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Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is back for its 25th season. Join us at the Fitzgerald Theater for four special events with renowned authors, celebrating our anniversary with a special $25 ticket price for MPR members and Star Tribune subscribers. Buy tickets here.

March 4, 2019 12:00 AM

'Say Nothing': Murder, memory and a masterful history of the Troubles

Patrick Radden Keefe's new book begins with the 1972 disappearance of a 38-year-old widowed mother in Belfast, then spins into an epic account of Northern Ireland's bloody sectarian conflict.

by Maureen Corrigan

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March 3, 2019 12:00 AM

'The Border' is Shakespeare for our times -- seriously

Don Winslow's sprawling, operatic epic about the War on Drugs has some flaws, but it does the same thing Shakespeare's histories did: It simplifies current events into messy, bloody, gripping theater.

by Jason Sheehan

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March 2, 2019 12:00 AM

What 'The Heavens'? This extraordinary new book feels like five novels in one

Sandra Newman tells the story of a woman whose recurring dream feels increasingly real. 'The Heavens' is historical fiction, time traveling fantasy, political allegory, social realism and a love story.

by Lynn Neary

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March 1, 2019 6:31 AM

Community theaters kill 'Mockingbird' productions after lawsuit threat

The show must not go on, Broadway producer Scott Rudin says. Rudin's lawyers claim his show, written by Aaron Sorkin, is the only one that can be performed near a major city.

by Matthew S. Schwartz

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March 1, 2019 12:00 AM

What does a father mean when you've never had one?

In 'The Last Samurai,' a mother chooses to raise her son without a father. But her son, a startling prodigy, soon has questions.

by Tracy Mumford

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February 28, 2019 12:00 AM

'We Set the Dark on Fire' burns bright

Tehlor Kay Mejia's debut novel is set at a posh girls' school in a dystopian world where the students are being trained for lives as political consorts to powerful men.

by Caitlyn Paxson

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February 27, 2019 3:00 PM

You know St. Paul's mayor — now meet his dad in a new autobiography

Melvin Carter is out with a new book about his life. Not St. Paul's mayor, mind you — that's Melvin Carter III — but his father.

by Tim Nelson

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February 27, 2019 4:00 AM

Minnesota novel revisits meth crisis of the '90s

"Northern Lights" tracks a young man through a succession of small towns and counters the myth that meth affects only the poorest of the poor.

by Euan Kerr

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February 27, 2019 12:00 AM

In 'The Good Immigrant,' new Americans grapple with their polarized county

Co-editor Chimene Suleyman says she doesn't want to wait for other people to decide who's a good immigrant. She wants immigrants to answer that question for themselves.

by Joel Rose

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February 27, 2019 12:00 AM

In climate change, stories have a role to play

The editors of this new anthology -- drawn from a story contest run by Arizona State University -- argue that stories are as necessary as policy and technology in the fight against climate change.

by Jason Sheehan

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