In conversation with Krys Boyd of KERA
A recording of the event will be available through September 24.
Erik Larson is a master of crafting narrative nonfiction that will keep you on the edge of your seat. His vividly written, bestselling books have won several awards and been published in nearly 20 countries. In his newest book,The Splendid and the Vile, he delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz.
On Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when—in the face of unrelenting horror—Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound both a country and a family together.
Larson is the author of five New York Times bestsellers. The Devil in the White City stayed on the Times’ hardcover and paperback lists for a combined total of over six years, was a National Book Award finalist, and won an Edgar Award for nonfiction crime writing. The Devil in the White City, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, Isaac’s Storm, and Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania have collectively sold more than nine million copies.