And the question is - how did that happen? What leads families to get to this stage? She just thinks he looks sort of familiar. TYLER: Well, at the beginning, all we know about them is that although they have no great cataclysmic disruptions in their relationships with each other, they just aren't connected anymore, so much so that at the beginning, somebody who sees her cousin in the train station is not exactly sure that he is her cousin. What do we need to know about this family? They've got three kids, two daughters and a son. Describe this family, the Garrets of Baltimore. But generally, it's a matter of endurance, which is, I think, the quality in human beings that interests me the most. And they have to show their true colors, like, as I always say, like people on a desert island or in a burning building, where their real selves come out. I think that what I love when I'm writing about families is that you get to see these people grating along together that can't very easily leave each other. I say - every time I start a new book, I say, well, this is going to be different.

KELLY: I've got to start by asking, are you stuck in a rut? Or what is it about writing about families and Baltimore families that keeps bringing you back there over and over in your work? Anne Tyler, Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. And it tracks one family, the Garretts, across decades and across generations. Tyler's new novel, 'French Braid,' is set, you guessed it, in Baltimore. But Tyler's gift is that each story, each character is distinct, even as she builds on themes from one book to the next. Now, if we were talking about any other writer, you would be excused for wondering if they might be stuck in a rut. And the majority of Anne's Tyler's 24 books are set in Baltimore. The majority of Anne Tyler's 24 books are about family. But before she headed out, Mary Louise recorded this interview with author Anne Tyler. In other parts of the program, you'll hear our co-host Mary Louise Kelly reporting from Tbilisi.

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