Anthony Doerr: The world is not always clear to us

"Memory Wall" is "crazy good", says the Oregonian. It is "a small classic of contemporary literature," the National Post. Adds the New York Times Book Review, "Doerr says the big questions, uncertainties, fears great metaphysician, and does so without fear." The collection's title track - call it a novella, or call a novella, 85 pages, over the line - has won a National Magazine Award for Fiction. But how did the devastation of Alzeheimer'sand black market trade in fossils of the wind in the same piece? Read at the studios roll show during a break from the Tin House Writers Workshop, described Anthony Doerr, "a long and looping" that the elements came together.