Inside this month's issue of BookPage

May 2004
In This Issue

FIRST PERSON
May BookPage interviews:

Kent Haruf: somber view of small-town struggles on the High Plains

"The High Plains of eastern Colorado is where I grew up. I had such affection for it as a kid, and I later taught high school out there for about seven years. So I know it well, probably better than any place else in the world. It's still the way I think the world should look." That intimate knowledge of the place helps explain why Haruf is the author of some of the best fiction about American small-town and rural life being written today.

Karen Joy Fowler: For one book club, Jane Austen is the only author who counts

Anyone who has ever been part of a book club knows that it's not just about the books. It's about the wine and cheese and desserts and endless digressions. Sure the books are important, the glue that binds the thing together, but peel the metaphorical cover back and many stories unfold. That's because a book club is also about the people, their lives both inside and outside the group. Karen Joy Fowler, an expert observer of relationships, knows this. And in The Jane Austen Book Club, she invites readers into the living rooms—and into the lives—of her colorful characters.

Children's authors Rachel Vail and Avi team up for a novel about the bond between twins

Meet Thomas Moore

Joseph Sinclair's secrets for car-buying success at eBay Motors

NPR correspondent Bob Edwards takes on broadcasting legend Edward R. Murrow

Meet Susan Meddaugh

FEATURES

SPOTLIGHT: Literary treats for mom on Mother's Day

Well Read: Scottish writer James Kelman offers an immigrant's perspective on America in his latest novel

Careers: Starting out or starting over, helpful job advice

Alexander McCall Smith on his number one series in Behind the Book

Escape with the best new graphic novels, and don't forget the girls

FICTION

A Song I Knew By Heart by Bret Lott

Pushkin and the Queen of Spades by Alice Randall

True North by Jim Harrison

Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark

The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser