. >> i think it is our national novel. if there was a national novel of week, this would be it for the united states. i think it's the favorite book of almost everybody you meet. >> the first time in my life that the book had sort of captured me. that was exciting. i didn't realize that literature could do that. >> i remember reading a copy of my aunt's in jamaica queens. it was the first book ever written by a white writer that discussed racism in ways that was complicate and sophisticated. -- complicated and sophisticated. >> a touchstone in american literary and social history. it's a story gently tugged at the issues of racism. >> she was a champion of people who helped us get liberated from racism in this country. >> harper lee's first and only novel. >> a masterpiece is masterpieces not because they're flawless but because they tap into something essential to us, at the heart of who we are and how -- >> a masterpiece and a mystery. >> of course, one kept hoping and waiting for the next novel. sadly, that never came.

that i probably will never write, it will be a courtroom novel. and scott didn't invent the genre. neither did john grisham. earl stanley gardner was writing courtroom drama in the 1930's and 1940's. "anatty of a murder" came out in 1958. first we have "to kill a mockingbird," which most lawyers and most lawyer authors will tell you is kind of the seminal work of why we got interested. and i started writing a novel as i was approaching my 40th birthday. i wrote most of it on a ferry going to and from work every day. it took me three years. and that book became "special circumstances," story of a murder in a big law firm. it came out in 2000 and spent seven weeks on "the new york times"' bestsellers' list. so for those of you who have bought my books, i thank you, because now i don't have to practice law full-time anymore. >> but all kidding aside, you know, i think crime novelists and readers of crime novels whether it's lawyer books or whether it's private detectives or cops, you know, in my world i'm like -- unlike tony's, i can control the outc

i think what's interesting about the novel is america was a deeply divided place. especially in the deep south. segregation was still not yet against the law. and particularly for white southerners, this novel, which caught on, you know, famously and quickly, it gave white southerners a way to think about how they were raised and to think about the system in which they were raised. it did so perhaps in a way that a political speech didn't do because it was told through the eyes of a child. it was a popular story that wasn't just about race, it about growing up in a small town. it was about coming of age. it was about love. it was about lonliness. it had all the suspense. the novel had so many elements with which to draw people in. >> so the tremendous amount of -- about harper lee. i know she never wrote another book. it was a pulitzer prize-winning book, and the film won the academy award. and yet she never wrote another book. what did you learn about harper lee and her reasons? >> well, i was fortunate enough to get great access to two very close friends of her.

i had finished a full draft of the novel before that.now, it definitely made me rethink small pieces of the novel because i didn't want it to read exactly like the newspapers, and it was amazing how much so much of what people were saying was like what i had already written. but it did confirm for me that i was on the right track and that there was something powerful that needed exploring through fiction. >> brown: and you say something powerful that needed exploring, what exactly is that? because there are so many elements to this, right? >> yes. >> brown: what was it for you that needed exploring? >> the novel has a lot of different themes, but one is in the wake of 9/11 who do we trust, how do we decide who to trust. you know, american muslims, how do we think about them. how do we understand islam when there's still so much fear and confusion around it. and i think the ambivalence of the new liberals have felt since 9/11 about how to feel about these things. >> brown: you mean wanting to be open but still very much afraid? >> exactly

but an alternative history is imagined in a new novel.irst novel. i talked with amy waldman recently. here's that conversation. welcome to you. >> thank you. >> brown: you were in new york during 9/11, you wrote about it as a journalist afterwards. how and why did you decide that there was a good fictional story to tell? >> i didn't think about it for a few years, and then having a conversation with a friend that led us to talking about maya lin and the veterans memorial and the controversy which everyoneç remembers around that. and one small piece of that was asian american and it got me thinking what would the equivalent be for 9/11 and out of that came the seed for this. and it had to be fiction, because it hasn't happened, and was a fictional scenario, but it also, i was drawn to doing it because i felt like it was a great way into a lot of these questions and multiple perspectives around them that we've all wrestled with. >> brown: so in your case, the process to pick an architect-- all goes well until it turns ouç his name is moham

he built what he called novel seaside cottages. so this is one of his novel seaside cottages where he basically elevated these cars to a second story. here's one in construction. and off on the right there is his little real estate office, in another old car. and jacob heyman this guy really struck gold because he zug in the sand looking for water -- dug in the sand looking for water and hit the ackqua for. so suddenly you had fresh water. that was a big deal. now you could perhaps live out there year-around. this was heyman's land just south of sutro's. you could seat cars lined up waiting for buyers, essentially. in the background you have some of these novel seaside cottages. he left the cars exposed on purpose. it was a publicity thing. you might come out picnicing or walking along the great highway on the weekend and thought what the heck is that thing? you go over, buy a lot, $35 two cars, can't miss. this is that same view just a knew months later. we're talking about mid 1899 now. you can see the cars are all starting to be

amber lee is in san francisco with the novel new approach. >> reporter: ken the professor told us he wrote this graphic novel a blending of pictures and texts as a way to appeal to the college students but those in high school as well. 37-year-old professor trevor gets teaches african history and wanted a novel approach in approaching students. >> what will students read, they're not going to read a big book. >>> so gets wrote a novel. gets brings to life the true story of a teenage girl enslaveed in slaveed in ghana and how she was enslaved in africa. >> i think it would be better than a regular textbook. i think it'll add something different to the format of the class. >> reporter: gets students told us they've already had a chance to skim the novel. >> it brings a lot of the emotion by looking at the facial descriptions and what they're saying and how they're saying it. >> the images definitely get you more involved in the story. >> reporter: the professor says a lot of african history relies on oral accounts. >> we have an education crisis in this country and part of the educatio

and there is an adventurous alternative to the contaminated zone around should novel itself over theast decades tourists have been flocking here more than ten thousand of them each year and that's why forbes magazine named the dead zone one of the world's most exotic tourist destinations. alexander a former resident of the ghost town of prepared has been organizing these schools for several years he told us the visitors are always fascinated by what they see although all their motivations for making the trip have always varied. look. you people have different reasons. some want to see what an apocalypse could look like. someone to feel the history. which for some it's their childhood like the atmosphere of the soviet union has been preserved but for me it's more important not why they come here but what effect it has on them. but since june this radioactive tourism has been suspended the prosecutor general's office conducted checks and ruled that the emergencies ministry had broken the law with these trips as well as making i don't know healthy profit every tourist to the zone has be

amber lee is in san francisco with the novel new approach. >> reporter: ken the professor told us he wrote this graphic novel a blending of pictures and texts as a way to appeal to the college students but those in high school as well. 37-year-old professor trevor gets teaches african history and wanted a novel approach in approaching students. >> what will students read, they're not going to read a big book. >>> so gets wrote a novel. gets brings to life the true story of a teenage girl enslaveed in slaveed in ghana and how she was enslaved in africa. >> i think it would be better than a regular textbook. i think it'll add something different to the format of the class. >> reporter: gets students told us they've already had a chance to skim the novel. >> it brings a lot of the emotion by looking at the facial descriptions and what they're saying and how they're saying it. >> the images definitely get you more involved in the story. >> reporter: the professor says a lot of african history relies on oral accounts. >> we have an education crisis in this country and part of the educatio