The American writer Jake Lamar, author of a memoir and five novels, will be reading from his latest thriller, Ghosts of Saint-Michel (St. Martin’s Minotaur), at the Village Voice Bookshop (6 rue Princesse, 75006 Paris) on Tuesday, September 12 at 7 p.m.
Lamar is the winner of the Grand Prix de Cognac for his first novel, The Last Integrationist (Crown), translated into French in 2005 as Nous Avions un Rêve (Rivages/Thriller). He recently talked to Paris Update about his latest book, his other works, and his life in Paris. To listen to the interview with Lamar, click on the links below.
Question: You’re a New Yorker and you’ve been living in Paris since the early ’90s. What drove you to come here, and has France been good to Jake Lamar, the writer?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3)
Q: Tell us about the Cognac Prize you won for the French translation of The Last Integrationist?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3)
Q: Ghosts of Saint-Michel is set in Paris in late August, 2001, just prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks. The key scenes in the book take place at the Fontaine Saint-Michel. Why did you choose this time period for your book, and why Saint-Michel and not some other Parisian monument?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3)
Q: Your main character, Marva Dobbs, the well-known chef of a soul food restaurant in Paris, appears briefly in your previous novel Rendezvous Eighteenth, as do some of the other characters. What made you decide to make this new mystery revolve around Marva?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3)
Q: What made you decide to start writing thrillers? Can you tell us how you approach the genre?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3): choosing to write thrillers
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3): genre conventions
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3): influence of Hitchcock
Q: You said that If 6 Were 9 was the book that was the most fun to write. What about the others?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3), part 1
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3): part 2
Q: What’s next?
Click here for Jake’s response (MP3)
Interview by Jeanne Bernard and Perry Leopard
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