Best-selling author Ruta Sepetys spends months or years researching for her novels, interviewing dozens of people in the process. Because she's doesn’t write about fictional dystopian worlds — she writes about dystopian reality. Spanish baby-stealing. A German shipwreck that's the largest in history. Soviet work camps. Historical fiction that reminds people about unbelievable stories largely forgotten to time.

In this conversation, Emily Siner interviews Ruta about why some of these epically interesting stories have been left out of our collective remembrance, and how she approaches telling histories that are not her own. (And — we'll talk about what it's like to have your first best-seller confused with one of the most popular erotic novels of all time.)

Movers & Thinkers is a production of Nashville Public Radio. This episode was hosted and produced by Emily Siner, edited by Chas Sisk and Anita Bugg, and mastered by Carl Pederson. Find more in-depth interviews with fascinating Nashvillians at wpln.org/movers.