Series Description
Eric Metaxas and novelist Mark Helprin, whom Metaxas describes as the greatest living fiction writer, sit down for an intimate conversation on Helprin’s six decades of writing.

Part 1
Host Eric Metaxas and novelist Mark Helprin, whom Metaxas describes as the greatest living fiction writer, sit down for an intimate conversation on Helprin’s six decades of writing. The two discuss Helprin’s book themes, prose, and theology, and read excerpts from his bestselling book Paris in the Present Tense. The exchange includes many captivating stories, including Helprin’s tale of accidentally getting on the wrong bus that led to an Israeli rehabilitation center for criminals, which of course later makes it into his writing, and much more. This is part one of a two-part series.

Part 2
In part two of this two-part series, novelist Mark Helprin enraptures his host, Eric Metaxas, and listeners with many fantastical — and true — stories, beginning with the first book contract he was offered at age seven, which his father declined, and including selling his first short stories to the New Yorker, and the book John Cheever, a friend, wrote about his family. The duo discuss the state of art and literature more broadly, and yet the conversation is never short of tales and details, including Helprin’s disdain for the word brunch.