AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A new crime novel has a surprisingly tender side despite its menacing title. "What About The Bodies" is set in a town where the glory days have packed up and gone - Locksburg, Pennsylvania. The steel plant's closed. The mines, too. And the folks who remain, quote, "always seem to talk about leaving." Three characters converge there. They have little in common, except they all could use a change of luck. And that's where we begin with author Ken Jaworowski. Welcome to the program.
KEN JAWOROWSKI: Thank you so much for having me, Ayesha.
RASCOE: Give us a quick sketch of the three protagonists in this book. There's Carla, Liz and Reed. And obviously, without giving anything away, they are each facing some challenges, to put it mildly.
JAWOROWSKI: Yes, they are. They're facing challenges, and the town they're in, as you described, is facing a lot of challenges, too. Carla's a single mother. She's been a waitress her whole life. She's trying to get some money together to start her own restaurant. Reed is an autistic young man who has been picked on a little bit throughout his life, and now he's made a promise that he has to keep. And Liz is a down-and-out musician, and she's right on the cusp of her dream. She's just about to have that dream come true, and all of a sudden, some problems arise.
RASCOE: There's a passage in the book that I wanted you to read. It's where the character Reed is in the town graveyard, and he has this observation that becomes the title of the novel. Could you read that for us?
JAWOROWSKI: I sure can. Here we go. This is Reed.
(Reading) The cemetery is huge for such a small town because Locksburg was not always such a small town. At one time, it was thriving. For years and years, there were a lot of people in Locksburg, but most of them left when the coal mines closed. You might ask, what happened to all the living people, and where did they go? But you never ask, what about the bodies? That is because most times, bodies stay where they are buried. The living do not take the dead with them.
RASCOE: As different as the characters are, it does seem like all of them are kind of answering the same question. Like, how far would you go to follow your dream, or maybe for Carla, protect your son, and Reed for a promise that he made, right?
JAWOROWSKI: Absolutely. Look, I hope I wrote a fast-paced thriller. I hope I wrote something entertaining and exciting. But I hope you can also do that and throw in a couple of questions about life and about what we think and about who we are. And you're right. The big question is, how far would you go for what you love? I always say I would do anything for my children, and I truly believe that. And you've heard people say that - I would do anything for my family, do anything for my children, I'd do anything for my parent. But what happens if I asked you, well, what happens if you might be facing 30 years to life in Graterford Prison? That might change your answer a little bit.
RASCOE: And what do you think about this fictional town - Locksburg, Pennsylvania? Because not to be, you know, trite, but it is a big character in this story - at least for Carla and Liz, that it's this place that they can't escape. But Reed sees another side of it because he has a real love for the town.
JAWOROWSKI: Some of these towns in Pennsylvania are - absolutely can go either way. They - some of them are repurposing themselves from this hard industry past into nice tourist destinations. Some of them are not so lucky. If you live in a major metropolitan area and you lose your job, there's a good chance you could find one somewhat soon. If you live in a small town and the major employer has turned down, you've got bigger problems. And money means something different depending on where you live. So the town itself, I believe, is a character, and it is a place that limits their opportunities. And though that's difficult for a character when you limit the character's opportunities, boy, it's catnip for a writer. You - all of a sudden, when you - people get desperate, then the excitement happens.
RASCOE: These are three different characters, and there's a question of, like, well, how are these stories going to intersect towards the end of the book? 'Cause they're going in - seem to be going in very different directions. How did you plot that out? Like, did you kind of start at the end of the book and work your way back, or - how did you get that? Did you have that in mind, how they were all going to end up getting together?
JAWOROWSKI: I have a desk full of old, unpublished novels that are collecting dust, and they should collect dust 'cause they're so terrible. And I think the reason I didn't have success with them is because I didn't plot anything else out. I would just roll along and see what happened.
RASCOE: What made you go, OK, I'm going to start approaching this differently? 'Cause a lot of people, if they wrote some novels, they didn't work out, they might not keep going.
JAWOROWSKI: Oh, I love this question. I wrote all the past novels. I didn't write this novel. I edited it mostly. I'm not being self-deprecating when I say I don't know if I'm a good writer. I think I am. I hope I am. But I'm not sure if I'm a good writer. But I know I'm a good editor because that's what I get paid to do. And that's what I've gotten paid to do for 20 years, is edit. So what I said this time is, plot out a story and then go as fast as you can. Don't worry about dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Don't worry about if you're spelling things right. You can go back to those later. And the internet is the biggest enemy of any writer. I will think about a fact, and I'll be like, oh, I'll go look that up. And the next thing I know, I go down a rabbit hole. So I said - I also worked on a computer with no internet connection. And I said, I'm not going to do that. So I went as fast as possible. Took three months to write it, but took four months to edit it.
RASCOE: Well, and you said that's what you get paid to do, so - 'cause you're an editor at The New York Times, right?
JAWOROWSKI: Yes, I am.
RASCOE: So that's your day job. And so you took those skills and put it to use in this book?
JAWOROWSKI: Correct. I have edited a lot of terrific reporters who are not great writers. They're experts at getting the story. They're expert at talking to people and teasing a good answer out. But when they write the copy, sometimes they're moving a little too fast. Sometimes they're just not really as skilled in writing as they are in reporting. And sometimes they will come over to you after you finished editing their story, and they say, that's exactly how I wanted to say it. And I thought, if I can do that for a reporter, I think I can do that for myself, too. And I hope I did.
RASCOE: That's writer Ken Jaworowski. His new novel is "What about the Bodies." Thank you so much for joining us.
JAWOROWSKI: Thank you so much, Ayesha. I appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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