Philip Pullman’s new novel follows ‘The Golden Compass’ heroine into young adulthood
NPR's Book of the Day
NPR
4.2 • 672 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
It’s been more than 30 years since Philip Pullman began the His Dark Materials series – and now, that story is coming to a close. Pullman’s latest book The Rose Field follows the series’ heroine Lyra Belacqua as she chases the same mystery she began unraveling as a child. In today’s episode, Pullman joins NPR’s Scott Detrow for a conversation that touches on organized religion, reimagining Lyra as an adult, and a central concept in the series – Dust.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Among my fantasy reading friends growing up, |
| 0:08.3 | Philip Pullman was kind of a litmus test. J.K. Rowling was for the Normies. Everyone knew about |
| 0:14.3 | J.R.R. Tolkien because of the movies. But if you were clued into Philip Pullman and his His Dark |
| 0:19.7 | Materials series, you were a true |
| 0:22.4 | fantasy fan. |
| 0:23.8 | Now that saga is coming to an end. |
| 0:26.6 | Pullman's out with the Rosefield, the last in the series, and even if you're not a fantasy |
| 0:31.3 | fan, it's still worth listening to this interview with NPR Scott Detrow, because |
| 0:35.7 | Pullman talks about what it's like to sustain writing a saga like this for so long. |
| 0:41.0 | And his special secret is to not have a plan. |
| 0:44.4 | Just keep writing. |
| 0:45.7 | There's more after the break. |
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| 1:02.9 | You care about what's happening in the world. Stay informed with NPR's State of the World podcast. |
| 1:08.8 | In just a few minutes, we take you to stories around the globe. You |
| 1:13.1 | might hear the latest developments in world conflicts or about what global events mean for the |
| 1:18.8 | price of your coffee. Listen to the state of the world podcast from NPR. It has been more than 25 years since the world was introduced to Lyra Balacqua. |
| 1:30.4 | Lyra is the heroine of the His Dark Materials series, |
| 1:33.8 | where she answers big questions with a seemingly magical golden compass, |
| 1:37.3 | travels between parallel worlds, visits witches and warrior polar bears, |
... |
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