Nicholas Jost

And you think, wow, it's not a lengthy description of a setting or a character.

Then suddenly Elizabeth Costello pops up.

And she's anything but likable.

She's a real pain and she's causing trouble.

you know, wherever she goes and she's in trouble.

But that, of course, you know, makes the character alive and complicated and fascinating.

But this is also a book that it's possible to not like.

And, again, that's part of, you know, pushing the question of fiction as far as it can go.