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The Nature of Writing
You started writing when you were eight. What drew you into storytelling?
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Everyone Matters
How did The Five People You Meet in Heaven come into being, and why did it take six years?
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The Women Who Dared--and Those Who Didn't
What spurred you to write America's Women?
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Monks' Dream
Where do you get the authentic background of To the Bone and your other medical thrillers featuring doctor/detective Carroll Monks?
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Exploring the "New Normal"
How did you settle on Middletown, N.J., for a post-September 11 study?
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Just Stating the Case Is "More Than Enough"
How did you get the idea for a historical novel, The Known World after writing a contemporary work, Lost in the City?
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A Life in Words and Pictures
PW: In Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard, you tell your subject's life story via a bookful of nostalgic magazine art. When did you become a Hubbard fan? William J. Widder: In 1936, when I was 10 years old and living in New York City, I bought a pulp magazine, Mystery Novels, with a story by L.
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Deaths in Venice
PW: In Uniform Justice, both Venice and the San Martino Military Academy are "closed worlds"—one surrounded by water and the other by "tradition" and a code of silence. Are you attracted to closed societies? Donna Leon: I am not attracted to them, but I am very interested in them.
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Doing It Right at Work
PW: Who would you like to read The Art of Happiness at Work? Howard Cutler: Ideally, I would like it to be read by anyone who has to work for a living. PW: Naturally. But how can work be considered from a spiritual perspective, beyond the obviously good aim of feeding our families and ourselves? Would the Dalai Lama say that work is another area where we can practice ...
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An Uncommon Person
Now 85, Eric Hobsbawm has written the history of his own life, Interesting Times, and PW took advantage of the moment to ask the noted historian about the perspective his long life has given him.
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Lots of History, with Mystery
PW: You've been quite prolific since your first novel, The Death of a King, in 1985. Do you know which number The Gates of Hell is on your list of historical mysteries?
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Funny Business
PW: The Big Bing collects 20 years of your business humor columns. Where did they originally appear?
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A 21st-Century Dante
PW: Why the travel-book form for A Travel Guide to Heaven?
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Thriller Writer Utilizes Hands-On Experience
PW: Is Maura Isles, the character in your new book, The Sinner, based on an actual medical examiner?
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Of Politics and Bow Ties
PW: When and how did the idea for Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites come to you?
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Act of Implied Violence Inspires Novel
PW: And Now You Can Go begins with an act of implied violence, but because nothing actually happens, it's hard to determine if Ellis [the narrator] is a victim or not. Was this deliberate?
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Pulitzer Winner Finds Much in a Name
Lahiri's 1999 collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies (Houghton Mifflin), was a surprise winner of the Pulitzer Prize, forever proving quality fiction can be published as a trade paperback original.
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The Swedish Chef
PW: You've been executive chef at one of New York's top restaurants, Aquavit, for eight years now. Why did you choose to write your first cookbook, Aquavit, now?
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You Can't Copyright History
PW: War of the Rats focused on Stalingrad, while The End of War focused on the fall of Berlin. What made you choose to write about the battle for Kursk in Last Citadel, and how do you decide on the subject matter for each new book?
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Murder on the Eve of War
PW: Your new series, beginning with No Graves as Yet, features Joseph Reavley, a biblical languages professor at Cambridge. Who was the inspiration for this character?
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