On today’s Bookworm on KCRW, Russell Banks stops by to talk about The Reserve.

Bookworm calls him “one of the great living American novelists.” In the book, “he uses the 1930’s novel of passion and betrayal–with its allied seductions, madness, and adultery–to explore America’s class system; the relationships between art, politics and wealth; and the despoiling of the American Landscape. Although these are classic Russell Banks themes, this novel explodes with a passionate intensity that is exceptional for him.”

Set before the second World War, the book follows Vanessa Cole in a story of love, drama, and suspense. From Barnes and Nobel: “Vanessa Cole is a stunningly beautiful and wild heiress, her parents’ adopted only daughter. Twice-married, she has been scandalously linked to rich and famous men. On the night of July 4, 1936, inside the Cole family’s remote Adirondack Mountain enclave, known as the Reserve, Vanessa will lose her father to a heart attack–and meet Jordan Groves, a seductively carefree local artist whose leftist political loyalties to his working class neighbors are undercut by his wealth and his clientele. Jordan is easy prey for Vanessa’s electrifying charm. But the heiress carries a dark family secret. Unhinged by her father’s unexpected death, she begins to spin out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path. Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondacks to war-torn Spain and fascist Germany, filled with characters that pierce the heart, The Reserve is a passionately romantic novel of suspense and drama that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author’s extraordinary repertoire.”

You can listen to the interview here.