Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

From the archives: Lauren Groff discusses 'Matrix' at Talking Volumes

Maggie O’Farrell ’s last novel, “ Hamnet ,” the fictional story of William Shakespeare’s son who died at age 11, was an international best-seller. Her new novel, “ The Marriage Portrait ” also delves into history. O’Farrell was struck by Robert Browning’s poem, “ My Last Duchess ,” which itself was inspired by a painting of a young Italian woman who died in 1561, at the age of 16, just a year after she was married to the Duke of Ferrara. But did she die? Or was she poisoned? “The Marriage Portra...