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I read a lot of fiction.

As an author of narrative history, I read a lot of history books.

I write contemporary fiction, and that is what my readers want to read.

I don't separate my books into historical novels and the rest. To me, they're all made-up worlds, and both kinds are borne out of curiosity, some investigation into the past.

I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a writer.

I read little nonfiction, but I have no boundaries about the fiction I relish. The only unfailing criterion is that I can hitch my heart to the imagined world and read on.