Award-winning writer Gretchen Shirm joins the show to talk about her third book The Crying Room, which takes a close look at three generations of women to ask who we are as individuals and in relation to our families. Gretchen and Mel discuss the book's speculative elements, its inventive structure, its timeless themes and its kindred reads (Elizabeth Strout, Helen Garner). And how, at the end of the day, Gretchen wants to make her readers feel.