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Critic Heller McAlpin says readers picking up Paulo Coelho's new Adultery in search of deep philosophical insight on marital infidelity and a lack of cliches might be better off with Madame Bovary.

When even a tiny garret in a major city is crushingly expensive, the ideal of the "starving artist" has shifted since the days when poverty was held up as ennobling.

Reading a story by Lydia Davis is like watching a magic trick: She shows you a top hat that's obviously empty, and then she pulls out of it something enormous and oddly shaped.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reports being told by Russian President Vladimir Putin of his plan to pull back some forces. That might reduce some tensions in the region.

Vote For Your Favorites From 2013

Author's partners often serve as sources of inspiration — but sometimes their influence is even more direct. In honor of Valentine's Day, Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon recommend three books that would not exist without their writers' significant others.

Jenny Offill's new book, Dept. of Speculation, uses anecdotes and bits of poetry to tell a nonlinear story of love, parenthood and infidelity. Offill tells NPR's Rachel Martin that her experiences as a mother inspired the book — but that her own marriage is far less dramatic than the one in her novel.

A master of the Brazilian version of the mandolin, Hamilton de Holanda is determined to show the world what the instrument can do — and he's found friends in disparate musical worlds who are helping him prove is point.

Miss Havisham is one of Charles Dickens' most enduring characters. She appears in Great Expectations as an eccentric recluse, jilted at the altar years ago, who still wears her wedding gown and presides over a rotting feast. In his new novel, Ronald Frame imagines the kind of life that would have created such a woman.

Dana Goodyear's new Anything That Moves is an eyes-(and-mouth)-wide-open trip through America's foodie subcultures, from raw food enthusiasts to underground supper clubs. Reviewer Jason Sheehan says Goodyear is a "fair guide to the underbelly," but doesn't exercise enough critical judgment when it comes to the crazier dishes.