"I wanted to write something that was going to take me away, literally and metaphorically, literally take me away from sitting with my feelings about the present moment and take me to another place and this time where you couldn't travel at all. I barely left the neighborhood to play out some imagined incredible drama … I think escapism has its purpose, you know, and so does fiction in general, if we want to live in the biggest world possible, we need everybody's imagination to be there in the ether so we can grab it and follow it and follow ourselves through this journey beyond what we know." Acclaimed author Ottessa Moshfegh (Eileen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation) joins us on the show to take us behind the scenes of Lapvona, her unexpected new novel set in a medieval village. Ottessa riffs on putting so much of what disgusts her into this new novel, writing in the third person, faith, the importance of creating a new topography, what's next for her and much more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and his guest bookseller, Becky.

Featured Books:

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).

A complete transcript of this episode is available here.