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, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today my guest is John Murray. He is the author of a book of stories called A Few Short Notes

on Tropical Butterflies. It's published by Harper Collins. And when I read it, I was really

delighted and amazed. It seemed to me to be the best literary first collection that I'd seen

in a long time. The books seemed to be shaped along certain principles

that one feels happy to call aesthetic.

And the author, John Murray, was a doctor with world health organizations,

and the story seemed to face head on the problems of

aestheticism, the urge to order, and chaos. The world out there, especially the world out there,

where in a war-torn place, you're suturing a spurting

abdomen.

But it seems to me somehow, I don't think that you're a doctor who became a writer.

Are you a writer who became a doctor?

I hope so.

I hope I'm a writer who became a doctor? I hope so. I hope I'm a writer who became a doctor.

Yes, I think I always had a sort of an artistic side, more of an artistic bent, if you like.

But I grew up in a family of sheep farmers who were very pragmatic and practical.

...