Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Timberd.

It's a rhetorical question, sir, but where would we be without books?

Hello and welcome to Bookworm from KCRW and KCRW.com.

I'm Michael Silverblatt, and today I have a very interesting writer as my guest.

Her name is Sheila Hetty. Her book is called How

Should a Person Be? She's the author of two previous works, a collection of short stories

called Middle Stories, and a novel called Tickner. And this, it's been said, is her breakthrough

book. Now, I was fascinated because I read two reviews, one

which didn't seem to have read the book I'd read at all, and another which seemed to be so

fully what I'd read that I want to compliment the reviewer, who was Chris Krause and the review

medium, which is the Los Angeles review of books.

Because Sheila Hetty is in her 30s, you know, to some extent this is the time when her work is becoming better known to readers.

And it's the time when being understood is kind of crucial.

And in a certain way, this is a book about being understood.

It's about a woman whose name happens to be Sheila

and her friends who exist, who live around her in Toronto, mostly writers and artists.

And it's trying to talk about how you forge an identity without destroying the identities of those around you.

Am I kind of right?

Yeah, that's a very nice way of putting it.

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