Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley is “one of America’s most accomplished and wide-ranging writers” (Dallas Morning News). Her thirty books to date include two short story collections, two biographies, and eight books geared towards young readers. Her influential and admired novels include the Pulitzer Prize winning A Thousand Acres (1991), a modern retelling of King Lear. Smiley returned to the heartland in her The Last Hundred Years trilogy, which follows the fortunes and travails of an Iowa farm family over several generations. Smiley’s latest, Perestroika in Paris, offers fans something of a departure. In this instant bestseller, a spirited racehorse named Perestroika escapes her enclosure outside Paris and tries to make a new life for herself. In so doing, she befriends a street-smart dog named Frida, a pair of talkative ducks, and a curious boy named Etienne. The Los Angeles Times writes: “In an era beset by polarization, it feels like a gift to find a novel where characters of different species and different instincts come together to build a community.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | iHeartRadio | RSS