Search results for

It's hard to imagine that people used to die from things as small as a scratch on the knee — but that's what life was like before penicillin. Author Lauren Belfer's new novel, A Fierce Radiance, follows the intrigue as pharmaceutical companies race to mass-produce lifesaving drugs during World War II.

George Orwell's dystopian vision offers such devastating political commentary that it's rarely described as a suspense novel. But author and former CIA operative Barry Eisler says the book simply proves just how powerful a thriller with a message can be.

Sportswriter Frank Deford's historical novel, Bliss Remembered, tells the story of a young American swimmer at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Deford explains why he was drawn to this particular historical setting — and what it's like to write a novel from the perspective of a woman.

In the early 1960s, writer Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Feiffer created The Phantom Tollbooth, which quickly became a kid-lit classic. Now, 50 years later, the two have finally collaborated once more — this time, on a picture book called The Odious Ogre. They speak to NPR's Liane Hansen about their partnership and their new project.

NPR has sued the Defense Department to get it to release files regarding possible civilian casualties during the 2019 raid in Syria that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Ecologist and "natural security expert" Rafe Sagarin thinks our systems for dealing with natural disasters and terrorist attacks need to be updated. The best place to turn for advice? Other organisms.

Fold, founder, flop: That's what the protagonists of these three books do well. Author Lysley Tenorio recommends stories about men whose good intentions are undeniable, if not always admirable. Have a favorite story about failure? Tell us what it is in the comments below.

In Power Concedes Nothing, civil rights attorney Connie Rice describes brokering peace between the Los Angeles Police Department and minority populations.

When Teddy Roosevelt became a New York police commissioner in 1895, he vowed to clean up the city's endemic vice and corruption. It didn't exactly work out. New Yorkers liked the idea of standing up to corrupt cops, but they rebelled when Roosevelt tried to enforce a ban on Sunday drinking.

In his latest novel, Thomas Mallon takes a fresh look at the scandal that brought down the Nixon administration, re-imagining it through the eyes of the cast of characters involved.