Writing as a Traveler

One of the more interesting elements of blogger Peter Rozovsky’s interview with Frenchman Caryl Férey, author of the new South Africa-set novel Zulu (Europe Editions), is their discussion about Férey’s tendency to write just one work backdropped by each country he visits. He explains:

I never want to write the same book, that takes place in the same location, because I always want to write something different. Therefore I generally kill off my hero at the end. So there is no continuation, and this lets me go look into another country.

It takes me three or four years to write such a book. After three or four years, I have the feeling of having taken in all the country’s problems. I don’t have much more to say. I try to put everything into the one book and then go somewhere else.

You’ll find their whole exchange here.