Check This Out

From New Hampshire Public Radio and PEN/Faulkner, Check This Out is a fresh literary series where host Rachel Barenbaum dives deeply into the works of emerging and diverse authors.

Janet Rich Edwards & 'Canticle'

A debut novel set in 13th century Bruges, a young woman’s exploration of faith, agency and love, with surprising resonance for today.

12-04
49:45

Eliana Ramage & 'To the Moon and Back'

We follow one young woman's obsessive quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut in this debut novel about family, ambition and belonging.

11-26
49:37

Callie Hart & 'Brimstone'

"Brimstone," the sequel to the worldwide phenomenon "Quicksilver," returns readers to the realm of Yvelia with with more drama, higher stakes, and deadly consequences.

11-20
49:14

Quiara Allegria Hudes & 'The White Hot'

The story of a runaway mother’s ten days of freedom—and the pain, desire, longing, and wonder we find on the messy road to enlightenment.

11-13
49:29

Katie Yee & 'Maggie; Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar' plus Vanessa Lillie & 'The Bone Thief'

The title sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s the end of a marriage and a cancer diagnosis, and a funny and hopeful debut novel by Katie Yee. Plus, native American archeologist Syd Walker is back in Vanessa Lillie’s “The Bone Thief.”

11-06
50:19

Rickey Fayne & 'The Devil Three Times'

A complex meditation on Black history set in West Tennessee, a family saga where the Devil plays a leading role.

10-30
49:21

Addie E. Citchens & 'Dominion'

A Black Southern family drama unfolds as the sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town.

10-23
49:19

Xenobe Purvis & 'The Hounding'

A debut novel that takes us to a small village in 18th-century England where neighbors are convinced five sisters are turning into dogs.

10-16
50:20

Ruben Reyes, Jr., & 'Archive of Unknown Universes' plus publisher Zibby Owens

Host Rachel Barenbaum speaks with Ruben Reyes Jr. about his new book ARCHIVE OF UNKNOWN UNIVERSES along with media maven Zibby Owens to get a view of what's happening in the publishing world today.

10-09
49:53

Jennifer Armentrout & 'The Primal of Blood & Bone'

Jennifer Armentrout is proving that the next giant of fiction doesn’t need a giant publisher, as we talk with her about her latest "romantasy" novel.

10-02
45:16

Maria Reva & 'Endling'

A wacky caper involving kidnapped Western bachelors and snail conservation becomes a personal reckoning with the war in Ukraine.

09-25
50:04

Check This Out: Lucas Schaefer & 'The Slip'

A debut novel about missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.

06-19
50:01

Check This Out: Aaron John Curtis & 'Old School Indian'

A coming-of-middle-age novel full of humor and grief. When Abe Jacobs is faced with an unthinkable diagnosis, he follows his fragile hope for a cure to the Mohawk rez where he grew up.

06-12
50:12

Check This Out: Rob Franklin & 'Great Black Hope'

A young Stanford graduate caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.

06-05
50:12

Check This Out: Emma Pattee & 'Tilt'

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. We follow her journey across a transformed city as she walks and reflects on life and hopes for the future.

05-29
49:34

Check This Out: Jemimah Wei & 'The Original Daughter'

In this debut novel, two sisters are betrayed and violently estranged. They must weigh the value of ambition versus familial love and home versus the outside world. An exploration of family bonds in a story of sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

05-22
49:27

Check This Out: Callan Wink & 'Beartooth'

Two brothers are living off the grid on the edge of Yellowstone. In dire straits and desperate for money, they accept a dangerous proposition that permanently alters their lives and their relationship to each other.

05-22
50:02

Check This Out: Marjan Kamali & 'The Lion Women of Tehran'

A heartfelt epic about friendship, betrayal, and redemption during three transformative decades in Iran. This timely novel serves as a reminder of the fragility of freedom.

05-22
50:11

Check This Out: Colwill Brown & 'We Pretty Pieces of Flesh'

A coming of age novel about working-class female friendship, set in the schoolyards, nightclubs, and alleyways of a gritty, post-industrial town in Yorkshire, England. Three girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are, but as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.

05-17
49:53

Check This Out: Sameer Pandya & Our Beautiful Boys

Three star players on a high school football team are accused of violence by another student. Their secrets, and the secrets of their parents, threaten to shatter their entire community in a novel of race, class, and privilege.

05-10
49:38

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