Sara Paretsky interview: ‘I start each VI Warshawski book convinced I can’t do it’ | Books | The Guardian

I meet Paretsky on the London leg of the publicity tour for Brush Back, her 17th VI novel. In person delicate and elegant, she's also the owner of one of the world's great voices: so rich and languid that I have to remind myself more than once to listen to the words as well as the music. A mention of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman puts us on a conversational path that takes in race ("don%u2019t know how you survive being black in America: the squeeze is constant"), Obama ("I don't think he's a skilful politician - he's too cerebral - but he's had a much more successful presidency than the public gloss on it") and Chicago's social and political evolution over the last century (she breaks off to sketch a map of the city in my notebook). When discussing the world, particularly the political theatre, she's supremely confident: clear, knowledgeable, secure in her opinions. But when I ask her why she doubts her own status as an author, her eyes drop.