Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Tzuberg.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we be without books?

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

Today, my guest is Peter Barron's.

He's the author of a novel called The O'Brien's.

Let me tell you, sometimes I get a book, and it strikes me as being not at my alley,

but it's so well written, and it's so terrific at what it does.

Well, you know, it's a book that many of you will be really happy to be introduced to.

It's a family saga.

It takes place before World War I goes up after World War II briefly into the 60s,

but you're following a family through time.

It's an interesting family, the O'Brien's.

But, you know, you're really good

at character. We're going to hear a section in which the, if it has one, the heroine of the novel

is introduced, and she is a kind of indomitable woman. She won't give up her principles, and she will keep them even in the

face of defeat. Eventually, in this book, we're going to see her falling in love with

Krishna Murdi. But here, she's on a staircase resisting and falling for the rather strong efforts of a schoolboy.

...