Fiction

Novelist Louise Erdrich and journalist Katherine Boo took the top prizes at the National Book Awards in New York on Wednesday night. Although set half a world apart, both women's books express what Boo described as "small stories in so-called hidden places. " Erdrich won the fiction award for "The Round House," set among the Turtle Mountain Chippewa. The author of more than a dozen novels, Erdrich spoke in Ojibwe and English in her speech, citing "the grace and endurance of Native women.

There are people, apparently, who just can't get enough of the idea of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan having adult relations. "50 Shades of Grey" was a huge hit that went from small electronic publication to big bestseller status. E.L. James' series marked the beginning, not the end, of a full flow of fan fiction that started where Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series would not go. The latest being swept into the mainstream is "Beautiful Bastard" by Christina Lauren, a pseudonym for co-writers Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.

Unbuckling the mailbag: Question: I completely understand that you are the biggest USC honk in the land, but . . . the whole rest of the country is jumping on the ND bandwagon and you are being dragged behind in the dust. When are you going to give the Irish their props and at least admit they are real? William Trainor Answer: You should see my bumper-sticker collection: "I don't brake for Leprechauns. " "Honk if you hate the NCAA (but love personal foul penalties). " "Baby and vacated BCS title on board!"

The Dead Do Not Improve A Novel Jay Caspian Kang Hogarth: 272 pp, $25 Jay Caspian Kang's debut novel, "The Dead Do Not Improve," demands to be accepted on its own terms. Moving past the era in which understanding Korean culture was accomplished through "a collection of Buddhas, zenny poems … [t]igers, weird pickles and creative spins on rice," Korean American journalist Kang (an editor at Grantland) has penned a darkly comic novel about Philip Kim, a late Gen-X MFA from Columbia who lives in modern-day San Francisco, where he's influenced as much by hip-hop culture and the Internet he regularly surfs as by Albert Camus' "L'Etranger," Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and John Fante's "Ask the Dust.

NEW YORK -- A former stockbroker was arrested Monday on suspicion of concocting a cast of phantom investors to defraud producers of the planned Broadway musical "Rebecca," which was canceled for lack of financing a few weeks before its scheduled November opening. The announcement by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, followed weeks of speculation on Broadway and in entertainment publications over the show's fate, which had hinged upon millions of dollars that Mark C. Hotton vowed were coming from investors he claimed to know.

For the last 18 months, it was tough for Kevin Moffett to tell people what he was working on. "I would find myself getting out of breath," he says of his attempts to fully describe the project he was co-authoring. It's "The Silent History," an app that's a serialized novel, as well as a literary treasure hunt. Like a television show, it took a team of people to create and produce. And it dramatically advances the way digital novels take advantage of the latest bells and whistles available on the iPhone and iPad (sorry, no Android)

J.K. Rowling wrote "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" as a single mum on the dole. Seven books, 4,100 pages and a blockbuster film series later, she's one of the wealthiest authors on the planet - worth more than $900 million. That's about as close as any author ever gets to a sure thing. Yet Rowling has walked away from Harry Potter into uncharted territory. On Thursday, her novel "The Casual Vacancy" hits shelves and e-bookstores. Little is known about it beyond the basics: It's a contemporary, realistic novel written for adults.

Harry Harrison Science fiction author's work inspired 'Soylent Green' Harry Harrison, 87, an author whose space-age spoofs delighted generations of science fiction fans, died Wednesday in southern England, according to his friend and fellow sci-fi writer Michael Carroll. Harrison was a prolific writer whose works included tongue-in-cheek intergalactic action romps and dystopian fantasies, with detours through children's stories and shambolic crime capers. He was best known for his "The Stainless Steel Rat" series, starring the free-spirited antihero Slippery Jim DiGriz, a quick-witted con man who travels the universe swindling humans, aliens and robots alike.