The book Beautiful Children starts as the story of a missing 12-year-old in Las Vegas, but it quickly unfolds into an interconnected tale of the boy's parents, street kids, comic book geeks and strip clubs.
As part of NPR's occasional "First Books" series, first-time author Charles Bock explains that it took a decade to "unpack his head" and write the novel.
Rick Kleffel reports from member station KUSP.
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