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| photo: Ashley Cox | |
John Hart is the author of The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child, Iron House, Redemption Road and The Hush. The only author to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel consecutively, Hart has also received the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Booksellers' Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into 30 languages and published in more than 70 countries. The Unwilling (just published by St. Martin's Press) is his first work of historical fiction.
On your nightstand now:
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I come back to it about once every 10 years. It's like Tolkien's books, or Dune by Frank Herbert--books I read young that demand re-visitation. It seems the older I get, the more often I return to the writers of my childhood: Jack London, C.S. Forester, Robert Heinlein. Some sort of regression, perhaps. I'm sure a psychologist could offer a decent theory.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien was a birthday gift when I turned 15, and I read the entirety of it in two days, mostly sprawled out on the living room floor, or in bed until the wee small hours. This was before the movies, of course, so the experience was one of raw imagination and total immersion. Few people build worlds the way Tolkien did. I still see it my way, and not as Peter Jackson brought it to the screen.
Your top five authors:
I love Nathaniel Philbrick for the way he brings history to life, and Pat Conroy for his nakedness (it seems every book laid him bare). Michael Chabon's versatility is stunning. Tolkien is a god, but so is Neil Gaiman.
Book you've faked reading:
I've never faked a book. You can ask my wife.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Post-apocalyptic poetry and what may be the most beautiful story ever written about a man and his dog.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Passage by Justin Cronin. Beautiful cover. The book did not disappoint.
Book you hid from your parents:
Do magazines count???
Book that changed your life:
Honestly, The King of Lies, my first novel. It launched my career, and I cannot imagine my life were I not doing this for a living. The book literally changed my life.
Favorite line from a book:
I'll go with the opening to The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy: "My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call." I've never seen first words resonate so utterly with a novel in its entirety. The book is a love letter to place.
Five books you'll never part with:
The signed first editions given to me by my friend John Grisham.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Is it sad that I keep coming back to The Lord of the Rings? As an adult, I read very little fantasy. As a child, though, I was transported by the remarkable depth of this imaginary world, the complex interweaving of multiple geographies, religions, histories, cultures and interests, the peoples and places, and how they'd evolved, fought and co-existed for thousands of years. Tolkien created a foreign, remarkable, unforgettable world, yet made it entirely real to me. Total conviction. I read those stories with childlike wonder, and would pay dearly to have the experience again. I'm too old and jaded, I'm sure, but if anyone could make it happen, Tolkien would be the one to do it.
Favorite time period for historical fiction:
I have an abiding love of stories about the English sailing navy and its role in the Napoleonic wars. Geopolitics, global war, peril and adventure. What's not to love? Many writers excel in this space, and I've read them all two or three times, great talents like Patrick O'Brian, C.S. Forester, Alexander Kent, Dewey Lambdin and Dudley Pope. There are others, but these are my favorites.