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Dana Spiotta on Wayward with George Saunders

July 7, 2021 via Zoom

It’s 2016, and Samantha Raymond, at fifty-two, contends with motherhood, middle age, and a now unraveling nation entering the age of Trump. When she moves to a decrepit house in Syracuse on a whim, she faces a midlife reckoning and must grapple with aging, the female body, and female complexity in a country coming apart at the seams. Raymond features as the protagonist in Dana Spiotta’s newest novel Wayward, on sale July 6. Spiotta’s novel is one of the most anticipated books of the year and earned a spot on Vogue’s “Best Books to Read in 2021” list.

Spiotta discussed the novel and her extraordinary career with George Saunders, a Syracuse resident himself and author of Lincoln in the Bardo, Tenth of December, and A Swim in the Pond in the Rain.