A Conversation with Erik Larson on The Splendid and the Vile with Amor Towles

Erik Larson, acclaimed author, popular historian and storyteller, takes on Winston Churchill in his newest book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. The book became a No. 1 NY Times bestseller soon after its release as did Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.  Larson’s saga of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, The Devil in the White City, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Hulu plans to adapt the book for a limited TV series, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese as executive producers. Other books include In the Garden of the Beasts, which has been optioned by Tom Hanks as a feature film, and Isaac’s Storm, which won the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2016 Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Non-Fiction. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, Mr. Larson lives in Manhattan with his wife, and they have three grown daughters.

The Splendid and the Vile is Larson’s telling of the story of the Blitz through the lives of Winston Churchill, his family, and inner circle. Drawing on a wealth of untapped sources, including recently declassified files, intelligence reports, and personal diaries, Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year. On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons (30,000 of them Londoners) and destroying two million homes. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and to persuade FDR that Britain was a worthy ally – that she was willing to fight to the end. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when–in the face of unrelenting horror – Churchill’s eloquence, strategic brilliance, and perseverance bound a country together.

 A life long summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard,  Amor Towles has captivated readers with his New York Times bestselling novels, Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow, which Bill Gates recommended as one of his top book choices for 2020. A graduate of Yale and Stanford, Amor spent twenty years as an investment banker prior to his literary career. He has participated as a guest author and interviewer at the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival to stellar reviews.

Purchase a copy of The Splendid and the Vile.  Buy it now at Bunch of Grapes.