“I decided to give myself the license to fail, and to write across gender, to write in the voice of a midwife's daughter. And if the book isn't working, fine, we'll write it from the perspective of the midwife's husband, from some other male character. But I loved it. It was so emancipating to not be me, to not be (at the time) this 30-something dude. And I loved it. And I think, my best books, my best characters, whether it's first person or third person, are women.”
Bestselling author and all-around charmer Chris Bohjalian has written 23 books, including our May 2021 B&N Book Club pick Hour of the Witch, The Flight Attendant—now a hit HBO series—and his latest, The Lioness. Chris joins us on the show to talk about his love of bookstores, not writing the same story twice, researching and asking questions and learning stories, letting his characters guide the plot and going back to the first sentence, geography as a character, and so much more with Poured Over’s host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with a TBR Topoff with Marc and Becky riffing on their favorite Bohjalian novels.
Featured Books:
Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).
A full transcript of this show is available here.