So I just got back from the first leg of my book tour for In the Garden of Beasts, and I’ve got lots of intel about hotels, diners and other joints that I really liked. From time to time I’ll pass along descriptions of places I stumbled upon that for one reason or another seem . . .
Read More
I’m fascinated to learn from early readers of my new book, In the Garden of Beasts, that there is an intensity to the narrative that frankly goes beyond what I had thought readers would experience. Though I have a question, why ARE there any early readers, considering the book comes out May 10? Well, anyway, these . . .
Read More
In my new book, which goes on sale May 10, I set out to try to capture a sense of what it must have been like to live in Berlin in 1933-34, during Hitler’s first year or so in power. Most of us tend, I think, to view the whole Nazi epoch, 1933-1945, as if . . .
Read More
My first hardcover copies of In the Garden of Beasts arrived the other day via Federal Express (the book, however, does not go on sale until May 10). This is always an important moment, for it marks the point where a book is really, truly done–a terrifying moment, in a way. It’s my baby, and . . .
Read More
So I’m steeling myself now for the upcoming tour for my new book, In the Garden of Beasts. The tour begins May 10, when the book goes on sale, and will take me to Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Nashville, and other far-flung places. Cate Blanchett has agreed to accompany me for the entire journey. And . . .
Read More
I’m often asked whether I write using a computer or some more traditional implement. In fact, I use both. The best thing about my computer is that it lets me write quickly. I can trowel words onto a page with abandon, and remove them just as blithely; I can start the same paragraph over and . . .
Read More
I’ve been asked several times now in questions sent to me here whether I’d ever think about doing a novel. Yes. In fact, I have four unpublished novels to my credit—five if you include the one I wrote when I was 13 years old, a lovely little mystery of 75 typed, double-spaced pages about a . . .
Read More
I was recently proofreading the source notes section of my forthcoming book, In the Garden of Beasts, when it occurred to me that bits of random poetry might be embedded within. I don’t use conventional footnotes of the kind we all learned in high school because they’re too distracting. Instead of littering the text with . . .
Read More
Anyone who writes a book and is fortunate enough to get it published knows that the period between the last bit of editing and the day the book goes on sale is a roller coaster of emotion. We look for signs that our books will fly off the shelves and be loved by readers everywhere. . . .
Read More
Every book I write brings strange moments of serendipity, when the past seems to call out to me to affirm that I’m on the right track. Undoubtedly such moments can be explained simply by the fact that if you immerse yourself in a subject deeply enough and long enough, peculiar coincidences and confluences will occur. . . .
Read More