As a
book reviewer, there can be very little pleasure greater than discovering new
talent,
especially work that is different, work that traverses an alien terrain, work
that
makes
the mind think, makes the consciousness ruminate and consider what we
perceive as reality. Recently, I stumbled upon a remarkable police procedural thriller set
against
the back drop of the Middle-East. It’s the second novel from an academic
It is axiomatic that
as hard as it for a new author to find themselves in print, it is even harder
for a non-English author to find themselves published in the English Language.
This is due to the authors work finding sufficient merit [by a publisher] to
commission the additional costs of translation and further editing, as well as
the additional marketing effort required to place the work toward an
international market. It is of little surprise that Mishani’s work leaped over
these hurdles, finding himself at the forefront of international crime fiction
including UK and America.
The novel opens with
Detective Avraham returning to Israel, still haunted by the issues raised in
The Missing File, as well as settling in with a new boss Benny Saban, and
awaiting the return of his lover, Marianka who appears torn between her life in
Europe and her life with Avraham in Israel. Due to staff shortages, Avraham’s
boss, is pleased when Avi agrees to curtail his leave and get stuck into the
workload now piling up. Avi elects to investigate a case that forms the title
of the novel ‘A Possibility of
Violence’. It appears that someone [possibly] is threatening the neighbourhood Holon, a suburb of
Tel Aviv with what appears to be a sinister warning. A suitcase is spotted by a
neighbour placed between an office license shop, and a nursery school. Avraham
works alone initially as the department are short staffed, investigating what
appears as a bomb-threat, or a warning.
A Possibility of Violence follows the well-worn tract of the police
procedural, but what sets this thriller apart from the others, following the
same trail is its intense characterisation, insights into dark motivations of
troubled people, muscular and confident narrative, sprayed onto an unfamiliar
and alien environment. It also appears extremely topical, when contrasted
against the recent spike in political unrest in the region, due to the issues
raised in Gaza. It makes you wonder what it is like living and working in such
a volatile country. Mishani’s work makes you learn about Israeli life, but in a
subtle and unobtrusive manner, allowing the narrative to live and breathe the
land that this tale is set against.
Read
the full review from Shots Here
So
after a captivating read, I decided to investigate who is this D A Mishani, and
with
help
from his British Publishers Quercus, we arranged an interview, which throws
insight
into this very interesting writer, and his work -
Photo (c) Yanay Yechieli of D A Mishani
Dror
Mishani is an Israeli crime writer, winner of the Martin Beck award, and
nominated
for last years CWA international dagger award. He's also a literary
scholar,
specializing in the history of detective fiction and teaching in TA University.
Dror was born in 1975 in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. He
graduated from the Hebrew
University
of Jerusalem (Law and Hebrew Literature), studied in Paris and finished
his
M.A in Hebrew literature in 2005. He worked for Israeli daily Haaretz as
editor,
and
his latest position was editor in chief of the literary supplement, Haaretz
review
of
books (2005-2008). Later on he was editor of Israeli fiction and International
crime
in
Keter Books, one of Israel's biggest publishers, editing novels by Amos Oz, Sayed
Kashua,
Henning Mankell, Fred Vargas et al (2008-2013).
His
first detective novel, "The Missing File", the first in the Inspector
Avraham
Avraham
crime series, was published in Hebrew in 2011. It was longlisted for the
Sapir
prize (the Israeli Booker), the first crime novel to be nominated since the
prize's
foundation.
Translation rights for the novel were sold to more than 15 territories and
the
English translation of the novel, "The Missing File" (published by
HarperCollins in
the
US and Quercus in the UK), was nominated for the prestigious CWA
international
dagger award. The German translation of the novel, "Vermisst", was 3
times
on the DIE-ZEIT Krimi-Zeit list of the 10 best crime novels in Germany. In
November
2013 the Swedish translation of the novel, "Utsuddade Spar"
(Brombergs
bokforlag)
won the Martin Beck award for the best crime novel translated to Swedish
in
2013.
May
2013. It was shortlisted this time for the Sapir prize (the first crime novel in
the
shortlist's
history) and won the prestigious Bernstein prize for best Hebrew novel in
2014.
The novel's translation rights were sold to more than 15 territories and it'll
be
published
around the world in 2014 and 2015.
Dror
lives in Tel Aviv with his wife Marta and their two children, Benjamin and
Sarah.
AK Dror you have a literary background both
academic and then later in publishing, so could you let us know who or what
prompted your initial interest in reading and then writing? Was is it your
family, or perhaps your schooling?
DAM I
come from a reading-home but definitely not a crime-reading one. My mother
having studied English literature in the University, we had an impressive
library at home, filled with Classic English literature, but not even one
"crime" or "detective" title in it. Maybe this is why my
first memorable independent reading experiences, as a child, are linked not
with the family-library I grew up with but with the public library in Holon, my
hometown.
This
is where, with the help of wonderful librarians, I developed an independent
sense of reading, maybe even a "taste", and most important, I
discovered books as shelter, literature as a space within which one can
secretly develop his imagination, his free will, his self.
Until
today, days in which I don't read are usually sad days, in which I feel myself
much less, as if I disappear.
AK And let us know what early [and later]
readings do you credit in giving you the spark to write?
DAM I'm
not sure I thought about writing then, but I discovered detective fiction as a
reader very early on. I was 9 or 10 years old when I discovered Sherlock
Holmes, and reading "The hound of the Baskervilles" is clearly the
first reading experience I can remember today.
Having
finished all of Holmes's stories, the librarian sent me to read Agatha
Christie, which I devoured in a few weeks. And then there were no more
detectives for me in the library, because there was so little detective fiction
translated to Hebrew at the time!
I
was so desperate for more, and maybe it was the moment when the will to bring
more detectives to Hebrew was born. I'm happy to say that as an adult, first as
an editor and then as a writer, I have made my modest contribution to the
enrichment of detective-fiction shelves in Hebrew.
AK Following your academic studies in Israel
and Europe, you entered journalism progressing to the literary world of
publishing, with a slant toward crime fiction, so what is it about crime and
thrillers that piqued your interest?
DAM It's
funny, but even after so many years of reading, teaching, editing and writing crime,
I can't really say what is it exactly about this specific type of literary
writing that attracts me so much.
I
can try to speculate though: Am I drawn to the constant negotiation of the
crime-story with questions of personal guilt and innocence (this is what W. H.
Auden thought the main attraction of the genre was)? Or is it Proustian aspect
of the detective, meaning the fact the detective never ends, and you can keep
reading (and writing) the same character for a whole life time?
And
maybe it is simply the repetitious nature of detective fiction, the fact that i
can derive pleasure today from the same literary-structures I discovered as a
child…
AK And why do you consider the crime novel
to be one of the most popular fiction genres [outside of children’s fiction]?
DAM I
think the genre's global popularity has to do with the fact that, from its
beginnings in 19th century crime fiction, it dealt with the most
important questions of modernity and modern life. Questions such as the dangers
of living in the big city, questions of urban alienation and social control,
and of course, the genre's insistence to explore the deep psychology of crime
and criminals - criminals that we all are, in one way or another.
AK So within the crime and thriller genre,
which books and writers do you enjoy the most and why?
DAM I'm
particularly drawn to the slow, realistic police-procedurals, which portray
true crimes, true criminals and true victims, and explore them with the help of
true detectives, made out of real flash and blood.
Georges
Simenon was the master, just like Per Whaloo and Maj Sjowall (in their Beck
series), and today the best example is probably Henning Mankell's Kurt
Wallander novels. But I enjoy immensely other great writers, each of them
developed detective fiction in their own way – Ed McCbain, P D James, Andrea
Camilleri, Fred Vargas, Karin Fossum, Hakan Nesser, Belinda Bauer, John Verdon,
Jan Costin Wagner and many many more.
I
also like very much the ways non-crime writers contributed to the genre in
individual works: Borges and Karel Capek's short original detective stories,
Antonio Munoz Molina's "Bitter Moon" or Michael Chabon's "The
Yiddish Policemen's Union" are good examples.
AK Was The
Missing File, your first written work, or do you have older manuscripts in
your bottom drawer?
DAM It's
definitely my first finished novel, although I wrote (and even published) a few
short stories before, and even started writing (and left unfinished) an early novel,
many years ago…
AK Considering the diversity of sub-genres
within crime-fiction, what steered you toward the police procedural? And can
you tell us what police procedurals you’ve enjoyed both older work as well as
contemporary?
DAM As I
mentioned before, I like crime novels which deal with true crimes, criminals
and victims, and that "use" the genre's advantages to explore human
lives, human destinies and human choices. I think that every death is a tragedy
– for the victim itself, of course, but also for his loved ones and for the
perpetrator too - and that a good crime novel should portray these many faces
of the tragedy and dare look at the sufferings and sorrows that caused it and
that were caused by it.
That's
why I'm less drawn, generally speaking, to the thriller or the
psycho-serial-killer novels, that are so popular today, despite the fact that
they all end with a psychotic breakdown of the serial killer, crying "It
was all Mamas' fault!"
AK Detective Avraham Avraham is an interesting character, and young, a
stark contrast to so many contemporary Detectives who are world-weary with age,
and suffering drink, depression or other ailments of the middle ages, so please
tell us the genesis of this protagonist?
DAM Avraham was born from my mixed feelings
towards the detective's heritage, I would say. On the one hand, I wanted to
create a detective like others, like the ones I love, but on the other hand I
had a desire to write a detective who can sometimes be wrong – and also a
detective that is searching after traces of innocence rather than after signs
of guilt.
One aspect of detective fiction I was always
suspicious about is the fact that detectives know best and are never wrong and
that they're sure every man is potentially a murderer (like Poirot, for
example, often states).
I wanted my detective to be trustful, to
search for innocent people, to see innocence even within guilt, and this makes
him sometimes a bit blind, but I'm willing to pay that price.
I also wanted to create a detective that cares
for the fates of victims and even for the fates of criminals - and for now I'm
happy to say he still does.
I hope he'll remain that way in the future,
despite what he learns and sees along the way.
AK And
when your started The Missing File,
did you envision your detective becoming a series character?
DAM Yes! And from the first page.
As I said before, this is probably one of the
most appealing aspects of the genre (at least in my eyes) and when I assumed
the challenge of writing a Hebrew detective I knew I wouldn't write him just
once.
AK And
your choice to set your novels in Israel is an interesting one, but considering
your time in Paris and England did you not consider setting your work in these
regions?
DAM I did live in Paris and in Cambridge for
quite a while, and I love both cities and even think I'm familiar with them, to
an extent.
But at least for now I can imagine writing
only about a place and about people who I truly know - and there's only one
place, one society and one "psyche" that I feel I know enough to
write about – and that's Israel and Israeli society and the Israeli
"psyches", so to speak. But it's true that Avraham is fascinated by
other places and cultures and I hope that one day he'll have a
"Parisian" investigation and a "British" one…
AK Though
your work was written in Hebrew, it has been translated into several languages,
so tell me how difficult was it for your agent to place your work
internationally?
DAM I think it wasn't that hard. Crime readers around the world are probably
the least "nationalistic" and the most "universal" of all
readers – they love reading crime novels from around the world, discovering new
landscapes and cultures while remaining within the frames of a familiar
narrative structure.
AK I see you are a family man, which is
interesting as both The Missing File,
and A Possibility of Violence involve
children in the narrative so is this an area that interests you, the family and
the mysteries of childhood?
DAM Definitely.
I've even consciously decided that the first three novels in the series would
be a "domestic trilogy", and that only afterwards Avraham would go on
to discover other investigations, other crimes.
I
guess the reason is, as I said before, that I wanted to write about true crimes,
criminals and victims, and the home is still, hellas, the most frequent crime-scene
of all (a fact that the psycho-serial-killer novels ignore; reading them you
can imagine that most of us are being hurt by Jack the Rippers and not by our
loved ones). And it is probably also my own first "crime scene",
meaning the place in which I was, for the first time, a victim, a criminal and
a detective all at the same time.
AK Your debut novel The Missing File was highly acclaimed with the Martin Beck Award
and being shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, so how did this affect
you mentally when considering your sophomore work?
DAM I have to say it put me in an awkward
position.
The
first novel did well but Avraham himself, my protagonist, didn't do so well in
the novel itself, his investigation didn’t end well at all, and so in a way I
had to deal with two different experiences while writing the second novel: "his
failure", "my success".
I
think I dealt with this by internalizing the "trauma" of the first
investigation (Avraham's trauma but probably also mine) into the second novel's
plot, forcing both of us to deal with it.
AK How did the idea for ‘The Possibility of
Violence’ come about?
It was born from an uncanny conversation I had with my 4-years-old son
Benjamin.
We had dinner one day when he suddenly asked me, "Do you know I had
a father before you?" and then added, "But he's already dead."
In the following days I tried to understand what he meant but he didn't
have anything to add and just repeated the same sentences about the previous
dead father.
I had no solutions to this mystery but our conversation haunted me - and
inspired a similar scene in the novel I started writing.
AK I see you are writing full-time now, so
are you going to continue with the adventures of Detective Avraham, or have you other ideas in the
pipeline?
DAM I'm
now writing the third novel in the series, which terrifies me a lot.
I'm
not sure about its title yet but it's probably going to be "The policeman
who went down the stairs and disappeared". And it's Avraham's first real
murder investigation. After it's finished? Who knows? I do know I want to write
other stories, other novels, but it’s probable that Avraham and I will get back
together, this time exploring other places and other crimes.
AK Though I avoid politics as I find it
poses emotions that can get ugly, but as a resident of Israel, which currently
is embroiled in a difficult situation with Palestine making the international
news – it would be remiss of me not to ask what it is like being a writer
living and seeing the horrors [on both sides] of the current crisis?
DAM As a
citizen of Israel, and a politically involved one, it's terrible.
I
strongly believe that Palestinians and Israelis can share this unholy piece of
land and live in it as neighbouring communities, and this awful summer left me
almost desperate – but only almost. I still believe that the fight for just and
equal lives for everybody living in Palestine\Israel is not lost, although it
won't be an easy fight.
As
a writer, and especially a crime-writer, it is a double challenge. In a society
where so many lives are lost so easily I feel a crime writer has a mission: to
restore the preciousness of life by means of telling the story of one tragic death
that could have been avoided.
AK And finally tell us a little about your
current reading, as well as what you are working on, and what we are likely to
see from your pen?
DAM As
for reading, I discovered and I enjoy very much an early Japanese crime novel,
"Inspector Imanishi investigates" by Seicho Matsumoto (translated to
English by Beth Cary). As
for writing, I'm about to write the ending of the third Avraham novel and I
hope you'll be able to read it in English soon…
AK Thank you
for your time and insight
‘A Possibility of Violence’ and ‘The Missing File’ by D A Mishani can
be purchased from the Shots Bookstore here [both Quercus UK and HarperCollins US
editions, and discounted with a promotional offer from their list prices]
Quercus London £16.99
Harpercollins New York $22.99
Shots Ezine would like to thank Quercus Publishing, Sophie Ransom
and Dror Mishani for help in organising this interview.
