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.

Hello and welcome to Bookworm.

I'm Michael Silverbladden.

Today, my guest is Donald Antrim.

He's the author most recently of the Verificationist, which has been published by Knapp,

and the author of two previous novels, elect Mr. Robinson for a better world

and the Hundred Brothers,

both of them available in paperback.

Now, I am doing this as part of a series.

It seems to me, suddenly, for the first time in years,

although interesting writing has been going on,

that there is a kind of coalescence of consciousness, awareness around it, and I am calling this series a heartbreaking group of staggering geniuses, more or less in tribute to that novel by David Eggers, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Now, Donald Antrim has been writing...

When did the first novel appear, Donald?

1993, I believe.

Yeah.

And his work has appeared in the Paris Review and the New Yorker.

So he's hardly new to the scene with three novels.

And the books seem to me, more than many of the other

...