Welcome to Literary Friction on Nantes.

I'm Carrie Plitt, here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright.

Hi, Octavia.

Hi, Carrie.

How you doing today?

I'm good, babe.

How are you?

Yeah, I'm good.

I'm pretty buzzin after our lovely win at the British Podcast Awards.

Well, it actually wasn't a win. It was a bronze. But I'm telling that as a win. Pump it up. Yeah. I did a literary talk the other day and I had for some reason announced it to all of the students. That was very embarrassing. Did you say that we got gold? No, I said bronze. You didn't flat out lie. No, no, no. I told the truth. Always tell the truth.

No, we're really happy about it. It's a lovely thing. So thanks for everyone's support. Yes, thank you very much. And we have a really great show today, I think. Yeah, me too. At least it is a theme very close to this little country mouse's heart. It is small towns in literature. literature. Yeah, I'm way out of my comfort zone this show.

I know, I'm really excited about it.

I think we might have some genuine literary friction.

For the first time ever.

For the first time ever.

Whether it's Jefferson, Mississippi in the novels of William Faulkner,

or Coastal Main and Elizabeth Strout's, all of Kittridge,

or even Tokens the Shire,

the small tight-knit community has provided fertile ground for novelists.

And we do have a really special show today because last week we interviewed the acclaimed author

John McGregor at the Derby Book Festival. His latest novel, Reservoir 13, is about a girl's

disappearance from a small village,

...