Listen to Michael Chabon as he discusses his new novel with Nancy Pearl. “Moonglow” unfolds as a deathbed confession. An old man, tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, tells stories to his grandson, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried. From the Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of a New York prison, from the heyday of the space program to the twilight of “the American Century,” “Moonglow” collapses an era into a single life and a lifetime into a single week. -- A gripping, poignant, tragicomic, scrupulously researched and wholly imaginary transcript of a life that spanned the dark heart of the 20th century, “Moonglow” is also a tour de force of speculative history in which Chabon attempts to reconstruct the mysterious origins and fate of Chabon Scientific, Co., an authentic mail-order novelty company whose ads for scale models of human skeletons, combustion engines and space rockets were once a fixture in the back pages of Esquire, Popular Mechanics and Boy’s Life. -- Michael Chabon’s books include “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” “A Model World,” “Wonder Boys,” “Werewolves in Their Youth,” “The Final Solution,” “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” “Maps and Legends,” “Gentlemen of the Road,” “Telegraph Avenue,” “Maps and Legends” (essays), “Manhood for Amateurs” (essays), and the middle grade novel “Summerland.” He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.
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