Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh.

Marianne Wiggins just wrote a book that's one of those big, chunky, you know, nearly 600-page books about America and all its flaws.

It's called Properties of Thirst, and before she finished it, she had a stroke.

And it was up to her daughter, Lara Porzac, to go through all her notes and pages and notebooks to help find the ending.

They both joined NPR Scott Simon to talk about the novel.

And there's a moment deep into the interview that really touches on that kind of sad and scary feeling when you realize that your parents, these huge figures in your life,

are mortal.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR

app or wherever you get your podcasts. Mary Ann Wiggins' new novel, Properties of Thirst,

is sprawling, expansive, and lyrical.

It's a series of love missives about families, fortunes, and the American West set in the

opening months of the Second World War, and it's melodic and clear-eyed about America's offenses,

too.

The fact that we can read this novel at all is a kind of masterpiece.

Marianne Wiggins injured a massive stroke in 2016 when she was just a few chapters short of

finishing properties of thirst.

Her daughter, the photographer, Laura Porzac, helped guide the story to the end.

And Marianne Wiggins, the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of John Dollar and evidence of things unseen and other great novels joins us now.

Thank you so much for being with us.

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