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 pleased to be with Sandra Cisneros.

Her new novel is Caramelo.

It's published by Knopf.

She has not been here in the studio since 1995,

and I've missed her terribly, but at the same time have had my fingers crossed to see what it

would be that would be her big novel, because the last time we were together, we spoke about

the vignettes and the short pieces,

and she told me that, no, that she wanted to write not just a novel, but a generational novel,

that she wanted it to have love and history and family and both countries, the United States and Mexico,

and that it was going to be as complete a novel as she could possibly make it.

Well, it is, in fact. It's a full-fledged historical, generational novel of great warmth, hilarity, generosity, dexterity, poetry.

And first of all, I want to congratulate you.

And I want to talk about, you know, what it was like to spend, I think it's been around 10 years.

Yeah.

I'm good. You know, I tell people, I just put my head down a moment to write a book. I think it's been around 10 years. Yeah.

I tell people, I just put my head down a moment to write a book, and when I looked up,

...