What's the Meat Locker for, Bill? ; INTERVIEW the Reclusive William T Vollmann Doesn't Give Interviews Willingly. Matt Thorne Entices Him to the Phone to Talk about His Fondness for Prostitutes and Native American History and Whether His Bold New Novel Will Change His Life

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Conducting a telephone interview with William T Vollmann, the author of eight novels, three collections of stories, a memoir and a seven-volume history of violence seems appropriate, given that the telephone plays such an important part in his new novel. In Europe Central, which recently won the National Book Award in America, he describes the telephone as an octopus, a malignantly complex brain that turns Europe into a blank zone of black icons. It's an evil force, to be treated with suspicion, like the car and television, two other technologies Vollmann mistrusts. But the author is warm, open and unsuspicious. Born in LA 47 years ago, currently resident in Sacramento, Vollmann …