NPR's Book of the Day

Indian Bengali writer Amitav Ghosh has been writing about empire, the environment, and other subjects for the past 25 years. Now, he has gathered some of his essays into a new collection called Wild Fictions, which asks big questions about the way humans are connected to other forms of life. In today’s episode, Ghosh joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on climate change as a problem of politics, culture, and imagination. They also discuss an idea central to Ghosh’s thought: that anthropocentrism is responsible for our current planetary crisis.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hester Kaplan, the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Justin Kaplan, knew her father was an esteemed writer and researcher, but she didn’t quite know him personally. After the elder Kaplan died in 2014, Hester began to discover her father, unexpectedly, through his famous biographical account of Mark Twain. In today’s episode, Kaplan speaks with Here and Now’s Tiziana Dearing about the power of biography, and how her memoir Twice Born recounts the stories of a man – and a family – still alive in the margins. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Palantir is one of the world’s most valuable companies, analyzing data for businesses, but also for U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. The Philosopher in the Valley, a new book by Michael Steinberger, is a portrait of the company’s CEO, Alex Karp. In today’s episode, Steinberger speaks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about Palantir’s operations at the nexus of technology and national security, Karp’s liberal arts background, and the CEO’s unusual lifestyle.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Russ & Daughters opened in 1914 and is one of the last remaining “appetizing stores” in New York City. The shop – which the owners say is not a deli – is famous for its bagels and lox, among other classic Jewish foods. Now, the Russ family is out with a cookbook that includes history, recipes and musings from the last century. In today’s episode, NPR’s Scott Simon visits Russ & Daughters, where he finds the shop brimming with smoked salmon, whitefish salad, chubs, trout, sable, sturgeon and more.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Last up: A 10-year-old girl, Louisa, is later found on a beach in Japan – and her father has disappeared. She and her mother are left on their own – but the tragedy doesn’t bring them closer together, at least for a long time. Susan Choi’s novel Flashlight follows this family across generations and a vast historical expanse. In today’s episode, Choi speaks with NPR’s Scott Simon about why her protagonist fends off love, her interest in the historical tensions between Korea and Japan, and the benefit of writing in chronological order.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy