Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I love hearing authors talk about

cracking the code of their books. You know how when they've been at it and just pounding their heads

into a wall for what can be years until there's an aha moment that opens the book up for them?

NPR Scott Sleman talked to author Danny Shapiro recently,

whose new book Signifiers is one of those books about a family with a secret. It apparently

took 15 years to write until Shapiro could figure out how to unlock it. But within that time,

she discovered a pretty wild secret her own family was keeping. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Danny Shapiro's new novel begins with a crash, but also contemplation.

Let's ask the author to read from the very beginning of a new novel, Signal Fires.

And it's nothing really, or might be nothing, or ought to be nothing, as he leans his head

forward to press the tip of his cigarette to the car's lighter. It sizzles on contact, a sound

particular to its brief moment in history when cars have lighters and otherwise sensible 15-year-olds choke down Marlborough Reds and drive their mother's Buicks without so much as a learner's permit.

There's a girl he wants to impress. Her name is Misty Zimmerman, and if she lives through this night, she will grow up to be a magazine editor,

or a high school teacher, or a defense lawyer. She will be a mother of three, or remain childless.

She will die young of ovarian cancer, or live to know her great-grandchildren. But these are

only a few possible arcs to a life, a handful of shooting stars in the night sky.

Change one thing, and everything changes.

...