Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. In romance stories, having the two

principal characters be kind of awful and toxic to each other is a bit of a crush. It's an easy

way to make sparks fly in a big, bombastic argument to be tidied up with some makeup sex.

Although Carabastone didn't want to lean on that

crutch. Instead, her new novel, no matter what,

is about two people who genuinely do care for each other,

who are nice and kind, and in spite of that,

cannot figure it out. She talks to MPR's Juana Summers

about making the quiet moments in a relationship

the most powerful ones.

That's ahead.

Author Kara Bastone is used to writing love stories.

She's written three.

Her latest novel is no matter what, and it starts with a gut punch.

Roz, who's married to Venn, comes home from work and finds an apartment lease pinned to the table by a can of tomatoes.

She is someone who feels extremely compelled to feed people and to cook from her pantry.

And so when I was thinking of what is the most poignant imagery that could affect Roz a thing to pin the lease to the table, it was this thing that is of her, which is food from her pantry.

It is a choice to start a romance with a separation, but Roz and Venn are legitimately struggling.

In the aftermath of a terrible accident they both endured, their marriage has become strained.

And while the couple doesn't talk much, what they do say to one another is ripe for misinterpretation. That plays out in a variety of ways throughout this book. So I asked Kara Bastone about how she constructed the dialogue between Roz and Ben.

So there is miscommunication in this book, and I worked really hard to make it not be a miscommunication that could be solved by one repeated sentence or one quick conversation.

You know, there's that frustrating thing that happens in a lot of movies and books where it's like, oh, gosh, why doesn't one of them just say the thing?

...