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For once, a dust jacket didn't lie: ʻAlāʼ Al-Aswānī's novel The Yacoubian Building is indeed a best-seller in the Arab world and certainly has stirred up plenty of controversy. Probably the most popular novelist in the Arab world, Al-Aswany joins Eleanor Wachtel this week on Writers & Company to talk about his novel, which "reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today."

From New York City, American novelist and poet Paul Beatty speaks with Eleanor Wachtel about his latest book, The Sellout. It was described by The New York Times as last year's most cheerfully outrageous satire, while The Guardian calls Beatty "the funniest writer in America."