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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.

Hello and welcome to Bookworm.

I'm Michael Silverblatt, and today's show is a prelude of sorts to a new series that will

air on Bookworm in June.

The series will be called a heartbreaking group of staggering geniuses in honor of our

guest today, David Eggers,

whose first novel marks a breakthrough for a new generation of writers working in alternative

forms. David Eggers is the author of a heartbreaking work of staggering genius based on a true

story, and it's published by Simon & Schuster. By now, I think most listeners know the story

of the boy whose parents died and who raised his younger brother with the help occasionally

of a sister and a brother across the country. So we're going to talk mostly about the process of

writing and the imagination and tone of the book,

as we always do on bookworm.

There was a moment in American literature.

It was most disheartening where so many people's first book had been so astonishing.

I mean, you know, you had Thomas Pinch on with V.

You had Donald Marthelmey with Come Back, Dr. Callaghery.

And there was almost this feeling that if you couldn't, with your very first book,

...