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, Sanamanka,

I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm. Today I'm happy to have

as my guest, Howard Norman,

whose new novel, Devotion,

has recently been published by

Houghton Mifflin. He's the author

as well of the bird artist, the museum guard, the haunting of Elle,

a couple of memoirs, my famous evening in fond remembrance of me, and now devotion.

Now this is a book that requires a lot of what they used to call backstory in order

for people to know. So together, let's basically build the situation. We're with a man who has just after his marriage been found in his hotel room, just shortly after the honeymoon, with a woman who is wearing a bathrobe. He's found by his new father-in-law. Misunderstanding the situation,

the father-in-law hurries away. Our hero David Kozl chases after him down the street.

They enter a cafe, they get into an argument which turns violent,

eventually thrown out of the cafe, they're arguing on the curb and fighting.

And a taxi hits the father-in-law, William, damaging his larynx and breaking,

the pelvic bone is shattered. And so we begin this book with David taking care of his father-in-law

on an estate in Nova Scotia where there are swans,

...