What happens when a young woman from Brooklyn takes a job in Moscow during the Great Depression?

Sana Krasnikova will tell us about her debut novel, The Patriots.

She's not a blind idealog.

She doesn't go to Russia because she's politically brainwashed.

I think she goes to some degree because she's kind of a proto-feminist.

How did Arthur Conan Doyle unleash the greatest literary detective of all time?

Michael Sims will tell us about his new book, Arthur and Sherlock.

Sherlock Holmes had a kind of three-dimensional air about him, even though he was heroic and larger than life.

Alexander Altair will give us an update for the literary world,

plus we'll talk about what we and the wider world are reading.

This is Inside the New York Times Booker View. I'm Pamela Paul.

Sana Krasnikova joins us now to talk about her novel, The Patriots.

Sana, thank you for being here. Thanks, Pamela.

All right, this is a debut novel you've written a collection of short stories.

Tell us a little bit about the Genesis of the book. How long have you been working on it?

From beginning to end, probably a little over seven years.

I actually started thinking about it before I finished the first book.

And when I was still completing the first book,

I had been vacationing in Cape Cod with a good family friend,

known for many years.

And he was, I thought, a Russian immigrant, like my parents, like me.

And I was surprised to learn that his parents were actually both Americans.

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