We wanted to affectionately title this episode, Kate and Charlie are really smart and have great taste, but ABC thought that would be a little obnoxious. Maybe it is, but we are and we do. To prove it, this week we have recut Barbara Kingsolver and Hernan Diaz into one episode. Their novels Demon Copperhead and Trust (respectively) are sharing the Pulitzer this year, and deservedly so. We knew these two novels were something special, and so are their authors. We are very happy that these two talented authors share the prize. Their novels are breathtaking-one about extreme wealth, the other about extreme poverty. 2022 was a banner year for fiction, and these two novelists wrote two of the best. Enjoy!

Books mentioned in this podcast:

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• King Lear by William Shakespeare
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
• Middlemarch by George Eliot

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