Anna Quindlen explores life's sudden changes

Anna Quindlen
Anna Quindlen's new novel "Every Last One' explores how the randomness of life can bring huge change to people.
MPR photo/Euan Kerr

Writer Anna Quindlen has a problem. It's because of the twists in her new novel "Every Last One."

It came up in an interview she did the other day.

"And finally I said, 'I really think we should stop here and tell your listeners that we are not being willfully obtuse about this book but things happen in it that you don't want to signal,'" she said.

"Every Last One" begins as a portrait of middle-class American life. Then it gets much darker as a family is plunged into violence.

Once a prize-winning columnist for the New York Times and then Newsweek, Quindlen retired from journalism in 1995 to concentrate on novels.

She told Euan Kerr "Every Last One" grew out of a feeling of unease she felt after the 9/11 attacks.

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