Susan Straight is the guest. She is the author of several books and has been a finalist for the National Book Award. Her new novel, Between Heaven and Here, is now available from McSweeney's. Ayelet Waldman raves "It is only the rarest of novels that cry for a sequel, the most unusual of stories that at once satisfies and leaves the reader aching for more. Susan Straight's remarkable Take One Candle Light A Room is such a novel. And she has satisfied our desires in Between Heaven and Here, a magnificent novel, that manages to be at once unflinchingly real and transcendently beautiful. Susan Straight is one of the very best American writers. If you haven't read her, you're in for a delight and an awakening. If you have, then you're probably as thrilled as I am that she has taken us back to Rio Seco." Kirkus, in a starred review, says "Straight employs glorious language and a riveting eye for detail to create a fully realized, totally believable world." Monologue topics: letters, mall tag, Indiana, crisis, novel implosion, melodrama, complete creative collapse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.