Robyn asked Erik Larson:

As a mother of two babies, I can't help but be drawn to the parent-child bonds you describe in books like Isaac's Storm and Garden of Beasts. Reading about Isaac awakening to a strange feeling and listening for sounds from his sleeping children prompted me to get up and check on my own! Do you find yourself drawn (intentionally or subliminally) to topics that highlight the love of parent for child?

Erik Larson A perceptive question: I'm a father of three daughters, and that relationship tints every book I do, in some way. With Dead Wake, for example, I found myself wondering what it would have been like to be aboard the Lusitania, with my wife and daughters. What would I have done? One family, the Cromptons of Philadelphia, included father, daughter, and six children. At the time the torpedo struck the ship, all of them were in different places aboard. What do you do, as a parent? What do you do, when the ship sinks in 18 minutes? The entire Crompton family perished. A chilling thing to contemplate.

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