Edward Rutherfurd is the author of epic works of historical fiction including London, Russka, The Dublin Saga, and the new novel, China. We spoke with him about how he finds the right scale for his enormous books and when one of the many projects he has simmering is ready to be fleshed out into a manuscript of many hundreds of pages. And he shared with us his perspective on how he confronts the challenge of getting inside the minds of characters who would have lived centuries ago and half a world away.

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