Check This Out with Rachel Barenbaum

Ep. 124 NHPR Sarah Brooks: THE CAUTIOUS TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO THE WASTELANDS

In this historical fantasy novel, a group of passengers set out on the Trans-Siberian Express train, in a journey across a magical landscape known as “the Wastelands.” Can they trust each other even as the rules seem to be changing?

Ep 123 NHPR Essie Chambers: SWIFT RIVER

The third season of in-depth author interviews continues with Essie Chambers, author of "Swift River."

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize, there’s a lot to unpack in this novel. Sixteen year old Diamond is the only Black person in the town of Swift River, stuck in a town she hates it as much as it hates her.

Her mother is a drug addict who can’t pay the bills, and making things even worse, Diamond is buried in an obese body she can’t escape, a symbol of the generational trauma that weighs on her every single day.

"Swift River" focuses on three generations of women in one family, the trauma they endure and pass on.

It also shows us the hope Diamond holds for her future, and a historic setting in a northern ‘sundown town,’ a town where Black people are only allowed to pass through during the day.

Ep. 122 NHPR Morgan Talty: FIRE EXIT

Set around Maine’s Penobscot Reservation, a novel about one man’s family, divided, like the river that separates him from his childhood home. The novel is about belonging, the shifting nature of memory - and bloodlines. Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize.

Ep. 121 NHPR Marjan Kamali: THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN

A heartfelt epic about friendship, betrayal, and redemption during three transformative decades in Iran.

Ep 120 NHPR Kailane Bradley: MINISTRY OF TIME

Kaliane Bradley's debut is a time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy and a testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.

Ep 119 NHPR Andrew Boryga: VICTIM

In Andrew Boryga's debut "Victim," the protagonist is a hustler from a family of hustlers. He learns to talk about his background in just the right way to open doors to an elite college and writing gigs. The novel asks: What does real diversity look like?

Ep 118 NHPR Zibby Owens: BLANK

“Blank” by Zibby Owens follows the story of Pippa Jones, a fortyish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. Her solution to writer's block is an idea her 12-year old son came up with as a joke.

Ep 117 NHPR Jennifer Croft: THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY

"The Extinction of Irena Rey" is the new novel by famed translator Jennifer Croft. Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.

Ep 116 NHPR Inci Atrek: HOLIDAY COUNTRY

Inci Atrek brings readers a seductive and lyrical debut novel. “Holiday Country" follows a young woman’s dangerous summer romance during an idyllic vacation on the Aegean coast.

Ep 115 NHPR Aube Rey Lescure: RIVER EAST RIVER WEST

Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, Aube Rey Lescure’s “River East, River West” is part coming-of-age tale and part family and social drama. It follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world.