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.

Hello, and welcome to Bookworm. My name is Michael Silverblad, and today I have as my guest, J.R. Salamanca.

For me, this is a very special and important show.

Mr. Salamanca has rarely been interviewed.

His books have meant probably more to me than those of most American authors. His new book, That Summer's Trance, is his first book in 14 years.

It's published by Welcome Rain. They have taken the occasion to republish one of my favorite books in the world, a book called Lilith.

It was published originally in 1961. I welcome it back. It is now

in paperback from Welcome Rain. His books also include his first novel, The Lost Country, Lilith,

as I've mentioned, a sea change, embarkation,

and now that summer's trance. I would like to suggest to my listeners that if there are occasions

when you hear my show and find yourself buying a book,

let this be one of them, and you'll experience something truly remarkable.

Now, your books, Jack, have very much centered around questions of passion and the death

or the burning out of passion.

It's there from the very beginning,

the very first novel,

is vibrantly alive with the appreciation

of life around a young man,

and you seem from the very beginning as a writer to have had a sense of life around a young man, and you seem from the very beginning as a writer

to have had a sense of life's extraordinary mysterious promise

and at the same time the way in which that promise is withheld or betrayed or lost.

...