Arts & Life

• Decades Later And Across An Ocean, A Novel Gets Its Due

  John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.

• The Movie Katie Aselton Has 'Seen A Million Times'

  Actor-director Katie Aselton could watch Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break a million times. "It totally scoops you up and takes you for a ride," she says.

• Unacceptable Anger From 'The Woman Upstairs'

  "Women's anger is very scary to people," author Claire Messud says. Her new novel, The Woman Upstairs, features a seething main character, a young woman whose anger is unsettling.

• Three-Minute Fiction: 'Ten Ring Fingers' And 'Ghost Words'

  NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Ten Ring Fingers by Tamara Breuer of Washington, D.C., and Ghost Words by Matheus Macedo of Winthrop, Mass.