I agree! I really love his book “Riiding the Bullet,” in which the zombie that drives the narrator around sports a button that says something like, “I survived the Silver Bullet, Laconia, NH!” King is like a God, I think, and I get excited just thinking that he migh have traipsed through my hometown. I dont’ think King has gotten the literary credit he deserves, and when he’s gone people will love him all the more, sort of like Dickens.

I just finished reading The World as We Know It. What a wise and lovely book. Thank you for having written it.

I thought the conversation between Sarah and Allard in the tent in Alaska was particularly insightful, especially when you wrote that people can become frozen in time after experiencing trauma.

I like to consult an atlas when reading books to see where the action takes place. I followed route 25C alongside the Baker River to Warren and northward. I was, therefore, somewhat startled when glancing at the Gallery Readers Group Guide Introduction, at the end of your book, to find the opening sentence: “As adolescents in rural Maine, Ed and Allard Keer save the life of Sarah Patrick, their new neighbor, who has fallen through a thin patch of ice.”

Rural Maine? Did Kathy Sagan not register that your book is set mainly in New Hampshire and that the state is mentioned time and again throughout the book? Is it not the task of an editor to correct manuscripts? Were you given the galley proofs before this section went to print?

Just curious how that slipped by at such a prestigious publishing house.

When I was in the fifth grade, we had to memorize all the states and their capitols. Today, geography is seldom taught in schools. It would appear that geographical ignorance (“Oh yeah, Maine, New Hampshire. They’re somewhere in New England”) is a by-product of this decision and that it’s now showing up in the workforce.

My husband is a New Englander (Bernardston, Mass., a small town on the Mass/Vermont border. As a boy and young adult, he hiked and camped, even during winter. Knowing how much he loved the land and experience augmented my enjoyment of your book.

One last thought: I’m a classical musician and I loved the fact that the Ed and Allard’s father made double basses. I would be interested in knowing what inspired your decision to give him this profession.

Thank you again for your book.