffith | December 20, 2010

December 20, 2010 An accomplished physician and teacher, Abraham Verghese put his life on hold to attend the celebrated Iowa Writers Workshop. Since graduating from the program in 1991, he’s balanced his day job with a writing career, publishing two nonfiction books and contributing to the likes of Esquire and The Atlantic Monthly. In his first novel, Cutting For Stone, Verghese tells the story of Marion Stone, an orphaned twin conceived of an illicit affair between an Indian nun and a dashing but volatile British surgeon. With wise and compelling prose, the epic tale weaves its themes of love, betrayal, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice together with the destinies of a country and a proud yet fractured family. Verghese appears February 26 at noon in 208 Light Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus, and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on February 27 at 2 p.m.

A Medal for NPL

In a White House ceremony today, the Nashville Public Library is awarded a National Medal for Museum and Library Service

By Margaret Renkl | December 17, 2010

December 17, 2010 Today, First Lady Michelle Obama presented the 2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service to five museums and five libraries during an awards ceremony at the White House. Among the honorees: the Nashville Public Library.

Driving the Tide (The After Dunkirk Series, Book 6)

By Lee Jackson
Severn River Publishing
444 pages
$19.99

“Driving the Tide is the riveting sixth installment in the After Dunkirk family saga, bringing to life the darkest pages of World War II―and the unflinching bravery of regular people who rose to the challenges of their times.”

~ the publisher