NPR's Book of the Day

In a new mystery novel, a group of struggling writers lands on a private island belonging to bestselling author Arthur Fletch. But Fletch is dead and the authors, who come from a number of genres, must race to come up with the best ending to his unfinished manuscript. Then, the competition turns deadly. The Ending Writes Itself is by V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke, who wrote the novel under the pen name Evelyn Clarke. In today’s episode, the co-authors and friends join NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about their collaboration.

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We meet the unnamed narrator of Mark Helprin's new novel Elegy In Blue when he’s 82-years-old. He was a man of wealth and standing but has wound up alone in a subsidized studio apartment in Brooklyn. Through war and violence, he’s lost his father, his son, and his wife. Now, the narrator says, “his allegiance is to ghosts.” In today’s episode, Helprin joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about the autobiographical nature of Elegy in Blue. They discuss how Helprin’s wife inspired a central character in the novel and why the narrator – and Helprin – chose to stay in New York.

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Journalist Jodi Kantor and Harvard happiness expert Arthur Brooks are both out with new books about identifying and cultivating meaning in one’s life. Brooks says he wanted to write The Meaning of Your Life after observing an explosion in depression and anxiety among young people beginning around 2008. In today’s episode, he chats with Here & Now’s Indira Lakshmanan about how neglecting right-brain activity has led us astray. Then, Kantor tells NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly about the daunting commencement speech invitation that led to her book How to Start, which focuses on cultivating one’s life work through ideas like “craft” and “need.”

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Lena Dunham shot the pilot for the HBO series Girls at age 24. Quickly, she was launched into the creative spotlight but the author says she was not prepared for “everything that came with it.” In her new memoir Famesick, Dunham recounts the “Wild West” of the 2010s, which included her rapid creative education, chronic health issues, and intense bonds with her Girls co-stars. In today’s episode, she tells Wild Card’s Rachel Martin about being welcomed into, and stung by, the cultural conversation of this time period and her creative partnership with castmate Adam Driver.

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In Julia Langbein’s new novel, a woman named Jean is in turmoil over her past. She has rediscovered a diary from 1998, when she was 17-years-old, and spots a judgemental comment about Monica Lewinsky. Now 45 and remembering her own mistakes, Jean calls out to Lewinsky – and her prayers are answered. In today’s episode, Langbein joins NPR’s Elissa Nadworny for a discussion about Dear Monica Lewinsky that touches on adolescent desire, medieval iconography, and collective error and forgiveness.

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