Meredith Maran is a contributor to The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The author of the memoir The New Old Me and a dozen other books, she lives in one of Silver Lake’s finest bungalow courts, and on Twitter @meredithmaran.

Meredith Maran

To Rouse and Repel: A Conversation with Maggie Nelson on the Rhetoric of Freedom

"The older one grows, the more one likes indecency." — Virginia Woolf

Memoir &amp; Essay

The Unruliness of Life: A Conversation with Marisa Silver

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain

Fiction

No Guarantees: An Interview with Christina Baker Kline

Horror Has Become Normal: An Interview with Gish Jen

One Voice in a Great Chorus: An Interview with Rebecca Solnit

"As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag." — Patti Smith

Gender &amp; Sexuality

Declassified: An Interview with Jessica Pearce Rotondi

"You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." — Molly Ivins

Politics

"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history." — George Bernard Shaw

History

What It All Meant: A Conversation with Alex Halberstadt

Funhouse Mirror: An Interview with Laura Zigman on “Separation Anxiety”

The Unthought Known: An Interview with Dani Shapiro

What Does Jill Soloway Want?

Frank did not haunt Front Street and Maiden Lane; he circled it, wending here and there, his eye always peeled.

It’s 1953, and the Langdons are at a crossroads. Walter, their stalwart patriarch, has died unexpectedly, and his wife must try to keep their farm going. But of their five children, only one will remain to work the land. The others scatter to Washington, DC, California, and everywhere in between.

As the country moves into the Cold War, through the social revolutions of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and into the unprecedented wealth—for some—of the early ‘80s, the Langdon children have children of their own: twin boys who are best friends and vicious rivals; a girl whose rebellious spirit takes her to the notorious Peoples Temple in San Francisco; and a golden boy who drops out of college to fight in Vietnam—leaving behind a secret legacy. Capturing a transformative period through characters we come to know and love, this second volume in Jane Smiley’s epic trilogy brings to life the challenges—and rewards—of family and home, even in the most turbulent of times.

Early Warning

Yet Another Genre for Jane Smiley

Meredith Maran is a contributor to The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The author of the memoir The New Old Me and a dozen other books, she lives in one of Silver Lake’s finest bungalow courts, and on Twitter @meredithmaran.