Hey, it's Ampiers' Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. If you've ever tried to teach someone

English, you know that it's kind of a weird language. There are peculiarities to it that

seemingly don't make any sense, especially if a different way of saying something gets the

point across just as well, which makes English hard to learn, sure,

but that malleability also makes it a playful language too. That's how Alice Franklin uses it

in her novel, Life Hacks for a Little Alien. It centers an autistic character who is hyper aware

of the grammatical irregularities that exist within English. Franklin tells NPR Scott

Simon about how it's all about poking at and questioning what we think of as, quote, normal.

That's ahead. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Alice Franklin's new novel is a story told by an often lonely little girl in the south of England

who doesn't seem to see the world, or hear it sounds, or speak and think in the way other children do.

So when she hears on late-night TV about a mysterious manuscript, an ancient document written

in an unknown, an alien language, she thinks, at last, these could be my people.

Lifehacks for a little alien is the widely praised debut novel from Alice Franklin,

who joins us now from the studios of the BBC in London.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you.

What should we know about this unnamed little narrator?

Well, she's referred to as Little Alien by the narrator.

...