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Joël Dicker: "In Europe there is a tendency to despise those who sell many books"

2022-07-01T10:51:26.242Z


Best-selling Swiss author reflects on the contempt that successful authors have always garnered The best-selling author Joël Dicker (Geneva, 37 years old) has just released the second installment of a trilogy of which the other two were already published. A challenge that took him back to the New Hampshire that he portrayed in The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair and that had to fit literarily between that story and the next. Also in the new book, The Alaska Sanders Case (Alfaguara) has


The best-selling author Joël Dicker (Geneva, 37 years old) has just released the second installment of a trilogy of which the other two were already published.

A challenge that took him back to the New Hampshire that he portrayed in

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

and that had to fit literarily between that story and the next.

Also in the new book,

The Alaska Sanders Case

(Alfaguara) has chosen a painting by Hopper for its cover.

Question

.

Why Hopper?

Answer

.

When I was going to publish the Harry Quebert case, I was in Madrid seeing an exhibition by Hopper, which I knew and already liked very much.

And walking among the paintings I said to myself: “this is exactly what I'm looking for”.

In such a long book where the reader has to take so much time to get to know the characters, I wanted an image to guide and connect with them before they even started reading.

That's why I chose it.

I've approached all the publishers and others have preferred other covers because the only person who knows their market is the local publisher.

Readers keep their features even though we are in a globalized world.

And this is something that I really like.

Very interesting.

P.

_

What has been most difficult in the new book?

The characters, the plot?

R.

_

The biggest challenge has been connecting between the first and third parts of a trilogy that was already written.

It had to fit in with the characters who already had a pre and post biology.

I had a great time.

P.

_

So he has done as in

Star Wars,

he has done the former after the latter.

R.

_

Yes, a bit like in

Star Wars.

And I answer this because I know it follows that logic, but I have to say something unspeakable: I have never seen

Star Wars

.

I don't know why I haven't seen it yet, it's a pillar of today's pop culture and I have to see it.

P.

_

Living success so young is good or bad for growing up?

R.

_

All powerful experiences are good for maturing.

We don't always choose when things happen to us and success is a very powerful, very positive experience that has shaped me, and at the same time with many difficulties to overcome.

It has now allowed me to live peacefully with my children.

And the most important thing in my life is my family.

P.

_

And what are those difficulties?

R.

_

The first thing, in relation to myself, one considers many things.

I had been writing for ten years and already had five novels before the success and I asked myself 'what have I done that is different?'

Therefore, you question yourself about creativity.

And the second, in the relationship with others: suddenly they know you, they recognize you, things are easier in a certain sense, but also more complicated because there is jealousy, attacks and that can split you in two, strengthen or weaken you.

P.

_

Does she look like some kind of 21st century Agatha Christie?

R.

_

What author would not want to be the Agatha Christie of the 21st century!

I can't answer that question because it's not me who will decide, the readers will in the future, even after my death.

I am at the beginning of my career and I have a life to live until I become a great writer.

Also Agatha Christie in her time had many critics and highly questioned works.

When she turned the narrator into the murderer, for example, critics said that violated the codes of crime fiction.

The great ones have become great after death.

At the moment I enjoy life and writing.

P.

_

Do you always see yourself in the literary territory of crime?

R.

_

It is difficult to answer and make promises about it.

I let myself be carried away by what I like, I have not always written detective novels, I have done other things and I will return to other genres.

My great desire is not to be Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle, but to make different types of books throughout my life and I hope that the books I write when I am 50 or 70 years old are not the same as the ones I write when I am 35.

P.

_

And why did you choose the crime novel?

R.

_

As in music, I have experimented with genres of all kinds.

I played the drums, first in a pop group, then rock,

heavy metal,

jazz... and each of the experiences was different and I liked it.

In literature too.

P.

_

What is the power of books?

R.

_

We live a very anxious life between the weather, the coronavirus, the end of the world, the war in Ukraine... It is very difficult to escape and the books allow you to live another life in this world.

It is a much more powerful escape than television series or movies, because when you read a book you are an active part of the story.

The reader is also a creator, he imagines the characters, the places, what happens, he lives it as if he were in it.

And it is the last place in the world where one is alone with oneself, disconnected, leaving aside the mobile, the WhatsApp and the others.

In a book one can have a conversation with oneself and this generates a very healthy and important introspection because we create images that belong to our own living space.

P.

_

Does criticism of the

best-seller

bother you as a lower scale of literature?

R.

_

Criticism is part of the game and there is a tradition in France and Europe that tends to look down a bit on those who sell many books.

Simenon was also despised because he sold many books.

André Gide asked that the sales figures be lowered so that they would not criticize him.

There is a very complicated relationship between literature and success.

I'm not comparing myself to Simenon or Christie, I'm simply saying that this is part of the game.

History repairs all this.

P.

_

And does it bother you in any way to be a

best-seller

?

R.

_

When after two or three years involved in a book, five or six days a week, ten hours a day or more, you go to Belgium, Spain, South America and you see readers queuing up, it's very nice and makes sense of everything.

The writer who cries because his book is sold is a good actor, more than anything else.

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Source: elparis

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