Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No to the bird.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today, facing one of my very favorite people.

It's Isabelle Allende, who is here with her new book in the midst of winter.

It's published by Atria Books, and I feel that not only is it a new book for her,

nothing like anything she's ever done, really.

It teaches us the difference I feel

between life and fiction.

That fiction is full of false turns and clues and hints, but life, life is genuinely punishing.

And in order to survive it, we don't find an answer.

We have to find the solution in a form of healing.

Although it has the form of a thriller, it's like a chamber piece

for three soloists who are eventually going to do duets two by two, then a trio, and they're

going to come together. They will solve a mystery, but the real mystery is the solution

to who they are and how now to live. How did you think of such a book?

I, Michael, I have no idea.

...