The World That We Are: A Conversation with Andrew Furman

In 1837, a young Henry David Thoreau sets out to lead an extraordinary life in Concord, Massachusetts, combating formidable obstacles. He struggles to find work as a teacher, to discover his voice as a writer, and to realize true friendship and romantic love, battling all the while against the “family disease” that threatens his health. When a captivating young woman arrives in town, she ignites a tumultuous love triangle with Thoreau’s brother, forcing matters to a crisis. Meanwhile, David Hertzog, a Thoreau scholar in present-day Maine, embarks on a reflective journey in the autumn of his life upon the unexpected return of his estranged daughter. Her reappearance in town forces him to grapple with their painful shared history and seek a new path forward. Alternating between these two timelines, The World That We Are delves into enduring themes of love, family, the quest for meaningful work, and the search for a true home in the spinning cosmos.

Andrew Furman is a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University and teaches in its MFA program in creative writing. His fiction and creative nonfiction frequently engage with the Florida outdoors, but he has also written about Maine, Jewish identity, basketball, lighthouses, swimming, and cast iron cookware. His essays and stories have appeared in such publications as Prairie Schooner, Oxford American, The Southern Review, Santa Monica Review, Ecotone, Willow Springs, Grist, Southern Indiana Review, Poets & Writers, Terrain.org, Flyway, and The Florida Review. He is the author, most recently, of the novel, The World That We Are (Regal House Publishing 2025), and the environmental memoir, Of Slash Pines and Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide to My Suburban Wilderness (University Press of Florida, 2025). Other books include Jewfish (Little Curlew Press, 2020), Goldens Are Here (Green Writers Press, 2018), and Bitten: My Unexpected Love Affair with Florida (University Press of Florida, 2014), which was named a finalist for the ASLE Environmental Book Award. He lives in south Florida with his family.