Canadian Novelist Robertson Davies.

Davies began his working life as an actor in England. At the start of World War II, he returned to his home country of Canada and became a journalist. Now a popular author best known for his Deptfod Trilogy, Davies says he still only "squeaks by" as a writer.

The Canadian writer has a new novel called "The Cunning Man." It follows the life of a Toronto-based doctor during World War 2 who witnesses the death of a father at the High Altar. The Washington Post has called it "one of [the] author's most entertaining and satisfying novels." Davies, now 81, has had three successive careers -- he began as an actor, then was a journalist and newspaper publisher, and in 1981 retired as professor of the Massy college at the University of Toronto.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's new book centers on Frank Bascombe, a 68-year-old man dealing with his aging body, a dying friend and his ex-wife, who has Parkinson's.