When Patricia Lockwood contracted COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, she lost touch with reality. For months, she floated through her days, dealing with constant migraines and visions of gorillas lurking in the trees.

Ironically, she was mostly aware that she was cut loose from humanity. She kept notebooks filled with her wonderings and ramblings.

And when she got better, she gathered her shattered experiences into a sharp new novel, “Will There Ever Be Another You.”

Not exactly a memoir, because Lockwood wanted to be freed from the structure of facts, she describes the wild and often psychedelic experience of a long illness “stealing people from themselves.”

“You might look the same to others,” she writes, “but you had been replaced.”

Lockwood joined Kerri Miller at the Fitzgerald Theater for Talking Volumes on Sept. 25 for a funny, unpredictable and profound conversation about how any long illness can take you apart and put you back together. Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Sarah Morris provided music for the evening.

The fictional Bonhomie, Ohio, where Patrick Ryan’s new novel, “Buckeye,” is set, will be familiar to anyone who grew up in a small town.

Children ride their bikes freely. Mom-and-pop stores thrive. And sooner or later, everyone crosses paths with each other.

That sense of closeness is charming — until you have a secret to hide. Such is the case with the two couples at the center of Ryan’s sweeping saga. Cal Jenkins is born with one leg two inches shorter than the other and, thus, is unable to fight in the war. His wife, Becky, is a seer who can bridge the human and spirit worlds for those mourning their lost loved ones. Across town, Margaret is married to Felix Salt. But he doesn’t know she grew up an orphan. She doesn’t know he’s a closeted gay man.

As the years pass and the secrets deepen and unspool, Ryan takes readers on a journey to another era, where nostalgia can’t hide the pain of unrequited love and the devastating effects of war.

Guest:

• Patrick Ryan is the editor in chief of the monthly literary journal, One Story. His new novel is “Buckeye.”

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

The final ballots were still being counted in the presidential election last fall when David French recorded a podcast with fellow opinion writer Patrick Healy. The theme? “It’s time to admit America has changed.”

Kerri Miller welcomed the chance to ask French to expound on what he meant then and what he’s learned since when he came to Red Wing last Thursday night as part of the Philip S. Duff Jr. Civic Lecture Series.

French is a conservative commentator, a constitutional lawyer, former senior editor at The Dispatch and an regular opinion columnist for the New York Times. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” He also is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.