Who are the Manchester martyrs and how do they figure into Ian McWire's new book?

The author of the award-winning novel The North Water will be here to talk about his

latest novel, The Epstainer.

What makes a great thriller with enough meat on its bones to discuss in a book club?

Elizabeth Egan will be here to talk about Romy Houseman's Dear Child.

Alexander Altar will give us an update from the publishing world.

Plus, we'll talk about what we and the wider world are reading.

This is the Bookerview Podcast from the New York Times.

It's October 23rd.

I'm Pamela Paul.

Ian McWire joins us now.

He is the author previously of The North Water, which was one of our best books of 2016.

His new novel is called The Epstainer.

And he joins us from Manchester, England, and thanks for being here.

Thanks very much for inviting me, Pamela.

So this is historical fiction.

It's history that's probably largely familiar to many of your Irish and perhaps some English

readers, but maybe not to American.

So set the scene for us in The Epstainer.

The novel opens with an actual historical event which occurred in Manchester in November

of 1867.

And it was a public hanging of three Irishmen who were all members of the Irish Republican

...