Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The family vacation has a way of

recontextualizing things. You take your family or any family really and put them in a different

place, a different environment, and suddenly the dynamics are ever so slightly different.

I'm sure a lot of us can relate.

And it's the basis of the new novel by Waiky Wang, titled Rental House.

And in this interview with NPR Scott Simon,

Wang talks about why she picked a vacation as the lens she uses to examine family.

And how, while coexistence can be bumpy, it can also be beautiful.

That's ahead.

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.

Here's a scene that might resonate this week.

A woman sits around a campfire with her husband Nate and her in-laws.

The rental house in Cape Cod had several days into their togetherness

when all of a sudden, or maybe it's been building for a long time,

the woman picks up a hatchet, she digs it into a flaming log,

and throws both into the rental

house. Someone screamed. It wasn't Carew. When the smoke cleared, three people stood in the kitchen,

scrutinizing the wet piece of burntwood and the black streaks it had left. One by one,

...