Season 3 Episode 3: In Conversation with Gabriella Burnham

Today I’m talking to the Brooklyn-based writer Gabriella Burnham about her debut novel, It Is Wood, It Is Stone, which came out earlier this year. It’s a beautiful book that tells the story of Linda, a young woman who has recently lost her father to Alzheimer’s, as well as her job, and followed her husband Dennis to Sao Paulo. 

Linda, an anxious and restless American, moves to São Paulo with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda’s unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda’s home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda’s instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way.

Gabi and I recorded our conversation over Skype and spoke about Linda’s journey, women sharing secrets with each other, Sylvia Plath, letting desire into our lives, as well as Brazilian music and the country’s history with racial inequalities.