You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

Perhaps the most famous of all writer William Faulkner's words come from the attorney Gavin Stevens in Requiem for a nun.

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

But what then does it mean to grapple with the

present, a present that becomes the past as soon as it happens, and as Faulkner intimated, is haunted

by layers upon layers of older, murkier pasts? Well, today we're very much dealing with the

nowness of things. Later, Richard Baird breaks down the function of the

present tense in novels and talking about a new anthology celebrating contemporary East and

Southeast Asian life in Britain. But we begin with a novel that is firmly rooted in the present.

Gary Steingart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and moved to the United States when he was

seven years old.

He's perhaps best known for his memoir, Little Failure, and his novel's Super Sad True Love Story,

the Russian debut book and Absurdistan, a satire of his own debut novel.

Steingart's books are laced with biting wit and dark comedy, but his latest is perhaps

a mellower tale, albeit with all the trademark humour.

...