During this program, Maile Meloy talks about and reads from her new novel for middle readers, The Apothecary.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM

READ THE WRITE QUESTION BLOG

Subscribe to the The Write Question PODCAST

Become a fan of The Write Question on Facebook.

A mysterious apothecary. A magic book. A missing scientist. An impossible plan.

It's 1952 and the Scott family has moved unexpectedly from Los Angeles to London. There, fourteen-year-old Janie gets a homesickness cure from the neighborhood apothecary and becomes fascinated by his defiant son, Benjamin Burrows — a boy struggling with his destiny, who isn't afraid to stand up to authority and who dreams of becoming a spy.

When Benjamin's father disappears, Janie and Benjamin must uncover the secrets of the apothecary's ancient book, the Pharmacopoeia, in order to find him, all while keeping those secrets out of the hands of Russian spies. Discovering transformative elixirs they never imagined could exist, Janie and Benjamin embark on a dangerous race to save the apothecary and prevent impending nuclear disaster.

Maile Meloy is the author of the story collection Half in Love, the novels Liars and Saints and A Family Daughter, and a story collection Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, which was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2009 by The New York Times Book Review and a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times and Amazon.com. It also won the California Book Awards Silver Medal for Fiction.

Meloy’s stories have been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, and other publications, and she has received The Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2007, she was chosen as one of Granta’s 21 Best Young American Novelists. Her new novel, The Apothecary, is her first for young readers.

Maile Meloy grew up in Helena, Montana, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Visit Maile Meloy's Web site.

Read a review of The Apothecary published in the New York Times.

You'll find The Apothecary and other books by Maile Meloy at Fact & Fiction in Missoula, or at your local independent bookseller.

The Write Question is produced by Chérie Newman.

Read an interview with TWQ producer Chérie Newman on the Humanities Montana Web site.

Executive producer, Michael Marsolek.

Special thanks to Lisa Simon, David Moore, Barbara Theroux, and Kim Anderson.

This program is supported in part by Humanities Montana, enriching intellectual, cultural, and civic life for all Montanans. And by the Montana Cultural Trust.

The Write Question: a program that explores the world of writing and publishing in the western United States.

The music in this program was written and performed by John Floridis.

Send comments to Chérie Newman.

Guests on the The Write Question are writers, publishers, and illustrators living, or working for an extended period of time, in the western United States. The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.