MEMOIR

Bringing to brutal life the horrors of Darfur

A girl's vivid tale of growing up, being circumcised, and witnessing terror is unforgettable.

FICTION

Death takes a holiday -- and chaos ensues

Jose Saramago imagines a quirky world and then adds a sweet surprise.

What are you reading now?

``I just read the memoir Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life [by David Carr]. It's really good and interesting. There's something almost cinematic about it. . . . The story involves a gun, and you can almost see it changing hands as he writes.''

BOOK REVIEWS

New nature books

The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals. Peter Heller. Free Press. 320 pages. $15 in paper.

Author appearances

TUESDAY Carlos Frias and Take Me With You. 8 p.m. Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. Jaime Canavas, Carlos Casuscelli and Marilys Nepomachie and Bienal Miami + Beach 2001-2005. 8 p.m. Books & Books, Gables.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Fair ends with full house for 'Satanic Verses' author

The Miami Book Fair drew to a close Sunday with a packed session featuring Salman Rushdie, author of `The Satanic Verses.'

Honoring Mr. Matthiessen

Surely, other writers are on the Miami Book Fair schedule with Peter Matthiessen. If so, I forget. Some other year, Salman Rushdie, Gore Vidal, Russell Banks, Nancy Milford, Billy Collins, Sandra Cisneros, Rick Bass could collect their rightful veneration. But Matthiessen comes to Miami Sunday with the heft of his greatest novel and a nomination for the National Book Award. And he comes to a region that owes too much to his book for other writers to matter.

FICTION | THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED

Wally Lamb on the meaning of suffering and the promise of hope

The Hour I First Believed. Wally Lamb. Harper. 752 pages. $29.95. Wally Lamb's audacious new novel is above all a profound and moving exploration of contemporary life and its withering challenges, the travails that beat us and break us and leave us raw and aching.

BIOGRAPHY

From unemployed husband to ultimate playboy

Biography details Hugh Hefner's peculiar habits, work ethic and party life.

FICTION

Bonding while waiting for Kim

A family changes after a teenager disappears from an Ohio town.

KIDS' BOOKS

Author's mission is child's play

The power may have gone to Jon Scieszka's head. Halfway through his two-year term as the first-ever national ambassador for children's literature, he wonders why his car has no flags flying from the antennas. Where is his motorcade?

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Turns out 'Wimpy Kid' is the popular one

Jeff Kinney's latest entry in his phenomenally popular series about the struggles of middle school student Greg Heffley contains lots of fill-in-the-blank pages -- appropriate since Diary of a Wimpy Kid itself came into the world as filler when Kinney, an online game designer, was managing the website, www.funbrain.com.

READING

E-books bringing new power to the printed word

While traditional ink-on-paper books will dominate the Miami Book Fair International, paperless electronic books are gaining traction as the wave of the future.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Miami Book Fair International has `something for everybody'

A few moments at the Book Fair's busiest day revealed the motley interests of Miami. The fair continues Sunday.

Miami Book Fair International heats up

Book lovers will take to the streets Friday with the opening of the street fair of the 25th annual Miami Book Fair International. And if you're an experienced fairgoer, you're not worried. You know the drill.

Wrestling his way out of the labyrinth

Greek mythology -- along with a head-spinning array of other elements -- plays a weighty role in Wally Lamb's latest novel, and, he admits, the metaphor is uncomfortably appropriate.

It's no mystery: Lehane likes epics

The question comes at every one of Dennis Lehane's public appearances: ``Will you ever return to Patrick and Angie?'' The answer is probably ``No.''

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Gore Vidal and TV chefs Batali, Bourdain liven up Miami Book Fair

Two culinary personalities brought savory musings to Miami Book Fair International. And then came Gore Vidal, who was a bit more tart.

The Comix Galaxy

``When I started, getting published was not a goal. You had no idea you'd make a living doing this. Now that mainstream book publishers are doing more comics, I get e-mails from people asking how to get published. I find that annoying. There's nothing stopping you from going to the photocopy store and putting together your book and trying to sell it. The underground aspect is fading, but at the same time it's great comics are getting mainstream attention.''

All about the Book Fair: Tickets, etiquette and how to get ther

STREET FAIR 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami. Admission is free on Friday; $5 Saturday and Sunday; 18 and under free.

Bowled over by Tupperware

There was a time when American women were bowled over by a bowl -- a small plastic container called the Wonderbowl with a pliable plastic lid that ''burped'' when you snapped it on.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

'Boy soldier' describes his journey

A one-time child soldier in Sierra Leone spoke about the book he wrote recounting his experiences.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Miami Book Fair International takes comics, graphic novels seriously

Comics and graphic novels for mature readers have been a growing industry for decades, and this year they're filling more shelf space at Miami's book fair than ever before.

THE BOOK FAIR

At 83, there's still no pinning Gore Vidal down

Gore Vidal wears outrage the way Tom Wolfe wears white suits. It's his signature. He's written 25 novels, two memoirs, scores of film and television scripts and a dozen books of essays, including his new release The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal (Doubleday, $27.95), yet still finds time to be cantankerous.

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR

Dr. Brian Greene reveals the drama of science

For one night, at least, Miami got physical in a new way as Brian Greene wove humor and science to explain elementary physics in an elementary way.

THIS JUST IN

Books to broaden your style

Get smart. Here are some fascinating books hitting shelves now or soon. They will broaden your mind and -- if you allow -- your style.

Thanks for the memory experts

If you can't remember that you've just read this sentence, well, this might signal a problem. If you can't remember where you left your car keys (or car), the name of the person you just met, or where you left your *@!#^& glasses, this probably is not a problem -- especially if you are one of the 78 million boomers for whom such memory loss is normal.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Addiction emerges from its secrecy

An author discussed with a Miami Book fair audience the book he 'never wanted to write' about his son's addiction.

NONFICTION

The terrible night when Florence's art drowned

Robert Clark weaves history into his gripping account of the disastrous flood of 1966.

FICTION

Shipmates on a journey during the Opium Wars

The author's attention to period detail brings a lost world to life.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

Father's double life complicated their relationship

A daughter's memoir about her bishop father helped her to resolve family issues.

BOOKS

Author appearances

TUESDAY Lemony Snicket and The Lump of Coal. 1 p.m. Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. Also 5 p.m. Wednesday at Borders, 12171 W. Sunrise Blvd., Plantation.

BOOKS

What are you reading now?

``One of the pleasures of taking the autumn off from teaching has been unfettered reading. I was thrilled by Joan Silber's elegant new novel The Size of The World. Her well-traveled characters -- several live in or visit Southeast Asia -- made my world feel larger. I also loved Francine Prose's beautiful Goldengrove, a novel about a girl grieving for her older sister, which mysteriously manages to be the opposite of gloomy. Anthony Trollope's The Small House at Allington, first published in 1864...

Scholars explore role of race after Obama's feat

The line between words and the world dissolved as two distinguished cultural observers at the Miami book fair discussed the election of Barack Obama.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL

The bright, wondrous prose of Junot Diaz

The mighty Pulitzer Prize for fiction is the sort of impressive literary award that often arrives with the unclaimed baggage of expectations. ''What next?'' it demands hungrily. ``And when?''

Sierra Leone war turned boy into a killing machine

Ishmael Beah was 13 when he first learned to fire an AK-47. It was 1993 and Sierra Leone was caught in a brutal civil war, where there was one motto to live by: do or die.

WAR ON TERRORISM

Books explore courtroom battlefield in the war on terrorism

Two journalists look at the role the legal system plays in the war on terrorism. One book looks at the big picture; the other at a key case.

POETRY

Fair well versed with more than 40 poets

''The trouble with poetry,'' wrote former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins in his poem of the same title, ``is that it encourages the writing of more poetry.''

CITIES OF REFUGE

Miami a natural haven for persecuted writers

Miami is a city where many have come to make a fresh start. Soon, international writers persecuted in their home countries may look to the Magic City for the same sort of rejuvenation.