Does real estate determine everything Simon Winchester will join us to talk about his latest book,

Land, How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.

What should we know about the things we buy that are made in China?

Amelia Pan will be here to discuss her book, Made in China,

Prisoner, and SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's cheap goods.

Alexander Alter will have an update from the publishing world,

plus our critics will join us for the latest in literary criticism.

This is the Booker View Podcast for the New York Times.

It's February 12th. I'm Pamela Paul.

Simon Winchester joins us now from the Burke Shears. His latest book is called Land,

How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.

Simon, so good to have you here.

Well, lovely to be here. Thank you.

By here, we mean, of course, a little bit far.

The last time I think you were on this podcast, it was in person.

But perhaps it is fitting that you are on your own piece of land for this conversation.

How'd you come to want to write a book about land and land ownership?

I used to live in Hong Kong and came back in 1997 when Hong Kong passed back into the hands of the

Chinese. Of course, it should have done. Then decided largely on the advice of

oddly enough, the then New York Times correspondent in Hong Kong,

that I should perhaps move to New England.

And so rather than go to London, I came to the New World.

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