Rebecca Makkai Has Some Questions For You

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.1 • 766 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Five years ago Rebecca Makkai was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book award. Now, in what is a treat for readers, Rebecca Makkai has just released a brand new novel, “I Have Some Questions for You”. It is a marvelously plotted mystery/novel about a podcaster, Bodie Kane, who returns to her prep school to teach a mini-course. One of her students wants to reinvestigate, with a podcast, a murder that occurred when Bodie was a student and for which a school staffer may have been wrongly convicted. The novel investigates the vagaries of memory, the realities of violence against women, and the near-impossibility of reversing a years-old conviction. The book has received considerable pre-publication praise, deservedly so. And our bookstore this week has a wonderful story. The brand new Beacon Hill Books and Cafe in downtown Boston, at times, has customers lined up to get in. Find out why. Books mentioned in this week's podcast: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai Music for Wartime: Stories by Rebecca Makkai The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey Paige of Beacon Hill by Sarah S. Brannen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This holiday season, surprise everyone on your list with the best gifts.
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0:06.5	Choose from thousands of concerts and comedy shows, including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Matt Matthews, Metallica, Thomas Rett, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Sarah Silverman, and so many more.
0:19.4	Share a memory together or give a gift they'll never forget.
0:23.0	Find the most exciting gift for every fan at livenation.com slash gifts.
0:27.4	That's live nation.com slash gifts.
0:33.8	Good to see you all.
0:37.3	I know you're out there. We can't quite see you, but we know you're there.
0:41.7	This is the bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. I'm Charlie Gibson.
0:46.1	Hello, amorphous people out there listening. I'm Kate Gibson, his daughter and co-host.
0:51.6	And we're super excited to have you back or for the first time. If you're here for the
0:56.1	first time, we're about to talk to an author. That's our format. And this week, I'm really excited.
1:00.9	We have Rebecca McKay, whose new book, I have some questions for you. Boy, I don't, in some
1:06.8	ways, I don't know how to describe it because it defies pigeonholing in a genre. It is an
1:11.9	exploration of the justice system and injustice within the justice system. It is a mystery. It is a
1:18.2	woman coming to terms with her past. It's lots of different things. But all of it adds up to a
1:24.2	page Turner, I think. This is really the third week in a row. We've had a very
1:28.2	readable sit down and just enjoy it kind of novel. We had Julia Watsuka talking about the
1:34.2	swimmers. We had Amity Gage talking about C-wife and now Rebecca McKay talking about I have some
1:39.8	questions for you. And they're all just really, really good reading. If you want a novel that you're going
1:45.7	to enjoy, this is one of them. One of the things I was interested that you asked her,
1:50.8	and I want to give a definition of it for people who are listening, you asked her if she's a
	...

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