Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Sotomayaka, I'm Michael Silverblad, and this is Bookworm.

Today, it's one of my rare shows in which I am talking to an author who has just written his first book.

The book is called Natasha and other stories, And the author is David Besmoskis.

The book is published by Faris Strauss and Sheru. And, you know, this book has a lot of

tradition for me, because I grew up reading versions of this subject matter.

David comes from Canada.

His parents are from... Riga, Latvia.

And...

Yeah.

And when I was growing up as a boy,

there were all these books.

The education of Hyman Kaplan was one.

But it wasn't just Jews coming to America.

It was almost every nationality.

Helen and George Papa Schiavely wrote a book called I Think Anything Can Happen

about the arrival of their father in America.

And this is the parents and the children of a first generation, a current first

...