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The 2004 earthquake in Indonesia was so powerful, it sped up Earth's rotation by a fraction of a second each day. That detail inspired Karen Thompson Walker's debut novel, which imagines a world in which Earth has inexplicably begun to slow down, leading to a series of calamitous changes.

W.S. Merwin won his second Pulitzer Prize for poetry on April 20. In a 2008 interview, Merwin talked with Fresh Air about memory, mortality and acceptance.

In his new book, The Tyranny of Bad Ideas, author Matt Miller says Americans need to let go of certain outmoded beliefs. On the list? The idea that our children will earn more than we do and the notion that taxes are bad and free trade is good.

The U.S. Postal Service announced a half billion dollar contract to replace some of its older vehicles, but only a fraction will be electric powered. Environmentalists are disappointed.

The Biden administration is moving to restore protections for migratory birds. It's the latest step to reverse a number of environmental rollbacks under former President Donald Trump.

Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom was called "a masterpiece" by Time Magazine and received rave reviews from critics. Franzen talks about the runaway success of his previous novel The Corrections, and the strong reaction elicited by Freedom.

Critic Dan Kois selects the standout graphic novels of the year, which include books from France and Japan, explicit picaresques, hard-boiled mysteries, memoirs, fairy tales and new twists on old classics.

Novelist T.C. Boyle takes on a California environmental battle while Mary Doria Russell takes a fresh look at the Wild West of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In nonfiction, Sarah Vowell tours Hawaii, Charles Fishman looks at the future of water, Allen Shawn reflects on being a twin, and Ben Ryder Howe on running a Brooklyn deli.

Novelist Julie Otsuka returns with a tale of Japanese "picture brides," while singer Shania Twain shares her account of overcoming poverty and divorce to hold her own as a country music star.

In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,800 toys into the ocean. What happened to those toys led writer Donovan Hohn on a worldwide journey filled with beachcombers, oceanographers, ship captains and environmentalists.