Leni Zumas’ tragicomic new novel explores intentional intergenerational living.

On this episode of Fully Booked, Leni Zumas joins us to discuss Wolf Bells (Algonquin, September 16). “A young girl and her autistic cousin seek refuge in an intergenerational community,” Kirkus writes in a review of this “tender and well-told story about the meaning of family.”  

Zumas is the author of the bestselling novel Red Clocks, winner of the 2019 Oregon Book Award for Fiction and a finalist for both the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Neukom Award for Speculative Fiction. Her other books include the story collection Farewell Navigator and the novel The Listeners. She was a finalist for the 2021 John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is a professor in the creative writing program at Portland State University.

Here’s a bit more from our review of Wolf Bells: “In the house her great-grandfather built, Caz, a musician, runs a home for the elderly, where she also invites young people to live rent-free in exchange for household chores and company for the senior citizens, who include her own ailing mother. In her youth, she fronted a popular punk band, and now she teaches music classes in the community. One night, one of her students, Nola, appears on Caz’s doorstep with her disabled cousin, James, in tow.…James is nonverbal, requires diapers, and has specific dietary needs, which is to say, he needs a lot of support. Understanding this, the residents of the Island of Misfit Toys that is Caz’s community offer Nola and James safe harbor as best they can. From the first sentence, you know you’re in the hands of a novelist with the ear of a very good poet. More than that, Zumas seamlessly balances the novel’s lyricism with character building, backstory, and forward momentum.…Zumas also finds a way to capture the way James experiences the world with creativity and care.”

Zumas and I discuss communities of care, social safety nets, whether to apply the word utopian to Caz’s vision, the rhythm of language, the value of human life beyond productivity metrics, and much more.

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Freedom Seeker by Ruchira Gupta (Scholastic)

Make New Friends by Joshua David Stein, illus. by Mariachiara Di Giorgio (Abrams)

The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Cardinal)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

A Lionhearted Approach for Parent Coaching by Lisa Veshee

Stopping To Feel by S.L. Collins

Surviving a Psychopath: In Court. In Life. In “Love.” by Kerrie Droban

Nick and Lorraine Were Lovers by David C. Metz

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.