A Conversation with Novelist Andrew Krivak

Andrew Krivak’s novel The Bear, which is a recent NEA Big Read title, is a story about the last of humanity. Yet the book somehow is remarkably hopeful. Set far into the future, it’s a fable that seems as old as time with a sense wonder that weaves throughout it. Without humans, or with the last of humans, nature has reclaimed its prominence and its rhythms once again prevail. The last two humans, a father and daughter, understand and live within those rhythms, which they must in order to survive. In this podcast, Krivak talks about how the book began for him, his desire to write a book in which nature was a protagonist, his love of storytelling, and his hopes for the conversations The Bear will provoke as an NEA Big Read title.