How did a young man named Ryan Speedo Greene rise from an abusive small-town childhood in Virginia

to take the stage at the Metropolitan Opera?

Author Daniel Bergner is here to talk about his new book, Sing For Your Life, A Story of

Race, Music, and Family.

Life was so difficult for him when he was young and he had to so rely on himself.

It's like there's nothing that can crush him.

Is it that makes Maria's samples, Seattle novels so funny, so perfectly satirical, and so

true to life?

Maria is here to talk about her latest book, Today Will Be Different.

It came from really just I sat down on the first day, I decided I needed to write my new

novel and I sat down and I thought what is going on, what is a part of myself that I don't

want anyone to see.

We'll also talk literary news and what we and other people are reading.

This is Inside the New York Times Book Review.

I'm Pamela Paul.

Even if you're not an opera fan, it's hard not to be moved by the voice of Ryan Speedo

Greene, who recently made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera here in New York, playing

the role of Colleen, a poor philosopher in Lobo M.

But Greene's path to the stage of the Met is one of the most improbable of anyone who's

ever sung there, as author Daniel Bergner lays out in his new book, Sing For Your Life,

a story of race, music, and family.

Daniel, thanks for being here.

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