You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

for you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read?

Hi, this is Michael Silverblad, and this is Bookworm.

Today, my guest is Michael Cunningham, whose new novel, A Home at the End of the World,

has been published by Farras Jous and Drew.

It's kind of an interesting situation with this book.

Several chapters of it were published in The New Yorker, and as

soon as I read them, I knew I had to find out more about this writer who seemed to come

out of nowhere with a poetic style and a kind of explosive sense of violence and tenderness, and I've been eager to meet you since.

Thank you.

I'm kind of curious. Throughout this book, or at least for its first third, the world is

described in ways that make it sound as if it were a place you could eat.

Walls are biscuit-colored, things are chocolate-colored.

There's an enormous spraying of food all around the landscape.

Why is this?

Hmm.

Well, you know, I suppose, like many writers,

I just sort of write it, write it all down, however it comes out,

and then wait for a good smart reader to come along and, um...

It's scary.

...