You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.

My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.

The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.

With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to

helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all

put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your

life, check out BBC Sounds. Hello today, two contrasting views of contemporary American life from the higher echelons of L.A. Society to the Native American urban experience. Fiddling or even whittling, as Rome Burns, what novelists really do when they're supposed to be writing. And as the NHS celebrates 70 years,

a prescription for the most memorable portrayals of medical life in literature.

But first, an award-winning American author

with a unique talent for eviscerating stories of contemporary life.

Over a 30-year writing career, A.M. Holmes has frequently

zoomed in on the American elite, skewering the emptiness, dark secrets, and insecurities

behind the facade of perfect lives with her trademark satirical edge. Her woman's prize for

fiction-winning novel, May We Be Forgiven, told an unsettling and blackly comic story of sibling betrayal, but her breakthrough was actually a short-story collection, The Safety of Objects.

Now, a new collection, Days of Orr, marks her return to that territory after a 15-year hiatus.

A.M. Holmes joins me now. Welcome. Thank you so much for

having me. The collection is called Days of All, which refers to a 10-day period in the Jewish

calendar, but can also be construed perhaps as a reference to the sometimes mind-boggling times

that we're living in. Is this collection your attempt to get to grips with today's America?

In theory, but I think today's America is so elusive and actually the world, that it's an attempt to

hold some thoughts about it in a container for a while. And also, I think that blend of both entertaining us and

reminding us of who we are, because I think we need some grounding in this moment as well.

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