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Leaf by LeafAuthor: Robert Benson
Leaf by Leaf is a craft-focused podcast for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Each episode, digs into a celebrated book to uncover the techniques behind great storytelling , character development, voice, structure, dialogue, and more. No jargon. No gatekeeping. Just an honest, accessible conversation about what it takes to write well. Language: en Genres: Home & Garden, Leisure Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 05 - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Monday, 4 May, 2026
In this episode of Leaf by Leaf, Sophie takes us inside one of the most unsettling narrators in contemporary fiction — Eva Khatchadourian, the mother at the center of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin. Writing letters to her estranged husband in the aftermath of her son's school shooting, Eva controls everything we know — and that control is exactly the problem. Sophie explores four craft techniques Shriver uses to make Eva's unreliability so devastating: the strategic gaps in her account, the rationalizations that confess more than they conceal, the way the novel positions the reader as juror, and how the letter form itself gives Eva cover to withhold the truth she can't face. For any writer working in first person, this is essential listening.
