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Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberd.

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, I have as a guest, Kevin Wilson, who has just written his first novel, The Family Fang. It's published by Echo.

It's a delightful, whimsical, hilarious, and original book. Perhaps I can best characterize the writer by telling you that his son's middle name, he just had a first son, and that son has the middle name, Fodderwing.

Now, how did that come about?

Faderwing, I got to choose the middle name. My wife chose his first name.

And so I went back to one of my favorite books of all time that I read when I first read when I was

10 years old, The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which I read maybe once a year.

It's one of the few books that I reread often.

And there's a character in the novel, Fodderwing, who is a disabled, kind of slightly deformed boy who is known for

communing with animals, being able to speak with animals, and being able to tell these imaginative

stories.

And he's the best friend of the main character.

And there's a line where the boy, the main character,

is going to meet with Fader Wing the next day, and he's thinking about it.

And he says something to the effect of.

He knew that what Fader Wing would say would be strange, but it would also be wonderful.

...