Téa Obreht, Sunrise

So really quickly before we dive into the book, just some background about you for our listeners and our viewers.

So you were born in the former Yugoslavia and then you ended up in the British school system in Cyprus, right? When the war started, correct? That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's how you learned English.

That's right.

That's where I learned English.

I had sort of a very informal learning process in English as a young child because my grandfather would bring bootleg Disney VHS tapes from Italy when he traveled for work.

And so I had a lot of old Disney classics memorized without really knowing...

What they meant.

So, you know, sometimes sometimes my responses when I started learning English formally, my responses were sort of were odd, I think, because I would I would just sometimes like say like a Disney line.

But yeah.

Wow.

That's amazing.

Also, I read that or saw I think maybe an interview that you said writing really too was a way for you to find your way into the language.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

When we moved, you know, I was an only kid.

I didn't have any friends yet.

And and we were sort of there were a lot of expats in the neighborhood in which we lived.

And so English was sort of we were all trying to grapple with our own languages at home and then and then with English as well.

And my mom brought a laptop, like the newest laptop.

And this was, you know, 92.

So it was like just like a giant, giant brick laptop.

And I wanted to play with it.