A grouchy retired professor who is dying of cancer and an experienced hospice nurse are the basis for “The Hummingbird,” a new novel by Stephen P. Kiernan. But there’s a lot more to this story than deathbed regrets and recriminations.

Kiernan, who will appear at Bank Square Books in Mystic on Monday, has written a previous novel and works of nonfiction. Both an ear for good dialogue and his fascination with history inform this latest book, published earlier this month by William Morrow.

While Professor Barclay Reed makes nurse Deborah Birch’s life miserable, she also has to cope with the hair-trigger temper of her veteran husband, Michael, who has served three tours of duty in Iraq.

When Reed asks Deborah to read aloud his last work, the story of a Japanese pilot who bombed the Oregon wilderness during World War II, Ichiro Soga’s story becomes a parallel narrative to Deborah’s. Within the heart of Soga’s transformation — from dutiful aggressor to post-war ambassador — may lie resolution for Deborah, her husband and her patient.

Kiernan, who embarked on a book tour Wednesday, answered our questions via email.

Q. “The Hummingbird” is essentially two stories — that of Deborah Birch, hospice nurse, guiding her grumpy patient on his final journey, and the transformation of a Japanese pilot who bombed Oregon during World War II. How did you get the idea of combining these two narratives?

A. What are the lessons of history? If we look closely at the past, what can we discover about ourselves? These were among the questions I hoped to plumb with this story. I believe that hospice patients can teach us healthy people a great deal, because they are living so fully in the present. Deborah’s patient tells a World War II story that is primarily about a warrior trying to become a man of peace. Deborah’s husband is emotionally damaged by his service in Iraq, and she is trying to help him to become a man of peace too. I was hoping the present-day man might learn from the past. 

Q. The story within the story feels very authentic, and is based on a real incident. Besides changing names, did you do much else to fictionalize the essential facts of the case?

A. I did a ton of historical research, then threw away anything that did not make the best possible story. I did not want a book that read like history. A novel needs the advantages of fiction – pace, suspense, surprise. 

Q. You also made the decision to tell the contemporary story from the perspective of a woman. Was it difficult to write in Deborah’s voice?

A. Every narrative voice is a challenge, and of course I was extremely careful when using a woman to tell this story. Fortunately nearly all of my early draft readers — including my agent and editor — are women of strong opinions. I counted on them to save me from embarrassing myself. But really any narrator, regardless of age or gender or time period, is a product of the writer’s imagination. As long as I can render Deborah richly enough that she is human for the reader, alive and vivid, I can get away with it — I hope. 

Q. The voice of Barclay Reed, her patient, also is richly vivid. He starts off irascible, but somehow we are rooting for him nonetheless. How did you make him just likeable enough?

A. Barclay is a thorny guy. But I think two things made him lovable. First, he is vulnerable. For all his bravado and bluster, he is quite ill and dependent on others. Second, he has met his match in Deborah. I love how they spar with each other, and gradually come to respect and even love one another. 

Q. An underlying theme here is the very believability of the stories you are telling. Reed wants most of all to know whether she thinks the story he’s written about Ichiro Soga is true. Do you think this is a preoccupation of all writers, even novelists?

A. Of course writers want their stories to matter, just as readers want the stories they read to engage and move them. But the theme of being believed is particularly important in “The Hummingbird.” Barclay’s central work that he needs to do, in order to die at peace, is to recover from the academic scandal that ruined his credibility and ended his career. The test he has given Deborah — to read his unpublished book and decide whether it is true or false — is his last chance to finish his life as he lived it, a man of intellect and integrity. 

Q. Besides death, Americans are uncomfortable with the consequences of war. In your portrayal of Michael, Deborah’s husband, who has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, did you hope to educate your readers in any way?

A. Perhaps educate is too strong a word. We know that more than 400,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD. They are committing suicide at the rate of 23 a day. To me, this compounds the tragedy of those wars.

Michael is one of those emotional casualties, and I did want readers to spend time with a person like that, for example who hears a thunderstorm and thinks it is mortar fire. The challenge Deborah has in helping her husband to heal, meanwhile, is a microcosm of the challenge our society faces as it continues to try to heal from 9/11 and its military aftermath. I would not presume to educate people about such things, but I do believe a novel can help people live with these topics in a way that hopefully touches their hearts and minds. 

Q. The hummingbird of the title — a carving given to Deborah by a patient — provides a wonderful touchstone for her as she faces this challenging case. Was it pure invention? Inspired by anything?

A. It’s funny: Actually the hummingbird was a number of different objects over the course of writing and rewriting this novel. What each of them had in common was the idea that every person, no matter how ill or impoverished, is capable of giving gifts of enormous power and generosity. Finally I decided to go with an object that has speed and strength and that causes delight. Deborah received the carved bird from a totally impoverished man, and the last thing she does before going to meet a new patient is touch that bird, to remind herself that every human being offers unique and wonderful gifts.

IF YOU GO

What: A reading and reception with novelist Stephen P. Kiernan

Where: Bank Square Books, 53 W. Main St., Mystic

When: Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Info: (860) 536-3795