Heard about it on NPR Book Club of Phoenix

Selection 1: NEAR TO THE WILD HEART by Clarice Lispector – Lispector became a literary treasure in her native Brazil after publishing this novel when she was just 23 (Juan Vidal/NPR).

Selection 2: THE MEZZANINE by Nicholson Baker – “If, as Kafka said, a book must be the ax to break the frozen sea within us, this novel is a toothpick to dislodge a bit of food trapped between your teeth. Not quite as dramatic, but no less urgent” (Antoine Wilson/NPR).

Selection 1: UNACCUSTOMED EARTH by Jhumpa Lahiri - Lahiri returns to the short story form where she expertly plumbs the Bengali-American experience of immigrants who are torn between bleak alternatives. Upon publication, this book debuted at the top of The New York Times best-seller list.

Selection 2: THINGS ARE GOOD NOW by Djamila Ibrahim - In this collection of nine short stories, Ibrahim “writes with intensity and empathy, creating characters who are torn between bleak alternatives as they come to realize that asylum is not the same as resolution.

Selection 1: UNACCUSTOMED EARTH by Jhumpa Lahiri - Lahiri returns to the short story form where she expertly plumbs the Bengali-American experience of immigrants who are torn between bleak alternatives. Upon publication, this book debuted at the top of The New York Times best-seller list.

Selection 2: THINGS ARE GOOD NOW by Djamila Ibrahim - In this collection of nine short stories, Ibrahim “writes with intensity and empathy, creating characters who are torn between bleak alternatives as they come to realize that asylum is not the same as resolution.