Two novels find siblings confronting the evils around them

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today's episode is all about the complexities of sibling relationships, especially when the family is surrounded by hostile circumstances. First, NPR's Miles Parks speaks with Ari Tison about her new novel, Saints of the Household, which follows two mixed-race brothers navigating high school under their white father's abuse. Then, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe gets to talking with Rachel Eve Moulton about her book The Insatiable Volt Sisters and the way trauma gets passed down through generations.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Kia Miyakana-Atees. When I was in college, this thing kept happening to me. Classmates would rush up, surprised, and almost alarmed to tell me, I saw a girl who looks just like you. Yeah, I'd explain, kind of amused. I have an older sister. She goes here too.
0:25.3	Though we're not twins, we do look a lot alike, but we're different in so many ways.
0:32.2	Siblings can be like fun house mirrors, a reflection of who you might have become had the genetics tilted in a
0:39.3	different direction. Today, we've got two books that center siblings, including a novel about a pair of
0:45.2	sisters who live near a quarry, locals call The Killing Pond. That's later, but first, Ari Tyson's
0:52.2	new YA book, Saints of the Household, tells the story of two
0:55.9	Bre Brewery American Brothers who wrestle with the weight of violent abuse from their past that is now
1:01.6	spilling over into their present and threatening to derail their futures. This is Tyson's debut novel,
1:07.9	and it's told in vignettes and poetry. Here she is with NPR's Miles Parks.
1:13.4	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:18.2	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
1:24.8	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:28.5	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR
1:34.3	app or wherever you get your podcasts. What is it about high school that can make you feel so
1:41.4	alone, even when you're surrounded by so many people all the time.
1:47.1	Ari Tyson's young adult novel, Saints of the Household, centers on two brothers in Minnesota
1:51.5	who are navigating that very specific isolation in their own ways.
1:57.1	Ari Tyson, thank you so much for joining Weekend Edition.
2:00.2	I'm honored to be here. Thank you.
2:02.1	So I wonder if we can start there.
2:03.5	Can you just introduce us to these two brothers, Jay and Max, less than a year apart, both are seniors in high school, but are very different.
2:11.9	Yeah, so the two brothers are, you know, written in two points of view.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.