Bookworm

David Grossman The Zig Zag Kid (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) The Israeli writer tells the story of how a book written for his son's coming-of-age became a cross-over hit--an adult best-seller in Israel.

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye (Random House)Why do adults need fairy tales? What is, at its essence, the heart of a story? The answers appear as international wise-woman A. S. Byatt unravels the "fairy stories for adults" in her most-recent book.

An unusually revealing conversation about female masochism and creativity: Oates on the harrowing of the flesh, penitence and salvation.

Open Me...I'm a Dog (Harper Collins)In this discussion of a "mind trip" for children, Art Spiegelman reads from his new children's book--with running commentary from the Bookworm.

The infrequently interviewed Don DeLillo discusses his epic novel, Underworld, particularly the movement toward sincerity and simplicity that characterizes the book's climactic chapters.

A close look at the waves of passion and neutrality that comprise the style of this elegy on the death of Jamaica Kincaid's brother.

All Around Atlantis (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) This unusual writer, who takes a full year to complete each story, has completed seven -- enough to fill her third book.

The Runaway SoulTwo interviews: Brodkey discuses life, literature and his new novel.

This final book of Edmund White's trilogy about gay life in New York provides gossip, tragedy and, of course, brilliant writing. 

Cal Bedient, Candy Necklace (Wesleyan) This book, the poet's first, comes as the culmination of years of criticism and teaching. Here, an in-depth discussion of one poem leads to a conversation about modernism, metaphor and madness.

Blood Lake (Boaz)Jim Krusoe's stories locate us between an episodic and choppy daily life and an interior world of unimaginably constant anxiety. How does this acrobat of comedy and anguish maintain his balance?

The Gettin'Place (Anchor)Susan Straight, chronicler of the underclass, can be counted on for rich character delineation and lots of atmosphere. In The Gettin Place, She faces the demands of a complex plot. Can she tell a story?

Helen Vendler The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Harvard) Surprising and accessible, Vendler, one of America's most respected critics, separates the lovelorn Shakespeare who appears in the sonnets from the masterful poet who wrote them.

A Regular Guy (Vintage) The search for family in Mona Simpson's novels is nearly a sacred quest...

The God of Small Things (Random House) Arundhati Roy talks about the price of success in India's literary circles - and about the "small; things" that compensate for disaster.

Round Rock (Knopf) Michelle Huneven brings the worldly realism of John Steinbeck up to date in a new novel: a story of growth, compassion and knowledge.

The Saskiad (Houghton Mifflin) Brian Hall, the author of one of the great novels of adolescence, speaks about the sexual awakening of his narrator.

How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not A Novel (Pantheon) The "Stendhal; of the dating scene" Alain de Botton talks about French literature, the virtues of moderation - and happiness.

Poet Ron Padgett discusses his selected poems.

Steve Erickson's novels dramatize the disintegration of the American dream, using a prose style that is itself dreamlike.