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Bookworm

Ryan Gattis: Safe

Ryan Gattis reveals that one day he got a call, asking if he'd like to watch a former gang member crack a safe.  Thus, the novel Safe was born.

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By Michael Silverblatt • Aug 17, 2017 • 28m Listen

While researching All Involved, his earlier novel that took place during the 1992 LA riots, Ryan Gattis met fire fighters, nurses and gang members. He reveals that one day he got a call, asking if he'd like to watch one of those acquaintances crack a safe. Thus, Safe (MCD, a Farrar, Straus and Giroux imprint) was born. Ghost, its main character, is a former gang-member working as a free-lance safe cracker, sometimes for the DEA, sometimes for criminals. Now clean and sober, he struggles to redeem himself from a life of crime by becoming a ghetto Robin Hood.

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    Michael Silverblatt

    host, 'Bookworm'

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    Connie Alvarez

    Communications Director

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    Alan Howard

    Bookworm Collaborator

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    Ryan Gattis

    author

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