When I began work on my first book, The River of Doubt, which tells the story of Theodore Roosevelts 1914 descent of an unmapped river in the Amazon rainforest, I thought of it as a tale of adventure, exploration and extraordinary courage.

More often than not, real life is so rich, complex and unpredictable that it would seem completely implausible in the pages of a novel.

She (the First Lady, entering the room with her gravely wounded husband) would admit fear but not despair.

I have always been interested in the idea of self-reinvention.

With the Lincoln assassination, the South didnt feel it could mourn along with the North. But Garfield was beloved by all the American people. He was trusted and respected by North and South, by freed slaves and former slave owners. Also by pioneers, which his parents had been, and by immigrants.

Honor in the Dust is less about the freedom of the Philippines than the soul of the United States.