Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Sometimes a long, twisty, opaque sentence is the right call.

The best way to communicate a complicated feeling or describe something slightly ineffable.

Other times, it's a defense mechanism. A crutch, a writer turns to when writing simply feels too honest,

too vulnerable. In Brandon Hobson's novel, The Devil is a Southpaw, one of the main characters,

Milton, is a writer who writes in these long and difficult passages. And it's an attempt to

create capital A art. But as Hobson tells M. Empire Scott Simon, Milton isn't the most reliable of narrators.

That's ahead.

The devil as a Southpaw is a novel within a novel.

A manuscript, we're told, received via airmail from a long-lost friend.

The friend, Milton Muleborn, had been living in a

yurt in the woods and writes about his childhood rival, Matthew Ochoa. They were locked up together

at an Oklahoma juvenile facility in 1988. It is the latest novel from Brandon Hobson. He's been a finalist for the National Book Award.

He's an associate professor of creative writing at New Mexico State University

and an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

He joins us from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

Tell us about these two rivals and occasional friends.

Matthew is a young Cherokee artist.

Criplingly shy, talented, smart and handsome boy in your own words.

Milton's own words, your own words, whatever.

Why does Milton envy him? Well, first of all, Milton's sanity

...