Abraham Verghese appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered today, reading a beautiful essay about his affection for C. S. Forester’s Ship of the Line. In addition to being great reads, Verghese says that when it came time to write Cutting For Stone, Forester’s Hornblower books offered him a “powerful lesson…detail provides authenticity, but it is not necessary (and even detracts from the reader’s experience) to explain every last detail. What matters is that it is authentic detail.”
Click here to listen to the essay on All Things Considered, and click here to read an excerpt from Cutting for Stone. You can also click here to download a reading group guide, and read an interview with Verghese here.