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Frances Ashcroft's new book details how electricity in the body fuels everything we think, feel or do. She tells Fresh Air about discovering a new protein, how scientists are like novelists and how she wanted to be a farmer's wife.

When aspiring Broadway actress Catherine and World War II vet Harry first lock eyes on the Staten Island Ferry, everything changes — but their lives together won't be easy. Mark Helprin delivers an old-fashioned love story, and an ode to 1940s New York, in his novel In Sunlight and in Shadow.

The Casual Vacancy is worlds away from Hogwarts and Harry Potter. It's a dark comedy of manners, set in a small town in the aftermath of a local politician's death. Rowling says her experiences with poverty informed her gritty portrayal of English life.

In his first novel, J.R. Moehringer writes from the point of view of Willie Sutton, whom he calls the "greatest American robber." Moehringer says writing historical fiction helped him deal with the anger he felt toward banks after the global financial crisis in 2008.

Colombia's government has announced peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist insurgency that has been fighting a brutal conflict for nearly five decades. But memories of previous, unsuccessful attempts at peace are still fresh for civilians in the rebels' mountainous heartland.

Charles Rowan Beye has been married three times — to two women and a man. Now, over age 80, he looks back on his life and asks, "What was that all about?" Critic Maureen Corrigan says Beye's memoir, subtitled "A Gay Man's Odyssey," is a complex, poignant addition to the sexual canon.

Author Dennis Lehane's latest novel is a faced-paced tale of organized crime and betrayal, set during Prohibition. Live by Night follows Joe Coughlin from his days as a small-time Boston hood to success as the rum-running boss of the South.

Village Voice Media Holdings, the company that publishes the newspaper of the same name, is breaking up with its controversial advertising service. Backpage.com has been accused of facilitating sex trafficking, and activists have been pressuring the Village Voice to shut down its adult classifieds service.

Emma Straub's novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, centers on small-town girl Elsa Emerson's transition into movie star Laura Lamont. Straub says her main character came to her while she was reading an obituary of real-life actress Jennifer Jones. "I was just struck by her life," Straub says.

Boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini won the championship his fighter father never could — but his life was marred by tragedy when he defended his title against a South Korean boxer who died after the match. A new biography of Mancini describes how his life changed after that fateful fight.