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Anne Tyler NPR coverage of Anne Tyler: News, author interviews, critics' picks and more.

Books

Anne Tyler

Books by Anne Tyler

Noah's Compass

The Beginner's Goodbye

Vinegar Girl

A Spool of Blue Thread

Anne Tyler has written books about:

NPR stories about Anne Tyler

Author Interviews

A Phone Call Changes Everything In Anne Tyler's 'Clock Dance'

July 7, 2018 • Tyler's new novel — her 21st — follows a woman who thinks she's at the end of the road, widowed and settled into a lonely life, when a mistaken call for help turns her world upside down.

A Phone Call Changes Everything In Anne Tyler's 'Clock Dance'

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Vinegar Girl

Review

Book Reviews

Fizzy 'Vinegar Girl' Tames Shrewishness To Sparkle

June 21, 2016 • Anne Tyler's latest is part of a series of Shakespeare plays turned novels; she's turned The Taming of the Shrew into a modern screwball comedy about an absent-minded scientist and his daughters.

A Spool of Blue Thread

Review

Book Reviews

Cozy 'Blue Thread' Is Unabashedly Domestic

February 10, 2015 • Anne Tyler's 20th novel will feel comfortably familiar to her fans — A Spool of Blue Thread is the long-haul story of an ordinary Baltimore family thrown into disarray by illness and sudden tragedy.

The Beginner's Goodbye

Review

Book Reviews

'The Beginner's Goodbye': A Grief Observed

April 4, 2012 • In her 19th novel, Anne Tyler returns to familiar themes, but with a supernatural twist. A grieving widower comes to grips with his wife's recent death with the help of her ghost.

The Art Of The Everyday: The Alchemy Of Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler's Baltimore Chris Hartlove for NPR hide caption

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Chris Hartlove for NPR

Author Interviews

The Art Of The Everyday: The Alchemy Of Anne Tyler

March 30, 2012 • In her first broadcast interview in decades, novelist Anne Tyler introduces us to her new book, The Beginner's Goodbye; her Baltimore; and her definition of heaven.

The Art Of The Everyday: The Alchemy Of Anne Tyler

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The Beginner's Goodbye

First Reads

First Read: 'The Beginner's Goodbye' By Anne Tyler

March 23, 2012 • An exclusive excerpt from Anne Tyler's new novel (out on April 3), the story of a grieving widower who is comforted by his wife's visits from beyond the grave.

First Read: 'The Beginner's Goodbye' By Anne Tyler

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New In Paperback

A Love Story Writ Large, How Men Think, And 'Iliad' Re-Imagined

January 26, 2011 • Julie Orringer's much-anticipated first novel is a love story set on the eve of World War II, while Anne Tyler's latest probes a man's personal awakening at age 60. Meanwhile, David Malouf re-imagines one of Homer's most famous encounters. In nonfiction, Dr. Louann Brizendine is back with a look at the male brain.

Anne Tyler's Everyday American, Nearing The End

Anne Tyler won the Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons. Noah's Compass is her 18th novel. Diana Walker hide caption

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Diana Walker

Review

Book Reviews

Anne Tyler's Everyday American, Nearing The End

January 13, 2010 • At 61 years old, the protagonist of Noah's Compass has lost his teaching job and is settling into a new, smaller apartment, when an act of violence changes his life. Noah's Compass is Tyler's 18th novel.

What We're Reading, Jan. 6-12, 2010

Ryan Gibbons/NPR

What We're Reading

What We're Reading, Jan. 6-12, 2010

January 6, 2010 • This week, Anne Tyler's new novel explores one man's rudderless existence, and Elizabeth Gilbert offers an older and wiser follow-up to Eat Pray Love. Also, a narrative of life in North Korea, and in Summertime, J.M. Coetzee offers a fictional biography of the author ... J.M. Coetzee.