In three astonishing new novels, the past hovers over the present like a ghost. In Italian writer Andrea Bajani’s If You Kept a Record of Sins (translated by Elizabeth Harris), a mother’s abandonment lingers on in the memory of her grown son. Meanwhile, the protagonist of Sri Lankan author Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North, contends with the echoes of the country’s thirty-year civil war. And in Haitian writer Myriam J.A. Chancy’s What Storm, What Thunder, the island’s devastating 2010 earthquake is recalled with an eerie relevance. Moderated by Anderson Tepper.

Scientists and science writers discuss what it means to be alive in a world where life can be created, is under threat, and is still being discovered. Neil Shubin (Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA), Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred) and Carl Zimmer (Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive) on the science, philosophy, and practice of drawing the line between life and everything else. An apple tree is alive—is an apple? Do extinct animals forecast the future of the Anthropocene? In an era when the definitions of life are being reconsidered, it is critically important that science education become more inclusive for all to be part of that discussion. Moderated by Bina Venkataraman, The Optimist’s Telescope.

Contemporary Latin American authors frequently explore the tension between horror and humanity, unearthing personal and historical trauma while examining the dark side of our interconnected world. From those intimately affected by violence in Colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez‘s Songs for the Flames (translated by Anne McLean), to the sociopolitical horror of Argentine Mariana Enríquez‘s The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (translated by Megan McDowell), these two leading authors of their generation illuminate the daily realities of the macabre. Moderated by Idra Novey.

Three writers whose acute sense of place is often sharpened by reflections about home—whether one they’ve left, one they’ve found (sometimes on the way to somewhere else), or ones their writing has brought to life for themselves. A conversation with Rachel Kushner (The Hard Crowd), Jerald Walker (How to Make a Slave and Other Essays), and Aminatta Forna (The Window Seat). Moderated by Merve Emre, Professor of English at the University of Oxford, critic, and editor of The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway.