Sometimes, the literary world gets a bit conceptual. Writers eschew punctuation, experiment with fonts and color - Rick Moody, I'm talking to you! - or invent their own languages and just sort of leave it up to the reader to figure it out.

Fortunately, there are some authors who still remember the goal is to tell a story.

Chris Bohjalian is one of the latter - and this doesn't preclude his own estimable "literary" qualities. He's a master of character and narrative voice - and a man whose imagination has supplied a rich variety of plots in 17 imaginative and moving novels such as "Skeletons at the Feast," "Midwives," "The Light in Ruins" and "The Night Strangers."

Bohjalian, a serial New York Times bestseller, has just published his newest, "Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands." It tells the story of 16-year-old Emily Shepard, whose father is responsible for a nuclear accident that decimates northern Vermont. She's forced to flee to avoid persecution for her father's mistake, and the book focuses on the brutal life of a runaway and how she seeks redemption.

Bohjalian visits Old Lyme Saturday as part of the Big Book Getaway series. He's guest of honor at two author luncheons in the Bee and Thistle Inn, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Let's hope he's hungry!

- RICK KOSTER

Chris Bohjalian, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Bee & Thistle Inn, 100 Lyme St., Old Lyme; $45 includes lunch and author presentation. Books are available separately for $25.95; RSVP required; (860) 434-1667.