Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Boots!

Where would we be without books?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberd.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we mean without books?

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

Today I'm happy to have as my guest Leland de la Durantai, and his book is Hannah versus the tree.

Now, when I began to read this relatively short book, small pages, not much print on each page,

170 pages published by McSweeney's Press.

They do some very good books.

And I didn't know what to make of this title at all.

Now that I've read the book, I think that the character whose name is Hannah

is in some way, fictionally, a descendant metaphorically of Hannibal,

Hannah Hannibal.

Oh, that's an interesting theory.

Oh, I felt sure once you brought in Hannibal and you brought in Roman history, I felt sure

I must be right, but about this book, let me tell my audience, I'm prepared to be wrong

about almost everything except the fact that it delighted me, that it impressed me,

that I liked the way the sentences were written, and that I think one of the reasons why

the book is so short, will you stand by me with this, is that we are

...