Jennifer, what brings you to Rome? Well, I'm here to participate in a festival

and to connect with some Italian readers and meet my publisher and just try to

visit Italy a little bit, amidst all of it. And what can you tell us about your

novel, "A Visit From the Goon Squad"?

Well it's, I'll start by saying it's very hard to describe. It consists of thirteen

chapters about thirteen different people whose lives intersect

over the course of about fifty years and each chapter is written in a very different way.

My idea was something like a concept album, so a big story that's told

in pieces, if you will, that sounds very different from each other and yet

combine to tell one story.

What advice would you give young writers,

people who are aspiring to create literary masterpieces?

I mean, this is really basic, but I think number one is

read a lot and number two is get in the habit of writing.

Yeah, I think writing is a little like exercise if you're not doing it regularly it seems

like very strange thing to do, but if you are doing regularly

you feel strange when you don't do it. That's the point you wanna reach with writing.

So, start small and just get in the habit, make it a part of the rhythm of your life

and then just try to keep getting better. Thanks so much for your time.