Harington has described The Choiring of the Trees as the most realistic of his novels. What do we mean when we use the term "realistic"? If you have read Lightning Bug, Harington's other novel in which Latha Bourne figures prominently, do you think that it is less "realistic" than The Choiring of the Trees? A related question is what is a story and what are the pleasures of story? As early as his unpublished novel, A Work of Fiction, Harington has shown his great interest in the relationship between storytelling and our ideas of "reality," and, in each succeeding fiction, he has both tried to convince the reader of the "reality" of his story and to remind the reader that the story is a made object, a "fabrication." Although the story of Viridis and Nail has its reference in the actual world, the novel makes explicit...