Pandemic affected how author Sarah M. Broom feels about home

She said her bestselling debut "The Yellow House" grew out of an "obsession with the idea of home." But even after finishing her memoir about the childhood home in New Orleans that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Sarah M. Broom felt "very confused about what home actually means."

That process of questioning has continued even as Broom shelters in place at her new home in Harlem, she related in a Zoom conversation for the Talking Volumes literary series Oct. 6:

"It has been interesting to explore the idea not only of literal space but interior space. I think for me during the pandemic it has mostly been about interior space -- the rooms of the self. …

"More these days, I'm leaning toward a kind of evolving and almost spasmodic idea of home and place. The things that make me feel home are sometimes the way someone says something. A phrase, right? And it will create in me a feeling almost of homesickness. But homesickness for where? Sometimes the home is many places, or someplace I have been to only briefly."

Click on the video below to see the full interview and a chat afterward between Twin Cities writer Shannon Gibney, who reviewed Broom's book for the Star Tribune, and Star Tribune reporter Jenna Ross, who interviewed Broom earlier.