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Boots!

Where would we be without books?

Where would we be without good?

No to the bird.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblot, and this is Bookworm.

As my listeners know, I see no reason to have writers on if I don't like the work.

But every once in a while, I come upon a writer who excites me so much that even more

than usual, my enthusiasm is entire.

That is the case with the book this week, Till, by the writer Daniel Kellerman, K-E-H-L-M-A-N. And while I'm spelling, Till is spelled T-Y-L-L-L. the book is named for the folklorically famous jester

till

ului, The book is named for the folklorically famous jester,

Tiel Ulin Spiegel, who is the king of pranksters.

He is sometimes like a Shakespearean fool,

but sometimes his function is to provoke violence and disparate disagreement among his audiences.

Is this the role that you hope to fill, Daniel?

You mean that I want to fill as a writer? You mean that I was hoping for Till to fill in the book?

Both. I think yes, both. Definitely. There is this old trope that literature is something that's

enlightening and makes people better and makes people better human beings and teaches them things and that's all true.

But it's also, there is also the other side of literature that it can be something dark and frightening and confusing in a good way.

...