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How Silence Improves Pico Iyer’s Life

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How Silence Improves Pico Iyer’s Life

For decades, starting in 1991 after his house in Santa Barbara burned to the ground, the travel writer and essayist Pico Iyer has taken regular silent retreats at a Benedictine monastery in Northern California as a way to recharge himself through solitude. He writes about those retreats, and the lessons they’ve imparted, in his new book, “Aflame: Learning From Silence.”

Iyer joins us on the podcast this week to talk about his new memoir and his life’s journeys.

“I’m a writer, so I spend most of my day alone,” he tells the host Gilbert Cruz. “And it’s true that even from a young age, I only had to step into the silence of any monastery and convert, and I felt a kind of longing, the way other people feel a longing when they see a delectable meal or pistachio gelato or some such. But I’d always felt this longing.”

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

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Do You Recognize These Past Winners of the National Book Award?

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Do You Recognize These Past Winners of the National Book Award?

Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s regular quiz about books, authors and literary culture. In honor of the National Book Awards presented by the National Book Association on Nov. 19, this week’s challenge celebrates winners from the past 20 years and asks you to identify a title by a short description of the work. In the five multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.

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Video: ‘Flesh’ by David Szalay Wins 2025 Booker Prize

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Video: ‘Flesh’ by David Szalay Wins 2025 Booker Prize

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‘Flesh’ by David Szalay Wins 2025 Booker Prize

David Szalay became the first British Hungarian to win the prestigious Booker Prize for his novel “Flesh.”

“I think fiction can take risks. I think it’s one of the things that it can do. It can take aesthetic risks, formal risks, perhaps even moral risks, which many other forms, narrative forms, can’t quite do to the same extent.” “I think all six of the books in the short list really, you know, not — it’s not saying this is the headline theme, but there is that theme of reaching out, wanting a connection.”

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David Szalay became the first British Hungarian to win the prestigious Booker Prize for his novel “Flesh.”

By Shawn Paik

November 11, 2025

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Test Yourself on the Settings Mentioned in These Novels About Road Trips

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Test Yourself on the Settings Mentioned in These Novels About Road Trips

A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights the starting points or destinations of five novels about road trips. (Even if you aren’t familiar with the book, most questions offer an additional hint about the location.) To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.

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