Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed

or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

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

Today I'm very happy to have as my guest, Nathan Englander, whose first novel, new novel,

The Ministry of Special Cases, has just been published by Knopf.

Now, he's the author as well of a book of stories.

You probably know them for the relief of unbearable urges.

It's been around eight years since we've last spoken.

And this book seems very much to take at its heart the eternal war between fathers and sons.

It uses as its occasion for examination of this war a political situation in Argentina that led to the disappearance of children, but it was my feeling, as I read,

that the real psychological dimension is about those things that erupt between a father and a son,

which then, if the son disappears as he might, or is disappeared as in this book he is

become the permanent context the frozen context of the father's relation to the son.

Yeah, no, it's good to see you again after all these years.

You know, it's, yeah, you always give a close read.

It's funny because I've been on the road for a while now, and this is, yeah, that's come up so it's, I have rarely discussed the father-son aspect.

You know, really, it's, yes, so central to the book, but really end up talking about the dirty war or the Jews. But, yeah, for me in many ways, this is, yes, so central to the book, but really I end up talking about the dirty war or the Jews.

But, yeah, for me in many ways, this is, again, about that primal relationship.

Tell me more. How did the book get started?

...