As a writer, is there a limit to what you can expect from your reader? Is there an amount of violence or a level of brutality that crosses the line? The relationship between author and reader, if it exists at all, is one of give and take. The reader offers time and emotional complicity, while the writer promises a compelling story. In this podcast, Hanya Yanagihara, author of one of the most talked-about and most confronting books of the year, A Little Life, asks whether an author owes her reader anything more than that? How much can a reader be expected to handle?

<p>As a writer, is there a limit to what you can expect from your reader? Is there an amount of violence or a level of brutality that crosses the line? The relationship between author and reader, if it exists at all, is one of give and take. The reader offers time and emotional complicity, while the writer promises a compelling story. In this podcast, Hanya Yanagihara, author of one of the most talked-about and most confronting books of the year,&nbsp;<em>A Little Life</em>, asks whether an author owes her reader anything more than that? How much can a reader be expected to handle?</p>

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