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Boots!

Where would we be without books?

Where would we be without good?

No, Zendiburg.

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, it's my pleasure to talk with one of the people I've been speaking to.

Well, since the show began, certainly, but since I was

17. That's Joyce Carroll. It's a great honor always to talk to her. We're going to talk about

the novel that just came out in paperback called A Book of American Martyrs.

It has been nominated for a mystery and thriller prize at the L.A. Times book prizes.

Also brand new, a book of her short stories called Beautiful Days, both of these books, as always, from Echo.

So, I'm curious, when you learn that a book of American martyrs, which I think is a supremely

engrossing and intriguing book about American families, really.

And maybe at this point to be in an American family is to be an American martyr.

Who knows?

When you learned that it was being nominated in this category of thriller and mystery,

what was your response? Well, I was surprised initially, but actually I very often write about crime.

Most of my novels, like I think Balzac was often writing about crime.

And in an odd way, Henry James was also.

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