MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It is time to talk about books. Yay. There are a whole lot of new books coming out in the next couple of months, and here to highlight some fiction picks is Andrew Limbong. He hosts NPR's Book of the Day podcast. Hi.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise. Yay, indeed. Let's do it (laughter).
KELLY: Yay, indeed. All right, let's start with the big one, the one that we know we're going to be hearing all about. There is a new "Hunger Games" book about to come out. Tell me.
LIMBONG: Exactly. Yeah. This one is set to come out in March. There's not a lot known about it, to be honest. And in true Suzanne Collins fashion, she's keeping pretty tight-lipped. And, you know, I haven't gotten my hands on a copy, but here's what we do know. It's another prequel, and it's set 24 years before the start of the first "Hunger Games" book. And we know that Collins was actually inspired by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. When the book was announced she said she was inspired by his ideas of implicit submission - you know, how many are governed by the few. And I guess we'll know more once it comes out.
KELLY: Wow. "Hunger Games" meets 18th century Scottish philosophy. OK.
LIMBONG: Yeah (laughter).
KELLY: What about something that you have gotten your hands on, that you have read and loved and that we should all look forward to?
LIMBONG: All right, I think there are two books that are actually kind of related that I want to shout out. The first is called "Dream State," and it's by Eric Puchner. And it starts with this guy who is getting married and is having his college best friend officiate, except what happens is the best friend ends up marrying the fiancee.
KELLY: Ouch.
LIMBONG: The book follows this sort of, like, three-way relationship across decades. And it's this real interesting meditation on marriage and on, like, male friendships and the sort of, like, what-ifs in life. You know, it's like, oh, what if I married this other person or took that other job? And, you know, things like that. And that book comes out in February.
The other book I want to shout out is "Tilt" by Emma Pattee. It's this really tight and fast-paced thriller about a woman, pregnant at the start of the book. She's at IKEA, looking for a crib, when an earthquake erupts. And the book sort of follows her way across Portland, and she has to decide, you know, who to help and who to leave behind as she sort of tries to survive this disaster zone.
KELLY: Those both sound really good, but I'm going back to - I'm still stuck on you said they were related. How are they related?
LIMBONG: Yeah. What's interesting is how they both treat climate change. You know, I don't know if I'd necessarily term them as, like, quote-unquote, "cli-fi" - right? - 'cause they're not, like, about climate change, but the climate definitely plays a huge part in these characters' lives, right? In "Tilt's" case, the author is actually a climate journalist. That's her background. And so all of the stuff in the book that's about, you know, not just the disaster itself, but the disaster response, is pretty grounded in research.
And in "Dream State," a lot of it takes place in Montana. And all the quiet domestic drama stuff plays out while, like, the characters are constantly checking the air quality index, you know, and, like, going indoors because, like, the smoke makes it hard to breathe. Like, it's not subtle. You know, I wouldn't call it subtext, but it's also not just the topic at hand, right? And so, you know, obviously these books are written before the fires in California, but it just shows you that the writers are really trying to deal with and respond to the climate crisis as it's going on.
KELLY: What about international fiction? Any exciting books coming out overseas?
LIMBONG: Yeah. In 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in literature. He's based in England now, but he was born and raised in Zanzibar and writes a lot about colonialism and refugees. And in March, he's coming out with the first book that he's written since he won the Nobel. It's titled "Theft." It's about these two young people who take in a poor boy to take care of. Obviously, you can tell from the title - "Theft" - there's some misplace of trust that occurs and turns everything topsy-turvy. And all of this takes place in Tanzania during a time where, like, tourism is popping off, technology is booming and just the culture is mixing and shifting in a really rapid way.
KELLY: NPR's Andrew Limbong with some fiction picks there to get us through the winter. Thank you, Andrew.
LIMBONG: Thanks, Mary Louise.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEAN DU VOYAGE'S "KHANTI") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
