Ten years after the great success which revealed him to the whole world, the Swiss novelist Joël Dicker returns to familiar territory to sign an independent sequel to The truth about the Harry Quebert affair. His brand new titleThe Alaska Sanders Affair, which will arrive in bookstores on Wednesday, uses the same ingredients that allowed it to win over millions of readers. Interview with a writer who has also just founded his own publishing house.
Posted yesterday at 7:00 a.m.
He has often been compared to his hero, Marcus Goldman. The young writer who already in The truth about the Harry Quebert affair, was a resounding success after the publication of his first novel. In The Alaska Sanders casehe investigates again with Sergeant Perry Gahalowood – still on the American east coast – on the murder of a young woman killed 11 years earlier, the shadow of Harry Quebert at her side.
“Marcus is the embodiment of me, a child, who dreamed, who worked hard, telling myself: I hope that one day people will read my books, that I will have the chance to be read. It’s my childhood dream, ”says Joël Dicker by videoconference, passing through Nice, France, where he is to promote his book.
Those who have already read his novels will easily find their bearings in The Alaska Sanders case : a labyrinthine plot, multiple twists, constant back and forth between past and present… and above all an effective suspense that keeps the reader in suspense until the end of this imposing cobblestone.
If, for a moment, we saw in the return of his favorite characters the sign that they would become recurring in his work, our hope is short-lived since he tells us from the outset that 10 years earlier, he was already planning to do a trilogy – and nothing more – with Marcus Goldman. However, he leaves himself the freedom to find him one day.
The Alaska Sanders case is really a volume 2 which goes between The truth about the Harry Quebert affair and The Baltimore Book. It was the original project when I wrote Harry Quebert. […] The three books are completely linked and, at the same time, they can be read absolutely independently of each other.
Joel Dicker
The notoriety of the writer being well established, The Alaska Sanders case is already making “its little life”, says Joël Dicker. Translation rights have already been sold in many European countries as well as in South America. In the United States, on the other hand, where the action of four of his six novels is located, it is rather his precedent, The enigma of room 622, which will appear in September.
International influence
“Americans aren’t fans of novels set in their homes, let alone when it’s a translation,” he says, recalling the promotional tour for The truth about the Harry Quebert affair in the United States a few years ago. “It was funny because I arrived in bookstores and I started my little speech in my English – which is very good, but which is tinged with a Germanic accent, like all Swiss people. And there, I saw all the readers who took their book and started to open it to realize that it was a translation. I was obviously flattered because it meant that I had told their country well and that the mimicry had worked; but at the same time, they were a bit disappointed. So I’m curious to see how The enigma of room 622, which takes place in Geneva and the Swiss Alps, will be received. »
The United States has often been the scene of his novels because he knows the east coast well – “I’ve been going there for 20 years”, he says – but Joël Dicker also mentions Montreal at the beginning of The Alaska Sanders case. Because in addition to having stayed there for the filming of the television adaptation of The truth about the Harry Quebert affair (in 2017), the Swiss writer says he “had the good idea” to marry a Montrealer.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Joël Dicker in Montreal in 2018
“Before the pandemic, we were in Montreal three times a year. I must have gone there 30 times in my life, if not more, so it’s a place that I’m starting to know very well and I’ll be able to capture the atmosphere and the moods. But writing a novel set there is a whole different story, he says, not least because of the challenge posed by the language in the dialogues.
A new publishing house
The publication of The Alaska Sanders case also coincides with the inauguration of Joël Dicker’s publishing house, Rosie & Wolfe, established in Geneva after he gave up trying to find a new publisher after the death, in 2018, of Bernard de Fallois, who had Been by his side since his debut.
I would have felt like betraying [Bernard de Fallois]. At the same time, I had participated a lot with him in all the production of the books, so I said to myself: since I know how to do it, as much as I do it.
Joel Dicker
If the catalog is currently only made up of its own titles, two new releases should see the light of day each year from next year – all genres combined.
Two trials are planned for 2023, favorites gleaned from his travels and his encounters, which he “wants to share and defend”. And he intends to stick to two titles a year because his job – and what he likes to do –, he says, is to write.
Joël Dicker indeed seems inclined to multiply projects, having even bought an emblematic chocolate factory in Geneva in 2019. But one thing is certain, the writer will not embark on a new writing project immediately, in order to give time to complete the promotion of The Alaska Sanders case – a lesson learned following the publication of The truth about the Harry Quebert affair.
“What is certain is that my next book will not yet be a Marcus adventure. I want to do something else. In a year or in ten years, will I want to add a book or two to the trilogy? Maybe, maybe not. You know, you have to listen to your desires. »
Joël Dicker will be at the Renaud-Bray on Saint-Denis Street in Montreal on April 21 at 5:30 p.m. for a signing session, and on April 28 at the Laliberté bookstore in Quebec City at 5 p.m.
The Alaska Sanders case
Joel Dicker
Rosie & Wolfe
576 pages