The Book Review

How is it that a seven-book series written in Danish about a single day repeating over and over has become something of a sensation among the literary set? Since the English translations of Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume” series were first published in the United States in 2024, they have been nominated for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award.

With the latest volume to be translated into English, Book IV, out this week, Gilbert Cruz sat down with A.O. Scott, a critic at large, and Joumana Khatib, a Book Review editor, to talk boredom, stuckness and time loops. Plus, the books in translation you should read next.

Books discussed on this episode:

“On the Calculation of Volume,” by Solvej Balle

“The Director,” by Daniel Kehlmann

“Tyll,” by Daniel Kehlmann

“Breasts and Eggs,” by Mieko Kawakami

“Heaven,” by Mieko Kawakami

“Sisters in Yellow,” by Mieko Kawakami

“King Kong Theory,” by Virginie Despentes

The “Vernon Subutex” trilogy, by Virginie Despentes

“Time Shelter,” by Georgi Gospodinov

“Territory of Light,” by Yuko Tsushima

“The Betrothed,” by Alessandro Manzoni

“Kairos,” by Jenny Erpenbeck

“Go, Went, Gone,” by Jenny Erpenbeck

“In Search of Lost Time,” by Marcel Proust

“Ulysses,” by James Joyce

“Anna Karenina,” by Leo Tolstoy

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Patrick Radden Keefe joins “The Book Review” to discuss his new book, “London Falling,” which begins when a family loses a 19-year-old son, Zac Brettler, under mysterious circumstances. His parents eventually discover he had been living a secret life, posing as the son of a Russian oligarch.

Speaking with the host Gilbert Cruz, Keefe describes the moment he first heard the story and how he immediately knew it would become his next major project. He talks about gaining the trust of the young man’s parents, Matthew and Rachelle Brettler, and following the threads of their son’s life into a world of wealth, influence and deception in London.

The conversation also explores how the book moves beyond the night of Zac’s death and into a broader story about ambition, reinvention and the uneasy question at its center: How well can we ever know the people closest to us?

Books discussed on this episode:

“Say Nothing,” by Patrick Radden Keefe

“Seasons of Fury,” by Rozina Ali

“The Emperor’s Children,” by Claire Messud

“Out of Sheer Rage,” by Geoff Dyer

“Middlemarch,” by George Eliot

“In Cold Blood,” by Truman Capote

“The Power Broker,” by Robert A. Caro

“Far From the Tree,” by Andrew Solomon

“Chatter,” by Patrick Radden Keefe

“The Last Samurai,” by Helen DeWitt

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We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Credits

“The Book Review” podcast is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Amy Pearl and Sarah Diamond. The show is edited by Larissa Anderson and mixed by Pedro Rosado.

Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad and Brooke Minters.

Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Erik Tanner for The New York Times

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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We have made it to April. We survived the snowstorms and the cold, and now that the days are getting longer, there’s more time to read. So this week, if you are looking for some books to tide you over until summer, our Book Review editors Gilbert Cruz and Joumana Khatib have got you covered.

Also on this week’s episode, the former United States poet laureate Ada Limón joins us to talk about her new book, “Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry.” And she reads two of her poems.

Books discussed on this episode:

“Transcription,” by Ben Lerner

“This Land Is Your Land,” by Beverly Gage

“The Witch,” by Marie NDiaye

“London Falling,” by Patrick Radden Keefe

“Prophecy,” by Carissa Véliz

“Ghost Town,” by Tom Perrotta

“From Life Itself,” by Suzy Hansen

“The Calamity Club,” by Kathryn Stockett

“Dog Days,” by Emily LaBarge

“The Midnight Train,” by Matt Haig

“The Land and Its People,” by David Sedaris

“On the Calculation of Volume (Book 4),” by Solvej Balle

“Famesick,” by Lena Dunham

“The Sane One,” by Anna Konkle

“On Witness and Respair,” by Jesmyn Ward

“John of John,” by Douglas Stuart

“The Things We Never Say,” by Elizabeth Strout

“Yesteryear,” by Caro Claire Burke

“Arsenio,” by Arsenio Hall

“Five Weeks in the Country,” by Francine Prose

“The Ending Writes Itself,” by Evelyn Clark (V.E. Schwab and Cat Clark)

“Go Gentle,” by Maria Semple

“True Crime,” by Patricia Cornwell

“Against Breaking,” by Ada Limón

Listen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Credits

“The Book Review Podcast” is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Amy Pearl and Sarah Diamond. The show is edited by Larissa Anderson and mixed by Pedro Rosado.

Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad and Brooke Minters.

Illustration by The New York Times; Inset photos: Scribner; Viking; Spiegel & Grau

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Tayari Jones’s new novel, “Kin,” follows two orphaned girls, Annie and Niecy, who grow up together in Louisiana in the 1950s. Annie was abandoned as a baby when her mother ran away to Memphis, while Niecy was orphaned when her father murdered her mother. The girls grow up under the shadow of loss, but at the very least they have each other, two “cradle friends” so close they’re practically sisters.

After high school, though, they take different paths: Niecy sets out for Spelman College to try to make a name for herself, while Annie flees to Memphis to seek the mother she never knew. Along the way, each must confront major questions about love and family, including what sacrifices are acceptable to achieve them.

On this week’s episode, host MJ Franklin talks about “Kin” with his colleagues Lauren Christensen and Elisabeth Egan.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

“An American Marriage,” “The Untelling” and “Silver Sparrow,” by Tayari Jones

“Clutch,” by Emily Nemens

“This Is Not About Us,” by Allegra Goodman

“Lonely Crowds,” by Stephanie Wambugu

“The Vanishing Half,” by Brit Bennett

“The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois,” by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

“Sula,” by Toni Morrison

“Beaches,” by Iris R. Dart

“Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?,” by Lorrie Moore

“Cat’s Eye,” by Margaret Atwood

“The Calamity Club,” by Kathryn Stockett

“South to America,” by Imani Perry

“Witness and Respair,” by Jesmyn Ward

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Andy Weir’s first time at the Hollywood rodeo was a singular trip. His debut novel, “The Martian,” went from self-published project to blockbuster, best picture-nominated film starring Matt Damon.

His most recent book, “Project Hail Mary,” was also a sensation, and its adaptation, starring Ryan Gosling as a middle school science teacher tasked with saving humanity from slow extinction, charts warmly familiar territory: a lone man, stuck in space far from Earth, solving science problem after science problem with many a humorous aside.

Weir joined the Book Review’s podcast and spoke to the host, Gilbert Cruz, about the similarities and differences between Mark Watney and Ryland Grace (the main characters of “The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary”), his second novel, “Artemis,” and the alien character that readers have fallen in love with.

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

“The Book Review Podcast” is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Sarah Diamond and Amy Pearl. The show is edited by Larissa Anderson and mixed by Pedro Rosado.

Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad, and Paula Szuchman.

Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Taylor Glascock for The New York Times

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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