JUDITH NELSON

Business is slow at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, so slow in fact that for the first time in her estimable career Precious Ramotswe has reluctantly agreed to take a holiday. The promise of a week of uninterrupted peace is short-lived, however, when she meets a young boy named Samuel, a troublemaker who is himself in some trouble. Once she learns more about Samuel's sad story, Mma Ramotswe feels compelled to step in and help him find his way out of a bad situation.

In telling the story of how I came to be cast as Atticus Finch, I think back to the young actor I used to be. I imagine the older me and the younger me sitting on a bench in Central Park. I imagine our conversation. The first season of Alive & Well Enough wraps up with “The End,” a song I recorded years ago with my Circle Rep friend and fellow songwriter Jonathan Hogan about looking back on a life spent telling stories.