Novelist David Leavitt.

Novelist David Leavitt. His new book is “Martin Bauman; or, A Sure Thing.” (Houghton Mifflin) It is a look at the Manhattan publishing scene as viewed through the eyes of 19-year-old Martin Bauman. Leavitt’s own first book, “Family Dancing,” was published when he was just 23. Leavitt’s other books include “The Lost Language of Cranes,” “Equal Affections,” and “While England Sleeps.”

Leavitt's writing focuses on the family lives of gay men and women. He says families can alternately be sanctuaries and dangerous communities for for them. His new book, set in the suburbs, is called Equal Affections.

According to Adam Hochschild, about 2,800 Americans fought in the Spanish Civil War, and some were bombed by Nazis years before the U.S. entered World War II. His new book is Spain in Our Hearts.

Journalist Adam Hochschild tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that "it was by far the largest number of Americans before or since who've ever joined somebody else's civil war."