Several years ago I was in Rocky Sullivans pub on Lexington Avenue in New York City for one of their famed literary readings The Irish-born writer Colum McCann was said to be unveiling an excerpt from a work in progress By then McCannin such novels as Songdogs and This Side of Brightness and story

Alice Munro is at the height of her powers as a short story writer in this collection, navigating with extraordinary agility the border between memoir and fiction.

At a recent viewing of the film ldquo Into Great Silence rdquo I was mesmerized as the camera circled the austere perimeter of a new Carthusian novice rsquo s cell and oratory stripped of any comforts or signs of individuality And then there she was pasted to the wall near a bare cross a sma

In his beautiful and moving Letters to Sam, Daniel Gottlieb, a renowned psychologist who has lived with quadriplegia for 25 years, imparts uncommon wisdom about the lifelong journey of becoming a man.

A new book traces the development of human rights.

ldquo A bright mulatto is stripped to a nude condition and a careful examination is made of all parts of the body by the Dr and she is pronounced by him to be sound The money is then paid and she is transferred to her new owner rdquo With this mid-19th-century description of the sale of a