» Best-selling and award-winning author, Nuruddin Farah, reads an excerpt from Knots.

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In my novel, Vidya climbs the stairs in secret every evening, to visit the upstairs library that is forbidden to her. As I said in my author's note, I fell in love with the written word a long time ago, in the library of the home where I was born, though I didn't have to visit it in secret.

Then again, secrets are always interesting. So I thought I'd share some secrets of my writing life.

1. Sometimes, when I do a Climbing The Stairs book event, I get really passionate and I yell. Who knew that I could behave this way in public? Here's what I yell about. My book is multicultural, and I'm proud to be contributing to the growing body of excellent multicultural fiction in America. But there's a lot more to my book. Most importantly, it tackles UNIVERSAL themes of war and peace. See? I'm already yelling with my capital letters. But I have to. I yell, because here's what I think. Gandhi wasn't Indian, he was American, too. He embraced diversity. He respected multiculturalism. He belongs to the entire world. Any messenger of peace belongs to every human being. And, on the flip side, World War II engulfed the whole world. That's why it was called a WORLD war. And, finally, my book was published in America, and it's message is one of hope. Hope is the state motto of Rhode Island, where I live. So it's a Rhode Island book and an American book and a multicultural book and a global book!