Joan Didion

Books by Joan Didion

Salvador

by Joan Didion
- Paperback, 108 pages
Blue Nights

by Joan Didion
- Paperback, 188 pages
The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion
- Paperback, 227 pages

Joan Didion has written books about:

NPR stories about Joan Didion

New In Paperback

Mind And Body: Inside Memory, Grief, Boxing And The Brain

June 07, 2012 8:00 AM

Julian Barnes returns with a Booker Prize-winning novel while Michael Parker wins big praise for his historical story set in North Carolina. In nonfiction, there are memoirs by writer Joan Didion and boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, plus David M. Eagleman looks into the secret life of the brain.

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Best Books Of 2011

What Sticks: Five 2011 Books That Stay With You

by Heller McAlpin

December 01, 2011 7:37 AM

This year, the best books are those that remain with readers long after they turn the last page. Whether a sprawling nonfiction narrative, a riveting first novel or a wrenching memoir, these keepers are unforgettable.

Author Interviews

Joan Didion: Crafting An Elegy For Her Daughter

November 02, 201112:30 PM

Two years after the death of her husband, Joan Didion suffered the untimely loss of her only daughter. She pieces together her memories of Quintana Roo in her new memoir, Blue Nights.

Author Joan Didion has written novels, non-fiction and essays. She is a contributor to The New York Review of Books.

Author Interviews

In Sorrowful 'Blue Nights,' Didion Mourns Her Daughter

by Susan Stamberg

November 01, 2011 4:46 AM

"She was simply the center of my life," says Joan Didion, whose daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, died at age 39. Her death came just two years after the death of Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne. "We all survive more than we think we can," Didion tells NPR's Susan Stamberg.

Book Reviews

In 'Blue Nights,' Didion Delivers A Mother's Eulogy

by Lawrence Frascella

October 29, 2011 9:03 PM

Joan Didion pays bitter, aching homage to her daughter, Quintana Roo, who died after a long illness at the age of 39. Blue Nights is an emotionally devastating tribute and a desperate attempt to understand aging, mortality and loss.

Joan Didion is also the author of The Year of Magical Thinking, The White Album: Essays and Where I Was From.

Three Books...

Three Trips To The Other Side Of The Tracks

by Leslie Jamison

March 04, 201010:32 AM

The Los Angeles Gang Tours put a spotlight on poverty tourism, but the phenomenon isn't new. Authors writing about class have been giving views of the other side for years. Writer Leslie Jamison shares three memoirs whose accounts define the line between rubbernecking and true works of art.

Graffiti seen on the Los Angeles Gang Tour

Interviews

Didion Brings 'Magical Thinking' to Broadway

by Renee Montagne

February 08, 200712:01 AM

In The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion chronicled her grief following the sudden death of her husband and the illness of their daughter. Vanessa Redgrave will star in a one-woman play based on the book.

Book Reviews

Books 2005: Maureen Corrigan's Favorites

by Maureen Corrigan

December 22, 200512:00 AM

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan lists her favorite books of 2005, including novels by Mary Gaitskill and Kazuo Ishiguro, and memoirs by Joan Didion and J.R. Moehringer.

Read Any Good Books?

'The Year of Magical Thinking' by Joan Didion

November 15, 200512:00 AM

This memoir by the author, whose husband John Gregory Dunne of a heart attack while their daughter lay hospitalized in a coma, "reminds us everything can change in an instant," writes NPR listener James.

Author Interviews

Joan Didion, Writing a Story After an Ending

by Terry Gross

October 13, 200512:00 AM

Joan Didion's memoir The Year of Magical Thinking is about grieving for her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne. He died suddenly at the end of 2003, while their daughter was hospitalized with pneumonia.

Joan Didion and her husband were married for nearly 40 years.

Author Interviews

Joan Didion Survives 'The Year of Magical Thinking'

by Susan Stamberg

September 30, 200512:00 AM

A little more than a month before her 40th wedding anniversary, Joan Didion's beloved husband — novelist John Gregory Dunne — died unexpectedly. Didion has written a book about his death, The Year of Magical Thinking.

Joan Didion. Credit: Neville Elder/Corbis.

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Joan Didion

Books by Joan Didion

Joan Didion has written books about:

NPR stories about Joan Didion

More From Books

From Our Listeners

Three-Minute Fiction: 'Ten Ring Fingers' And 'Ghost Words'

Author Interviews

Siblings' Separation Haunts In 'Kite Runner' Author's Latest

Author Interviews

Stories Of Hope Amid America's 'Unwinding'

Book Reviews

Ghost Ships, Murders, Bird Attacks: Stories To Keep You Awake

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