Published in the Sunday Times
The Travelers
Chris Pavone (Faber & Faber)
What is the strangest thing you’ve done while researching a book?
I recently drove a rental car from Mexico City to Puebla, a sprawling city of more than a million people. It was night by the time I arrived. I had no map, my phone/GPS device had run out of battery, and I don’t speak Spanish well enough to ask for directions in a meaningful way; I had no way of figuring out how to find my hotel. It was difficult. And the strange part was this: the difficulty was intentional.
What do you snack on while you write?
I don’t snack while I write. I drink coffee. Occasionally gin.
Where do you write best?
Every year I take a trip or two whose main purpose is to visit a place so I can write about it, and I think this is when I do my best work: alone at a café in a foreign country.
What is the last thing you read that made you laugh out loud?
This text message from one of my twin boys to my wife: “Mommy, you were right about how I would definitely forget something. This morning I left my shoes on the bus.” There were also some wonderful lines in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, which is overall not what anyone would consider a funny book, but that’s what makes the humorous lines so effective.
Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with?
Now I will steal the response of my other kid when he was asked the same question: Barack Obama, because we could talk about his dog, and because we’d definitely get rescued quickly.
How would you earn your living if you had to give up writing?
For the better part of two decades I worked as a book editor, a wonderful job that I’d love to do again.
What was the first novel you read?
I can’t remember, and I’m also failing to invent an interesting lie. But I do remember the first novel I ever loved: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Who is your favourite fictional hero?
Captain John Yossarian from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
Which current book will you remember in 10 years?
Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies.
Is there a type of book you never read?
Those with waving American flags on the covers. American jingoism is one of the most dangerous sentiments in the world, and at the moment it’s fueling the horror of Donald Trump’s bombastic, chauvinistic, repugnant ascendancy. I’m not only deeply ashamed, but also severely alarmed.
What’s more important to you: the way a book is written, or what the book is about?
Hands down: the writing style. I can love a beautifully written book about almost anything but I can’t enjoy clunky prose no matter the plot.
Book details
- The Travelers by Chris Pavone
EAN: 9780571298884
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