Search results for

The Swedish Academy praised the Chinese writer's work, which "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary." The award is a cause of pride for a government that disowned the only previous Chinese winner of the award, an exiled critic.

Dylan Dethier took a year off between high school and college for an unusual quest: He wanted to play a round of golf in each of the 48 contiguous states. His new book, 18 in America, chronicles that year, and he joins NPR's Scott Simon on the putt-putt course to talk about it.

Who says books are doomed? Photos celebrate not only books but also the shelves we put them on.

The attack on the barracks and detention centers raised fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.

The U.S. has lifted sanctions on a Chinese police institute it alleges was part of human rights abuses that targeted China's ethnic Uyghur minority.

Raymond Gunt is profane, rude, heartless and truly the Worst. Person. Ever. Author Douglas Coupland says he's not exactly sure how the character, with no redeeming qualities, came into his mind.

Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez has ridden the train known as "the Beast" eight times, interviewing Central American migrants on their way to the U.S. He shares his experiences in the book The Beast. Alt.Latino asked him about the books he read that inspired him — and what he'd take to read on a desert island.

The New Zealand-born author Adam Christopher has a fascination for America — his latest, Hang Wire, is a decade-jumping, character-crisscrossing urban fantasy set in San Francisco. Reviewer Jason Heller says that with Hang Wire, his fourth novel, Christopher has mastered "geek-centric weirdness and galloping, whiz-bang pace."

In Bangladesh, the army-backed interim government has eased a curfew that was imposed in a bid to end days of clashes between police and students. Authorities have called the violence a "conspiracy" and have closed a number of universities in the capital and other cities.

The chief minister of India's most populous state came from humble origins, but Mayawati, as she is known, has not been shy about displaying her wealth. Recently, the show of opulence at a political rally — where she accepted a garland made entirely of money — seems to have gone too far, even by her standards.