Hello and welcome to Happy to Be Here, the show for recovering perfectionists and the perpetually curious about what to read, eat, watch, think about, and delight in wherever you might happen to be.

I'm your host, Greta Johnson, and I am so excited that you are here.

Today is a book club episode, and my guest is the author of this month's selection. The book is

called Widby. It was written by T. Kira Madden, and this is T. Kira's first novel, but her second

book. She also wrote a memoir called Long Live the

Tribe of Fatherless Girls, which came out in 2019. Before we get started, we have a quick

trigger warning for you. This book and also this conversation addresses child sexual abuse.

So, Whidby tells the story of three women whose lives intertwine with a predator

named Calvin. The point of view shifts between Mary Beth, Calvin's mother, and Lindsay and Bertie,

who are two of his victims. Both were assaulted by Calvin when they were young, though they each

deal with that trauma in very different ways.

That's all I'm going to say for now, since this is a spoiler-free conversation.

Tkira, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

So can we start with this opening scene?

Can you describe because it's such a great moment to propel the rest of the story forward.

Sure. The book opens when we meet one of our three main characters, Bertie Chang, who is a

Chinese American daughter of an immigrant, queer woman who is on the run from her abuser, the person

who abused her when she was nine years old, Calvin.

And he has just been released from a prison sentence, and he has been harassing her.

And also, her story has now been kind of broadcast to the world thanks to a new best-selling memoir

that kind of exploits the materials of

...