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Noi is a new film from Iceland about a disaffected Albino high school student. The film blends comedy and tragedy in its approach to its subject. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

As a child, writer Sandra Cisneros turned to fairy tales to escape from her run down surroundings. Their highly stylized language inspired her own distinct literary voice, which blends Spanish-language rhythms and cadences into English to tell stories of a cross-cultural world. For Intersections, a series on artists' influences, Cisneros tells NPR's Felix Contreras how she finds inspiration in the collision of languages.

Alan Cheuse reviews Little Black Book of Stories, by English writer A.S. Byatt. Three of the five stories included in the collection touch on the weird, the ghostly, and the miraculous.

An unidentified buyer paid $104.1 million Wednesday for a Pablo Picasso painting sold at Sotheby's in New York -- a record price for a work of art sold at auction. "Boy with a Pipe" was painted in 1905 and dates from Picasso's Rose Period. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and reporter David D'Arcy.

As part of an occasional series titled, "Musicians in their Own Words," organist Paul Jacobs discusses his upcoming marathon performance. On Saturday, Jacobs will perform all nine hours of Olivier Messiaen's complete organ works. Features in the series are produced by David Schulman and NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr.

The principal cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic is celebrating the return of his missing 320-year-old cello. The $3.5 million Stradivarius was stolen from his front porch three weeks ago. Footage from a surveillance camera shows a man on a bicycle riding off with it. A nurse who found the instrument in a garbage dumpster could collect a $50,000 reward. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports.

Singer Hayley Westenra is fresh from success on the international classical charts, and hoping to win new fans in the U.S. NPR Senior Correspondent Juan Williams talks with the 17-year-old New Zealand soprano about her voice and her new album, Pure.

In modern China, writing generally has not been something done for pleasure. It has been a way to challenge readers to revitalize the country or to try to mold souls politically. Under Chairman Mao, literature was pure propaganda. But now, as China opens up to the west, literature is losing its political role, and critics say, its edge. NPR's Rob Gifford reports.

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the hugely popular "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. The Full Cupboard of Life, set in Botswana, is the fifth book in the series. Detective Precious Ramotswe is also back. She helps people in her close-knit community deal with the little incidents of life. Hear Smith and NPR's Scott Simon.

The rock band Phish, noted for its devoted followers and free-ranging concerts, announces that it will break up after their summer tour. Band members posted a notice on the group's web site Tuesday notifying fans of the decision. The group is scheduled to go on tour supporting its new album, out in June. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and critic Peter Shapiro.