Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Something kind of rare happens in today's

interview. See, usually when authors are asked directly, like, why did you write X character in that way?

They give a diplomatic, artistic answer that's gracious to that character's motivations.

But there's a character in Maggie O'Farro's new novel, The Marriage Portrait,

a young Duke named Alfonso, who existed in real life. And O'Farro read something about him,

and how horrifically he treated his sisters, that's all real. That's in the historical record.

And she tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that at first she planned on approaching Alfonso in a more

even-handed way. But when she found that out, she planned on approaching Alfonso in a more even-handed way.

But when she found that out, she thought, you know what, this guy wasn't an abusive,

murderous jerk in real life. Why bother giving him the benefit of the doubt in fiction?

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Maggie O'Farrell's last novel, Hamnet, blew me away. It is the story of the only son of

William Shakespeare about whom little is known, and O'Farrell set out to imagine who he was,

how he died, and whether Hamnet's short life might have

inspired one of his father's greatest plays. Well, her new novel takes on a different time and place

Renaissance Italy, but it also centers on a real person about whom little is known and whose

young life was also cut short. It is titled the marriage

...