You want to allow yourself to be abstruse enough to achieve a measure of credibility, but you don’t want to be so abstruse that the reader isn’t let in. It’s always tricky because you need to be incredibly specific in whatever you take on in a novel. Also, I’m very interested in how business works, because I think to understand America, you really do have to have an understanding of economics, because we are so resolutely a capitalist society, and stuff is valued based on the money it earns, particularly in an industry in which the product is so expensive. With these books, each person brings his particular sensibility, and I think mine is more from the point of view of a practitioner in a lot of different areas. And “American Dream Machine” by Matthew Specktor is fantastic. John Fante wrote a novel called “Ask the Dust” that also meant a great deal to me. Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust” is one that really had a big impact on me. I got to a point when I was around 56 - I’m 58 now - where I had a play that was going to be produced, and several screenplays that I’d written that were waiting to be produced, and I didn’t want to muddy the waters by starting another scripted narrative and adding that into the mix. It’s a form I’ve always revered, and I’ve always been curious if I’d ever mature as a writer to the extent I’d be able to write one. I’ve been reading a novel at all times since I was about 10. What made you decide to take the leap into fiction? You’ve written stage plays and screenplays before, but this is your first novel. He answered questions about his book via Zoom from New York, where he lives this conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length. 7 in a conversation with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, at an event sponsored by Book Soup at Colburn School’s Zipper Hall. Related: Sign up for our free newsletter about books, authors, reading and more Nelson’s book has garnered strong advance reviews, with Kirkus calling it “an ambitious, acerbic, entertaining take on the film business.”

The book follows four men in the entertainment industry – actor/director David Levit, producers Jacob Rosenthal and Brad Shlanksy, and agent Paul Aiello – whose lives collide after Jacob hires David to direct a film adaptation of a critically acclaimed novel. Nelson has turned his talents to fiction with his debut novel, “City of Blows,” published by Los Angeles-based Unnamed Press.

The actor, known for his roles in films including “Syriana,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” is also an accomplished playwright (“Eye of God,” “Socrates”) and screenwriter (“Leaves of Grass,” “Anesthesia”). Tim Blake Nelson is no stranger to the world of writing.

Novel by nora ephron