Writers On A New England Stage

Join us for recommendations from literary fiction to romance; new favorites that flew under the radar but are worth seeking out.

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

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

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

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.

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.”

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

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

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

Dan Brown joined us in September 2025 at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss his latest, The Secret of Secrets.

Jennifer Weiner spoke with us at The Music Hall in Portsmouth in September 2025 about her work and her latest novel, The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits.

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.

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.

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

In May 2025, author Jeanine Cummins sat down with NHPR's President and CEO Jim Schachter to discuss her latest novel, Speak to Me of Home.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In March 2025, NHPR's Rick Ganley sat down with legendary J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf to talk about his memoir, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses. Told with wry humor and heart-wrenching honesty, Waiting on the Moon offers an intimate look into the lives of artists, writers, actors, and musicians—their creative drives, personal struggles, and the complex ties that bind them. This conversation was recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on March 18, 2025.

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.

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.

Inspired by a true story, “We Would Never” is a gripping murder mystery and an intimate family drama. It explores the issues of loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred line between protecting and forsaking the ones we love most.

When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, a Florida-based lawyer and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War is consumed by memories of his younger sister who went missing during that conflict. “A Season of Light” explores the shaky promise of the immigrant American dream and a family struggling with intergenerational trauma.

A novel about marriage and ambition, sexuality and secrecy, and the true costs of building an empire. “Mutual Interest” explores the lives of “three queer misfits turned business titans” during the Gilded Age with immersive period detail and compelling emotional stakes.

“Homeseeking” follows Haiwen and Suchi, two separated lovers through six decades of Chinese history. War, famine, and opportunity take them from Hong Kong, to Taiwan, New York, and LA. This debut novel is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance and time.

A novel about depression, love, the ways women make themselves small, and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

This is a story of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. An exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

Looking for a good book to read? Tune in to hear three NH librarians offer recommendations. Catch their takes on their favorite emerging and diverse authors.

Ariel Lawhon joined us to discuss her novel The Frozen River on November 6, 2024.

A beautiful, tender, yet searing debut novel about intergenerational fractures and coming of age, following a young woman who immigrates to the United States from the Philippines and finds herself adrift between familial expectations and her own desires.

An unlikely production of Euripides in a prison quarry, set in ancient Greece with a contemporary Irish accent. As funny as it is moving, the novel is an ode to the power of art in a time of war, brotherhood in a time of enmity, and human will throughout the ages.

Based on (mostly) true events, The Bullet Swallower is a magical realism western about violence and revenge, a story that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.

A group of passengers on a grand,and fortress-like train known as the Trans-Siberian Express set out across a magical landscape known as the “Wastelands.” Can they trust each other even as the rules seem to be changing?

This debut novel uncovers the story of three generations of Black women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. A story of friendships, family secrets, and how history shapes us.

Set around Maine's Penobscot Reservation, a novel about one man's family, divided, like the river that separates him from his childhood home. The novel is about belonging, the shifting nature of memory - and bloodlines.

Mo Rocca joined us on June 18, 2024 at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss his latest, Roctogenarians.

Doris Kearns Goodwin joined us on June 5, 2024 to discuss her latest book, An Unfinished Love Story.

Law professor and MSNBC analyst Barabara McQuade joined us on March 14th, 2024 at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss her book Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.

Heather Cox Richardson joined Civics 101 host Hannah McCarthy on stage at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss her book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. Best known for her wildly popular newsletter, Letters from an American, in Democracy Awakening Richardson takes on the current state of affairs in American politics and history. This conversation was recorded live on September 29th, 2023.

Palahniuk joined Morning Edition host Rick Ganley on stage at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss his latest novel Not Forever, but For Now. The book traces one notorious family of killers, responsible for some of history's greatest crimes, and tells the story of the two brothers set to take over the family business. This conversation was recorded live on September 12th, 2023. Please note: The reading at the top of the show includes some explicit language.

Writers on a New England Stage with Colson Whitehead. Whitehead joined Morning Edition host Rick Ganley on stage at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss his latest novel, Crook Manifesto, the second in a trilogy that began with Harlem Shuffle. Crook Manifesto takes Whitehead's main character, furniture salesman and fence Ray Carney, into the tumultuous Harlem of the 1970s. This conversation was recorded live on July 20th, 2023.

Writers on a New England Stage with Geraldine Brooks. Brooks joined All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa on stage at The Music Hall in Portsmouth to discuss her latest novel Horse - a story of the legendary racehorse Lexington, the enslaved groom who became his companion, a painting traced through history, and America's unfinished reckoning with racism. This conversation was recorded live on June 21st, 2023.

Writers on a New England Stage with John Irving, recorded virtually in 2022. This archive program may still contain broadcast elements from the time it aired.

Writers on a New England Stage with Huma Abedin, recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH in 2022. This archive program may still contain broadcast elements from the time it aired.

Writers on a New England Stage with Nina Totenberg, recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH in 2022. This archive program may still contain broadcast elements from the time it aired.

Writers on a New England Stage with Amor Towles, recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH in 2022. This archive program may still contain broadcast elements from the time it aired.

Writers on a New England Stage with Erik Larson, recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH in 2022. This archive program may still contain broadcast elements from the time it aired.