“A Remedy for All Things is part literary novel, part historical novel, but above all it is a novel of characters.”

My story is much the same, but my history is solid fact stretched to the point of lunacy. My plot (I call it my so-called plot) is a stage set on which my idiots do their screwball thing.

I love writers who research, then build on it. It is my experience, again and again, that the history books hand me material I couldn’t better, not with all my powers (quite considerable, if I do say so myself) of imagination.