Lessons - What Makes a Story Impossible to Put Down | Stephen Riggio - CEO of Barnes & Noble

0:00 In this lessons episode, discover how forgotten stories can preserve timeless wisdom when they cross cultures and languages, understand what makes layered characters and universal themes so compelling, explore the creative challenges of translating versus writing a book, and uncover the discipline required to create stories that resonate across generations. What makes... It's fascinating when you... Even the project that you took on, it's fascinating, but it's also... I don't know if depressing is the right word. What I mean is it's sad to think how much wisdom and knowledge is just not available just because whether we don't know it exists, it's been written in a different language, we don't research it.

0:49 The beautiful story that you sort of stumbled upon, nobody would have ever known that exists. And I'm so curious how much wisdom out there is lost because... We don't have people like you that are finding all these works all over the world and translate it. Because I'm a firm believer that most wisdom is not new, right? Nothing's that new. Everything's been discovered and figured out in some way or another. It's just a matter of tapping into those resources. And you did that to a degree. You know, when you think about taking on this project...

1:31 You've seen so many books over your career, probably more than many, many people who have ever been alive have seen just because of the work that you've done. What makes an incredible book or an incredible story? Like what made this one stand out to you in particular? I've always been attracted to big books, big novels. get lost in. And as my wife, Laura says, this book has something for everyone. It's a historical novel.

2:12 It's an adventure novel. There are scenes of swashbuckling sword fights in, in the book. It's, there's a love story. And at the heart of it, there's a story of justice. And, The book is about a secret sect called the Beati Paoli, which was the name of the Italian novel. I don't think that could work in English. That comes to the defense of the commoners who are preyed upon.

2:53 by the aristocracy, by the landowners, by the barons, and often by the church. Because at that time, Sicily was still the feudal society, and the Inquisition was in full force, and people were accused of heresy. They were jailed and tortured and executed. So It's about justice in the sense of, you know, where do people turn to when they have been unjustly accused of something, when they've been persecuted, when they have nowhere to go?

3:38 And this secret sect, which is somewhat based in history and somewhat based in myth, steps in. And that's the main plot of the book. And they come to the defense of one of the main characters. And if you think about that sort of scene you just described, is that, because I've heard terms of like hero's journey and all these other like story arcs, is this something that is almost like, like what's the literary mechanism that makes this compelling?

4:22 Because I think this is like a theme that you see in a lot of very popular books. Well, it's a story of revenge and betrayal underneath all of this. There are friendships and rivalries. It's a multi-layered story. It's why I think it's attractive, because the characters are in the book. Most of them are fictional, but some are not. So it's rooted in real history. You can pull pieces from actual history. There's a succession plot at the heart of the story, which for people who have seen HBO's succession, maybe that may grab them.

5:05 And there's a love story. There's a love story. But there's all these... Yeah, there's... I was going to say there's all these elements. Yeah, there's a love story because there's... I don't want to reveal too much, but there's two women in the book that are competing for the love of the same man and there's another rival in there. So that's, that's why I think it's appeal. Now, the sect that's at the heart of the book have been considered to be forerunners of the Sicilian mafia. Now, American readers and Americans have been fascinated with the mafia for so long, not just because of the Godfather, movies and book, but There's some element of that.

5:53 It is a fact that some 20th century mafiosi people that were in the Sicilian mafia claim that they are descendants from this secret society. I think there's more myth to that than truth. In reality, I would look at this secret sect in this book as more... of a Robin Hood type game than as Martin, you know. And whether you root for them or not, I can't weigh in on that. They certainly come across and, you know, this book in Sicily is very, very well known.

6:39 Even though it's 100 years old. never before been published in America in English, is very, very well known in Sicily. I've just returned there, in fact, from there. And this sect, they were considered as heroes because they came to the defense of the weak. You know, you look today and people's mistrust of institutions, whether it be... the courts or the media or the government, you know, has never been at a low. It's at an all-time low. And, you know, here you have the appeal of the outlaw who's going to come and rescue you from being unjustly persecuted.

7:33 And that's where the attraction comes. That's the heartbeat of the story. Will justice be done here? And you have to read the book to find out. When you think about, I mean, you've gone on this journey now. Obviously, three years is a significant amount of time. Hindsight's 20-20. When you think about the options of creating a book, whether or not it was translating or writing from scratch, can you just give some advice for even authors in the audience, the benefits and the negatives to one or the other?

8:14 Because you've gone on this journey now, but you've also been exposed to so many writers. I mean, you have insights on writing something that has never been done before as well. So talk to me about, both ways to take a book to market, the best way to put it? Well, my wife and my daughters were always encouraging me to write, encouraging me to write a book. Translating a book is quite different. You're not working with a blank page. You know, I think I have, even though I've been in the bookselling business so long, for what a writer does with a blank page, with a blank page.

9:02 I was working from something that was already written. And make no doubt these are my words, but I did have to work from, let's call it a brief. And I had to take each word, each sentence, each paragraph, and shaped them into something that I thought would be appealing and enjoyable for the English reader. But I do have a newfound, let's say, appreciation for the work that writers do. I have lots of friends that are writers. And just think about some writers, many writers, that are publishing books every year.

9:49 They come out with one a year. James Patterson comes out with more than one a year. So I have tremendous admiration and respect for that kind of, its creativity and its discipline. You know, you have to think about the discipline that it comes, sitting down with a blank page and creating something that other people would be fascinated by. And that will become fans of yours year after year after year. Read every book that you publish. I think John Grisham, who I'm a very big fan of, he just came out with actually a nonfiction book.

10:29 But he tends to weave stories anew every time he comes out with a new book. And they're each as similar to, but very different from each other. Because he's kind of perfected his approach to that kind of novel. And he's a great writer. He's a fabulous writer. Yeah. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.