Greeneville, Tennessee might just be that button – a charming historic town nestled in the rolling hills of East Tennessee where time moves at the pace of sweet tea being poured on a summer afternoon.

Another Green World was released 50 years ago. It is one of the most sublime and influential records ever made.

His new novel, “Palaver,” observes how an expat in Japan and his visiting mother find “a new language and way of being that’s ...