Author! Author! Modern Classics

On this episode of "To the Best of Our Knowledge," authors Khaled Hosseini, Mikael Niemi, Jane Hamilton, and others read and discuss their modern classics.

by Jim Fleming

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On this edition of "To the Best of Our Knowledge," a look at what makes a modern classic, and why the classics get better and richer with each reading.

Mikael Niemi is the author of the best selling book in Swedish history. Popular Music from Vittula is a poignant coming of age story and its author talks with Steve Paulson.

Jim Fleming speaks with Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner.

Steve Paulson talks with writers and editors about the enduring influence of Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita." The book was published over 50 years ago and is the story of a middle aged man's sexual obsession with a twelve year old girl.

Azar Nafisi is the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Her book tells the story of how this English professor met with her students to discuss Western literature in Revolutionary Iran.

A reading from Italo Calvino's novel If on A Winter's Night A Traveler.

Anne Fadiman, editor of a book called "Rereadings: Seventeen writers revisit books they love" talks with Anne Strainchamps about the joys of re-reading the classics.

Best-selling novelist Jane Hamilton shares some of her favorite endings from modern literature with Steve Paulson.

"To the Best of Our Knowledge" is an audio magazine of ideas - two hours of smart, entertaining radio for people with curious minds.