Listen to Joel Thomas Hynes and a panel of others talking about Huck Finn

The Continuing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

This year, The Globe and Mail has set out to select the 50 Greatest Books ever written. An anonymous jury is picking the books, and each week a well-known expert or author passionate about a particular book writes an article about it. The jury will be revealed at the end of the year, and book-lovers are encouraged to participate.

The very first book in "They're the Greatest" was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The newspaper's Books Editor, Martin Levin, wrote the accompanying article: "The book is a bildungsroman, a buddy story, a riverine road novel, a picaresque adventure, a funny and biting satire on American manners and morals..."

It's also a book that has attracted its fair share of controversy. When Twain's novel was published in the 1880s, some critics said it would corrupt youth. More recently, it has been charged with racism at worst and with being inappropriate for young readers at best.

Talking Books' host Ian Brown talked about the enduring appeal and issues of Huckleberry Finn with guests Joel Thomas Hynes, Katherine Ashenburg, and Walter Learning.

Listen to their conversation

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The unabridged audio edition of Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes narrated by Joel Thomas Hynes, Sherry White and Jonny Harris is published by Rattling Books.