The Thread

The Thread from MPR News

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'Scratched' spotlights the value of a less orderly approach, harm of perfectionism
Elizabeth Tallent writes: "For the sake of perfection, I took a voice, my own, and twisted until mischance and error and experiment were wrung from it, and with them any chance of aliveness."
Two years ago, Louise Erdrich succumbed to a nasty bug and took to her bed for a time. She slept, she daydreamed and she finally rose with a conviction that her next novel could be found in letters that her grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, had written in a particularly tumultuous period of his life.
'The Mirror & The Light' is a triumphant end to a spellbinding story
In this new novel, Hilary Mantel brings her award-winning trilogy on the life of Tudor politician Thomas Cromwell to an end. And even though readers know how this story will end, it's still gripping.
Former Viking Chris Kluwe attacks online harassment in YA sci-fi novel ‘Otaku’
Chris Kluwe, who retired from the NFL in 2014, combines a lifelong love of science fiction and a concern about equal rights to take on gamers who use the internet to make life miserable for female gamers.
Louise Erdrich's grandfather inspired her new novel, 'The Night Watchman'
Louise Erdrich's new novel, set in the 1950s, follows a Native American tribe fighting for their rights as the U.S. Congress prepares to terminate their nation-to-nation treaties and land ownership rights.