Therefore, it’s important to try to keep consciously addressing issues that never go away. So in my latest book, I’m talking about larger matters of illness and what it’s like to face death, what kind of an effect a diagnosis of a terminal illness for one spouse has on a marriage. Does it bring you closer because suddenly your time together is so precious, or does it alienate you because you are living in completely different universes? And I think the answer is a little bit of both. But these deep human things about marriage, and family and friendship and the experience of birth or death aren’t going anywhere. They are timeless, and if you don’t have some of those elements in your story, you’re going to become dated in short order.

*Lionel Shriver