Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I guess I don't really understand science

or this weird earth we live on all that much. I was under the impression that bogs were

where plants and wildlife decompose and break down. But apparently, bogs can also preserve.

In today's novel, Bog Queen by Anna North,

a woman is called in to investigate a body found in a bog that turns out to be thousands of years old.

And it turns out bog bodies are a real thing. You can go into certain museums and see these bodies, these cadavers with your own eyes,

which is exactly what author Anna North did. She tells NPR Scott Simon all about it after the break.

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And a North's new novel captures attention even before the first page. The dedication is

for the Moss. A colony of moss does not experience emotions like fondness or intimacy,

but if it did, it might say this. We held her. We kept her safe under the surface in our

bath of earth for many times her lifespan. That we give her up now may seem to be purely random,

an accident of excavation. In fact, the hour of her service is at hand.

Bog queen begins when a body is found in a British bog. An American forensic anthropologist Agnes

has brought in to investigate. The bog body seems almost completely preserved, but its bones

reveal that it, or she, is from the Iron Age, more than 2,000

years ago. What is the story of the woman in the bog? Bog Queen is the latest novel from

Anna North. She joins us from her studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks so much for having me.

Why did you want to write a novel about Pete Boggs?

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