Alan Cheuse is the author of the novels The Bohemians (1982), The Grandmother’s Club (1986), The Light Possessed (1990), and To Catch the Lightning (2008), plus three collections of short fiction and a pair of novellas, The Fires (2007). As a book commentator, Cheuse is a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. A Trance after Breakfast, his collected travel essays, recently appeared in paperback. His new novel, Song of Slaves in the Desert, will be published in the spring of 2011.