Inside this month's issue of BookPage

September 2003
In This Issue

FIRST PERSON
September BookPage interviews:

Jhumpa Lahiri: In her first novel, the Pulitzer Prize winning short story writer explores cultural conflicts

In early 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias Bush, a journalist with Time magazine, in a traditional Bengali wedding ceremony in Calcutta. A little more than a year later, the couple had their first child, a son. And shortly after that, Lahiri received a Guggenheim fellowship and completed work on her fine first novel, The Namesake, which is being released this month. So maybe it's no surprise that Lahiri says winning the Pulitzer has had no real impact on her.

Mark Salzman: A writer goes behind bars to teach in a juvenile detention center

Having already found that teaching creative writing to college students was a dismal experience, best-selling author Mark Salzman was even less disposed to try it with the young offenders incarcerated at Los Angeles' Central Juvenile Hall. But at the urging of a friend, he finally gave in. It was a decision that altered his life. Salzman recounts his experiences in True Notebooks, which offers a powerful narrative covering only his first year of teaching at the detention facility

Jonathan Lethem's rollicking new novel takes readers on a magical history tour of Brooklyn

Meet Mitch Albom

NPR war correspondant Anne Garrels shares her experiences on the front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Children's author Kate DeCamilllo follows an unusual path to success

Meet J. Otto Seibold

FEATURES

SPOTLIGHT: Beat the market with these new releases on Investing

Well Read: Edward P. Jones' new novel reveals another side of slavery

Books with all the answers: Reference

Behind the Book: Sena Jeter Naslund reveals the youthful experiences behind her novel, Four Spirits

FICTION

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Rabbit Factory by Larry Brown

Bleachers by John Grisham

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

Saul and Patsy by Charles Baxter

Jamesland by Michelle Huneven