John Lanchester

Today on the B&N Podcast, we talk with the author of such fascinatingly varied works as Capital, Fragrant Harbor, The Debt to Pleasure and IOU. With The Wall, John Lanchester looks into a startlingly near but radically altered future, one in which a nameless island nation has built a mighty barrier to keep out both would-be immigrants and rising waters. It's a fable of both exploration and warning, one that pushes its readers to join its author in trying to imagine a tomorrow whose conditions may soon be a matter of headlines rather than fiction.  When he sat down with us in the studio, John Lanchester explained how was the first time a book idea had ever grown so directly out of his unconscious mind.