Out of the Cradle, Into the World

After hearing and reading so many favorable responses to Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel, Child 44 (see here and here), I was delighted to receive an invitation to one of the hottest literary events in London, Simon & Schuster’s launch party for the book. It seems that a great deal of money has already been invested in this novel, with more to be spent, as Sarah Weinman reported recently in The Guardian’s books blog:

Over the Christmas holidays [American novelist Jed] Rubenfeld’s dissector, Jeffrey Trachtenberg of the Wall Street Journal, fixed his reporter’s eye on 2008’s first Buzz King, Tom Rob Smith. Once again, the madlib theory holds: he’s “a little-known, 28-year-old British screenwriter whose credits include working on a Cambodian soap opera” (check), his debut thriller Child 44 garnered $1m and a slew of foreign rights sales from its U.S. publisher, Grand Central (check), the movie rights have been sold to Ridley Scott (super-check) and Grand Central plans an ad campaign that includes New York city transit, television, radio and of course, the internet (ultra-check!). Dear oh dear, it’s going to be awfully hard to make money back on Mr. Rob Smith in America, never mind what Simon & Schuster--his UK publisher--will face having forked over “merely” £200,000 for the privilege of publishing Child 44 this March.

The problem with articles such as this is that they reinforce the short-term amnesia that has become frightfully common for off-the-page books coverage. The reader is supposed to be impressed with the news that Grand Central printed up over 3,000 galleys of Child 44--despite the fact that this is exactly the same number that was printed for [Rubenfeld’s] The Interpretation of Murder, and roughly one-third the number printed and circulated for The Da Vinci Code long before it became a bestselling phenomenon.

With Smith’s Stalinist-era serial-killer thriller having finally reached UK bookshelves (and due out in the States in late April), Simon & Schuster must be relieved that reviewers are giving it their thumbs up. Profiling its 29-year-old author for The Observer, Peter Guttridge calls Child 44 “a thrilling, intense piece of fiction” that had an unlikely start and a not altogether smooth entry into the world:

‘I was reading about real-life cases,’ Smith says. ‘And I stumbled upon Andrei Chikatilo.’ Chikatilo, the Ripper of Rostov, murdered and cannibalised around 55 women and children over a 13-year period beginning in 1977.

Smith makes his protagonist a policeman at first reluctant to investigate, then stymied in his work by the way the state views crime. Kafka in a crime novel is pretty much a first, but Smith thought of his idea originally in film terms. He wrote a treatment for his agent who decided that a spec script from an unknown set in Stalinist Russia would be a hard sell. He suggested Smith write it as a novel.

‘I wondered if I could do it. Then I read Robert Conquest’s The Harvest of Sorrow [about the horrors of the famine imposed on the Ukraine by Stalin and his policies] and thought, well, if the rest is going to be as good as this ...’ For the next two-and-a-half years, Smith researched and wrote ‘in the background’ to his regular freelance work in TV.

‘Although I did visit Russia, my research was absolutely based on the books I read. It helped that I focused on people’s emotional states rather than on physical or geographical detail.’

When he’d finished Child 44, his agent ‘told me it wasn’t finished at all and made me write it again’.

Meanwhile, for The Independent, Barry Forshaw picked Child 44 as one of his 10 favorite crime novels, and The Telegraph’s Susanna Yager called it “a memorable debut,” adding that “The atmosphere of paranoia and paralysing fear is brilliantly portrayed and unremittingly grim.” And the student newspaper at Cambridge, his alma mater, looks toward young Mr. Smith’s future plans:

For now, Smith has put aside screen and TV writing to concentrate on the follow-up to Child 44. Could a classic detective series be in the works? “Possibly there’s a third book there, [but] it’s not something that could go on for, say, seven books. It’s not like you have a protagonist and everyone else disappears and you have a new book with a new adventure and all new people, like a James Bond. The first book is about Leo [Demidov]’s relationship with his wife; the second book is about the family--there’s only so many times you can twist those relationships.” Moreover, he doesn’t see himself specifically as a crime writer: “If I was going to talk about the future, what appeals to me is a good adventure.” He cites Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and Graham Greene, as well as filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, as influences. “The crime element might be important, but the adventure side is the key.”

So, on the evening of the Simon & Schuster launch fête--and with a strong feeling of déjà vu--I sauntered over to the Marques of Granby pub in Shaftsbury Avenue to meet novelist Nick Stone (Mr. Clarinet) and his wife, Hyacinth, along with my Shots colleagues Mike Stotter and Ayo Onatade. After some beers, as well as talk about Smith’s novel and its promotion in London tube stops and at bus stops around town, we headed across to Soho and the Union Club, which I seem to have seen a lot of lately (what with the John Harvey launch and the more recent Penguin Books party there). After being herded to the rear room, we were greeted by the Simon & Schuster crew and joined both Forshaw and critic-bookseller Maxim Jakubowski, who had brought his wife (another Child 44 fan, it turns out; she was brought to tears by Smith’s authentic depiction of Russia in the 1950s). We also had the chance to talk briefly with the star of this show, Smith, who looked shell-shocked by all of the attention he’s receiving.

Once we were all gathered, with drinks in hand, Smith’s editor, Suzanne Baboneau (who is also Simon & Schuster UK’s publishing director), took to the podium. She recalled how she’d received the manuscript of Child 44 last year, and despite it having been a rough week, when she dove into Smith’s single-spaced pages her eyes widened and she became trapped in this dark tale. She said, “I just had to have it, as it was like discovering Gorky Park!” She then spent a long time telling everyone how much Simon & Schuster was investing in pushing this book out to readers. I have rarely witnessed such enthusiasm from a publisher translated to commercial actions, especially on behalf of a writer of such youthful years. Baboneau let us know, too, how happy she was to see S&S UK beating Smith’s U.S. publisher, Grand Central, to market with an English edition of this new novel. (She added, however, that the first edition of Child 44 was actually produced in Germany.)

Somewhat nervously, Tom Rob Smith delivered a short speech, in which he tried to thank everyone behind the success of Child 44. He was clearly not accustomed to being in the limelight, but nonetheless seemed happy to have people enjoying his work.

After a rousing and deserved toast to the author, we refilled our glasses and proceeded to mingle, as one must do during these affairs. I got the chance to chat with S&S senior editor Kate Lyall-Grant, who told me that she was the second person to read Smith’s novel--and was no less dazzled by it. We went on to discuss the continuing success of U.S. writer Vince Flynn (Protect and Defend), and how much she had enjoyed seeing Mike Stotter huffing and puffing through Simon & Schuster’s “combat day” last year. Lyall-Grant mentioned, too, that she is very excited about Kitty Sewell’s follow-up to Ice Trap (2007), which is scheduled for publication in Britain later this year.

Finally, after thanking Simon & Schuster’s tireless Joe Pickering for the invitations to this party, Nick and Hyacinth Stone surprised Stotter and I with a treat. Knowing that I was a big fan of singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, the Stones had booked a table for the lot of us at Lee Hook Fook’s Chinese Restaurant in London’s Chinatown. That eatery was of course immortalized by Zevon in his popular 1978 song “Werewolves of London.” What else could I order, while we talked about the often frustrating vagaries of publishing, but a plate of beef chow mein?

To see more photographs from the Child 44 launch party, click here.