b'In her writing, it is Kate DiCamillo\'s gift to make bearable the fact that joy and sorrow live so close, side by side, in life as it is (if not as we wish it to be). In this conversation, along with good measures of raucous laughter and a few tears, Kate summons us to hearts "capacious enough to contain the complexities and mysteries of ourselves and each other" \\u2014 qualities these years in the life of the world call forth from all of us, young and old, with ever greater poignancy and vigor.'