. ♪ lauren groff does here. she is the author of "fates and theories."he new york times book review called it a book of extraordinary complexity, unambitious novel that delivers. pleased to have lauren groff at this table for the first time. welcome. let's talk about you for a second. have you always wanted to be a writer? lauren: yes. but i thought i was a hell it. but i am -- but i thought i was a poet. i couldn't get into the literary journal. i was really, really bad. it was terrible. charlie: did anyone come to you and say try novels? lauren: people think at that time you can develop into whatever you want to be and they let me have my poetry phase and then i took a fiction class. the clouds parted and angel in charlie: did you think -- and the angels saying here in turley: did you think that this is not only my passion -- people have said to me somehow got on book --ther high school high school and say this is where i go on. lauren: i was a french and english literature major. i was very shy. it was not where i belonged because i was terrible at fi

. >> rose: lauren groff is the author of "fates and furies." her third novel, and according to the "wall street journal," it made more year-end best-of lists than any other work of fiction. president obama called it his favorite novel of the year. it revolves around two very different views of a marriage. >> i don't have any secrets. i'm an open book. but i resist the idea that in a healthy marriage, everyone knows everything about the other person. i think -- >> i think you're absolutely right. >> it's not healthy. it's not good. one needs mystery within one's self in order to be a functional human being, i believe, things you don't tell other people. >> rose: including your spouse. >> uh-huh. and in fact i think intimacy is much more interesting when there is something held back a little bit. right. you can actually reach a different kind of intimacy when you have your own autonomy. so i guess i was resisting the idea that in order to truly love someone you have to truly know them completely. i don't like that. a lot of this-- a lot of this b