Historical Fiction

Writer E.L. Doctorow is known for using real-life historical figures as characters in his period novels. Best known for his book Ragtime, his novel Loon Lake is now available in paperback. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the day-to-day work of a writer and how his job as an editor affected his prose.

Book critic John Leonard reviews The New Confessions, a novel by the British writer William Boyd. Boyd's earlier novels include Stars and Bars and An Ice Cream War.

The author's books follow the lives of fictional characters in real historical situations. Several of them have been made into films. Doctorow's newest novel, Billy Bathgate, takes place in the criminal underworld of early-twentieth-century New York City.

Writer Ward Just. Just's new novel, "The Translator," is a thriller set in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just has written nearly a dozen other novels, including "Jack Gance" and "The American Ambassador." Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Just was a journalist, covering the Vietnam War for Newsweek. ("The translator" is published by Houghton Mifflin). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Pakistani writer Bapsi Sidhwa (Bop-see SEED-wah). Her new novel is "Cracking India," which tells the story of the Partition of India through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl named Lenny. Sidhwa has written other novels as well, "The Bride," and "Ice-Candy-Man," both stories told through female characters. She'll talk with Terry about her books and women's rights in Pakistan.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes' new book, "The Campaign."

Author Allen Kurzweil. Kurzweil's new book, "A Case of Curiosities," is a comic novel about the life of a 18th Century watchmaker living in France in the days before the Revolution. (It's published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Monday's Warriors" by Maurice Shadbolt, about Maoris fighting the British Imperialists in New Zealand. (published by David Godine)

Vollmann's latest book, "Fathers and Crows," is a historical novel that's part of his Seven Dreams Series. It's about "the spiritually charged wars of belief" between the Iriquois and French Jesuits in Canada from the 16th to 18th centuries. He's also written about Afghanistan and prostitution.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new first-novel by Fae Myenne Ng, about an immigrant family in San Francisco.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Henry James' Midnight Song" by Carol De Chellis Hill.

Commentator Maureen Corrgian reviews "The Alienist" a new suspense novel by Caleb Carr. (Random House)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Panama by Eric Zencey and The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews British writer Pat Barker's The Ghost Road. (Dutton). It won Britain's Booker Prize. The book is the third part of a trilogy of novels about World War I. (Her others are Regeneration and The Eye in the Door.)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Charlotte Gray" the new novel by Sebastian Faulks the author of "Birdsong." (Random House)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Dreamland" (HarperCollins) the new novel by Kevin Baker about New York City in the early 1900s.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new novel, "Another World," by British author Pat Barker.

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new novel by Susan Sontag called In America (Farrar Straus & Giroux).

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “The Time of Our Singing” by Richard Powers.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.