Check This Out host Rachel Barenbaum talks with debut novelist Katie Yee about her book, "Maggie; Or, a man and a woman walk into a bar.
The unnamed narrator expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.
A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak—it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie.
Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, the novel follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation.
She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture—and to perhaps save herself in the process.
In a special bonus following the conversation with Katie Yee, we chat with novelist Vanessa Lillie, about the return of Native American archeologist Syd Walker in "The Bone Thief."
When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate.
Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family’s fears.
This second Syd Walker novel blends history with fiction, and asks if the sins of the past are destined to repeat until the truth is finally unearthed.
Check this Out features lively conversations with up and coming authors you may not have discovered yet. Check This Out is proud to partner with The PEN/Faulkner Foundation to champion new voices in literature.
Support your local bookstore, or buy your copy of "Maggie; Or, a man and a woman walk into a bar" and "The Bone Thief" from Zibby's Bookshop, a sponsor of Check This Out.
