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Dina Greenberg

In the Fall of 2021 Dina published her first full novel, Nermina’s Chance.

In the realm of discovering new writers, it is often by chance.

Enjoying this book. Great chance.

War sears its imprint on the human spirit in infinite ways.

After her family is murdered and her body ravaged by Serbian soldiers, Nermina Beganović’s only chance of survival is to flee her Bosnian homeland during the Balkan War, circa 1992.

Nermina’s Chance by Dina Greenberg reimagines the essence of family and plumbs the depths of a mother’s ardent connection to her daughter.

“Nermina’s Chance in less expert hands would have ended up as a drifting trilogy. Dina Greenberg has kept her story together in one tight and suspenseful narrative, intricately woven. She has given us a cast of main characters each worthy of their own novel. Rarely does a story blend so meaningfully the horrors of war, the possibilities and limits of love, and the human need for family. If you give Nermina’s Chance a chance, you will soon be turning the last page.”

Clyde Edgerton, author of Walking Across Egypt and The Night Train

Joe Rothstein

Joe Rothstein – Author and Political Strategist

“Must read political thriller of 2022”

In his words:

Can democratic government provide the answers? That’s the question at the core of “Menace.”
Three decades ago, a meeting at Kyoto, Japan confirmed the threat of a warming planet and produced a plan for dealing with it. Three decades later, with unprecedented heat, fire, storm, flood, drought, and climate-related migration accelerating even beyond the Kyoto forecasts, governments still have not responded in a manner equal to the threat.

Eight decades ago, atomic bombs were used in warfare. The danger of their use again has not receded. More nations have them stockpiled. Delivery systems remain trigger-ready, and with delivery speeds now approaching hypersonic levels.

Even a technology seemingly as benign as the Internet has been transformed into the beating heart of political turmoil and repression.

I wrote The Moment of Menace and its prequel, The Salvation Project to imagine these threats in the context of fiction. But the question addressed is our reality. How does democracy survive in this age of advanced science?

The irony is that aside from nuclear weapons, much of what is being created can contribute to a golden age—a better life for all who come after us. Far from being bleak, the future can be glorious. Can it be both glorious and remain the democratic system most of us cherish? That’s the question The Moment of Menace addresses.

David Mitchell

Location – London (Soho) and around the world.

Check out the 2012 film version of Cloud Atlas on Netflix.

Extended Interview – w/ Neil Gaiman @ virtual Politics & Prose Bookstore

David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. After another stint in Japan, he currently lives in Ireland with his wife Keiko and their two children. In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote: “I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I’d spent the last 6 years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself.” Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. Mitchell’s American editor at Random House is novelist David Ebershoff. (Goodreads)

His latest novel (July 2020) Utopia Avenue tells the fictional story of a British band of the same name, who emerged from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, against the backdrop of real world characters and events.

Check it out on Goodreads (Click cover below)

T.C. Boyle

T.Coraghessan Boyle is the author of twenty-eight books of fiction, including, most recently, After the Plague (2001), Drop City (2003), The Inner Circle (2004), Tooth and Claw (2005), The Human Fly (2005), Talk Talk (2006), The Women (2009), Wild Child (2010), When the Killing’s Done (2011), San Miguel (2012), T.C. Boyle Stories II (2013), The Harder They Come (2015), The Terranauts (2016), The Relive Box (2017) and Outside Looking In (2019). He received a Ph.D. degree in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1974, and his B.A. in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978, where he is Distinguished Professor of English.

Anne Tyler

is an American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published 22 novels, the best known of which are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, and Breathing Lessons. Wikipedia

Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett’s other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Run, State of Wonder, Commonwealth, and The Dutch House. Wikipedia

Ms. Patchett is also co-owner of a renown Nashville Bookstore — Parnassus Books

Suzanne Berne

Suzanne Berne is an American novelist known for her foreboding character studies involving unexpected domestic and psychological drama in bucolic suburban settings. Wikipedia

Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is often hailed as the “American Chekhov” of the suburbs, a writer who has spent over three decades dissecting the quiet desperation, suburban ennui, and darkly comic absurdities of middle-class life. Born in 1961 in Newark, New Jersey, Perrotta’s perspective was shaped by his upbringing as the son of a postal worker. This background instilled in him a “down-to-earth, egalitarian” literary voice that treats everyday struggles with the gravity typically reserved for epic drama.

Perrotta’s ascent into the literary mainstream was fueled by his uncanny ability to turn local settings into universal metaphors. His breakout novel, Election (1998), utilized a high school student council race to satirize the broader American political landscape. The introduction of Tracy Flick—a character defined by relentless, terrifying ambition—created a permanent cultural archetype, further cemented by Alexander Payne’s iconic film adaptation. He followed this success with Little Children (2004), a novel that transformed the mundane world of playgrounds and neighborhood pools into a psychological battlefield. By exploring the secret lives and unfulfilled desires of stay-at-home parents, Perrotta exposed the “Dante’s Inferno” hiding behind manicured lawns. The book solidified his reputation for writing with a “crisp and light” style that never shies away from moral complexity.

While realism was his initial forte, Perrotta took a daring thematic turn with The Leftovers (2011). Using a “pseudo-Rapture” as a catalyst, he shifted his focus toward communal grief and the search for meaning in an indifferent universe. The novel’s adaptation into a celebrated HBO series, which Perrotta co-created, marked a major evolution in his career. He became a rare “writer’s writer” who successfully navigated the worlds of prestige television and literary fiction, a trend he continued with the 2019 adaptation of his novel Mrs. Fletcher.

Perrotta’s prose is characterized by its lack of judgment. Whether his characters are struggling with sexual identity, religious zealotry, or professional failure, he presents them with a compassionate clarity. He draws heavy inspiration from his former teacher, Tobias Wolff, and the disciplined storytelling of Raymond Chandler. Like his father’s commitment to his mail route, Perrotta maintains a rigorous work ethic, viewing his writing as a way to process subconscious material that holds deep personal and social significance.

In his most recent works, Perrotta has explored the complexities of aging and the weight of the past. Tracy Flick Can’t Win (2022) revisited his most famous character in middle age, finding her still fighting for a seat at the table. His 2026 novel, Ghost Town, marks another shift toward a “pared down” and essential style, focusing on abandonment and the lingering presence of those we have lost. Living in Belmont, Massachusetts, Perrotta remains a vital voice in American letters, consistently proving that there is nothing “small” about suburban life. His legacy is defined by a body of work that finds original and beautiful truths in the most ordinary of places.

Andre Dubus III

Andre Dubus III is the author of seven books: The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, and the New York Times bestsellers, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, Gone So Long and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times “Editors Choice”.

Gone So Long, is a masterpiece of thrilling tension and heartrending empathy. Few writers can enter their characters so completely or evoke their lives as viscerally as Andre Dubus III. In this deeply compelling novel, a father, estranged for the worst of reasons, is driven to seek out the daughter he has not seen in decades.

Recently published, Such Kindness, is the story of people whose stories are rarely told. The novel charts a remarkable rebirth, not from poverty to wealth but from bitter helplessness to the knowledge of self worth. The result is a gripping and transformational journey towards kindness. The result is also a tremendously moving novel.” – Ann Patchett

A. M. Homes

A. M. Homes is the author of the memoir The Mistress’s Daughter and the novels This Book Will Save Your Life, Music for Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack, as well as the story collections The Safety of Objects and Things You Should Know. She lives in New York City. Also of note A.M. Homes was born in the Washington D.C. area and set some early stories in my neighborhood. (ed.)

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