Guested at a book club today, one of two I’ve been invited to this week. Book groups are great — you get to talk about literature, and they feed you good chocolate cake.

There were about 20 members gathered in a living room overlooking the Long Island Sound. Beautiful, though my chair had its back to the view. I tried to appear scholarly, as this was a group that had actually read Anna Karenina in a month (last time I partook it was a 12 month commitment).

I find that people like The Orphanmaster a lot, but they love the idea that it’s been optioned for Hollywood.

I spoke about all the research I’d done for The Orphanmaster, how most of the details and textures of the time were as accurate as I could make them. Oh, so it was faction, one member said. Well, historical fiction, I said.

But faction is a pretty good description after all, when you’re under the spell of that chocolate cake.