All right. Okay, i guess that is it. I want to thank you. [applause] thanks for coming out. Tricevery weekend booktv bris you 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on cspan2. Keep watching for more television for serious readers. My father refused to let go but no matter where i went there would always be some relatives to appear uninvited in my life. I was ashamed of myself and my headiness evelyn history overcome wished in the joy of the moment. Despite the tone of the conversation i truly felt barack was trying to be honest with himself. And with me focus on reaching a high level of self understand. In the presence of such honesty is imperative to respond in kind of a shock of it was one get into a lake of ice cold water. This image of myself sitting across from you was my brother, barack. I felt i could hide nothing from him but theres nothing in my life that i expect they did not. So for him results mightve been different. He looked so likely in some ways, his face communism was. I shouldve been happy to see him but i was not. Like me he was mixed race and mosmost have been presented as i like me he was educated at an ivy league university. He came from a broken family. Unlike me he wholly embraced his african side. Unlike me he was attempting some sort of reconciliation but something or somebody even if not with me and my mother. Thoughts tumbled through my mind. If this is big brother karen harbert, then why cant i, i thought what he is probably smarter than me and can discern lies for the truth including mine. I felt afraid and exposed like theres something dirty about our kinship, that is founded on a lie, that weve been dealt a grubby, fragile deck of cards on which to grace our brotherhood. Yet the quest the barack and later i would embark upon would require honesty, hungerbuehler it was ourselves or others close to us. So with all this in the back of my mind i lashed out at him. Why bring up all that garbage about my father . He was a drunk. He beat my mother and i learned to move on. Life is hard enough without going on all the problems of race. Barack seemed to flinch and almost perceptible movement, i saw his eyes turned hard as we stood it was as though he didnt understand it after a moment of silence he continued with his questions. Had he not heard my outburst . I was astonished. A part of them seem to shut out my words as though barack was pretending i have said nothing. In this way we were both blind. Whereas at the time i cannot see any of my fathers virtues. Barack might inform high opinions of her father even i like them. Likely no one had told him the truth, the shameful details of episodes of anger and drink. It was as though the condition not to explore these matters having already formed an opinion. Clinically and without passion. His demeanor was cold there i felt then he was an arrogant bastard who was too polite to face those. I did not enjoy being treated as a research subject. I did not want to be paid or ignored by members of my own family. What i needed was someone to tell me when i think the jerk and needed to straighten out. That wouldve been okay, and we could still have shared a beer. How i wouldve loved franco thrown his arms around me and said brother, your big brother r is here. Im looking out for you. I probably wouldve cast his arms aside but it would have broken up inside. Instead, brock said, i see. I was succeeding academically but i started sewing the seeds of my own family. A big brothers advice might have helped me then but i wanted to hit the ball back at him like a tennis ball. That wouldve woken me up but it was not to be. Turn it over to marty barrett, executive editor at the washington post. Marty . Good morning, everyone. First thing i need to do, i was instructed to make an announcement, that is that we want to make sure you have your cellphones office, so that we dont have any unusual disruptions for this program. We appreciate that. Cspan is filming this as well by the way. I am proud to say the post has been a charter sponsor of the National Book festival since its inception in