Clare Langley-Hawthorne discusses the new thriller The Arms Maker of Berlin with its author, Dan Fesperman.
How does The Arms Maker of Berlin differ from your other books - what can readers expect this time?
I went a lot deeper into the past - the doings of World War II spies in Switzerland, student resistance groups in Nazi Germany, that sort of thing. It's a departure from the immediacy of my other recent settings, like Guantanamo or the hills of Afghanistan, but I guess that's to be expected after you've spent a full month rummaging through old spymaster files from the OSS. There is a ton of interesting declassified material on file at the National Archives from that era, everything from agent reports to expense accounts, and with that kind of material dripping into your veins you soon start to think like a shadowy operative from the 1940s.
How did the idea for this book come to you?
Well, I'd lived in Germany for three years back in the mid-90s, not too long after the Berlin Wall came down, back when all the wars were going on down in the Balkans. And I couldn't help but notice what a theme park of dark history the city was. Everywhere you turned there were reminders of either Hitler, or the Stasi, or even crusty old war-mongering Prussians like Frederick the Great. And even though it was half a century after the Second World War, the Germans were still tying themselves in knots over how to deal with questions of guilt, shame, complicity, national character, and so on. It affected policy on virtually everything from inflation to immigration, similar to the way that the race question seems to be an ingredient, subtle or not, in so many American affairs. So I guess I always knew that eventually I'd want to distill some of that and pour it into a cast of characters, which is pretty much what I've done with The Arms Maker of Berlin.
How does The Arms Maker of Berlin differ from your other books - what can readers expect this time?I went a lot deeper into the past - the doings of World War II spies in Switzerland, student resistance groups in Nazi Germany, that sort of thing. It's a departure from the immediacy of my other recent settings, like Guantanamo or the hills of Afghanistan, but I guess that's to be expected after you've spent a full month rummaging through old spymaster files from the OSS. There is a ton of interesting declassified material on file at the National Archives from that era, everything from agent reports to expense accounts, and with that kind of material dripping into your veins you soon start to think like a shadowy operative from the 1940s.
How did the idea for this book come to you?
Well, I'd lived in Germany for three years back in the mid-90s, not too long after the Berlin Wall came down, back when all the wars were going on down in the Balkans. And I couldn't help but notice what a theme park of dark history the city was. Everywhere you turned there were reminders of either Hitler, or the Stasi, or even crusty old war-mongering Prussians like Frederick the Great. And even though it was half a century after the Second World War, the Germans were still tying themselves in knots over how to deal with questions of guilt, shame, complicity, national character, and so on. It affected policy on virtually everything from inflation to immigration, similar to the way that the race question seems to be an ingredient, subtle or not, in so many American affairs. So I guess I always knew that eventually I'd want to distill some of that and pour it into a cast of characters, which is pretty much what I've done with The Arms Maker of Berlin.
How do you think your background in journalism has helped (or hindered) your fiction writing experience?It helps me mostly with the research, because it taught me how to find out things, how to ask people in other places and other professions about how they lead their lives -- how they talk, how they work, how they see the world differently. I suppose it also taught me the value of a simple declarative sentence, stripped of adornment, and certain economies of style. The only drawback was that it took me a little while - not long, thank goodness - to get use to the idea that my imagination should be master of the material. As a journalist you're a slave to what is in your notebook. As a novelist, you're suddenly free of that notion, and as with anyone who has become accustomed to an institutionalized existence, all that wide open freedom takes some getting used to.
People are always intrigued by a writer's path to publication. Tell us a bit about your journey to published thriller writer.
I started writing my first novel, Lie in the Dark, almost the moment I stepped off the plane from my first trip as a correspondent to the besieged city of Sarajevo, back in early '94. I wrote in fits and starts for the next several years, squeezing it into downtime in cafes, on trains, on weekends, you name it, until by the end of the summer of '96 I had a manuscript. It was rejected by at least two dozen agents - and, yes, I still have all their letters (most of them thought that the idea of a novel set in the Balkans was unsellable) - until it found a home with the wonderful Jane Chelius in New York. She took care if it from there, placing it a few months later with Soho Press, and from there I ended up with Knopf.
Which writers have been most influential for you?
Look closely enough and I suppose you could find all kinds of fingerprints on my work, because I'm a voracious reader who can't get to sleep at night unless I've read at least thirty pages before my head hits the pillow. The two I've long admired the most - John LeCarre and Graham Greene - would be obvious choices, particularly for LeCarre's uncanny talent for being able to nail a character's essence within a few sentences. I also admire the way that Arturo Perez Reverte, even though he writes with great depth and intelligence, is nonetheless able to hook you almost from the first sentence.
What is the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
Getting started and avoiding distraction, day after day after day. It's a little like working up the fortitude to dive into a cold lake. You know that a good strong swim will invigorate you and leave you feeling fantastic and dreamily weary, but you also know that first shock is going to be agony.
If you were to give an aspiring thriller writer one bit of advice, what would it be?
Don't try to write what you think someone else wants to see - whether it's gimmicks, or certain types of characters, or certain types of settings. Write the kind of book that you would most like to read. It's the only way you'll ever get comfortable with it. And, by all means, make writing a daily habit. As with running, even a few days layoff can leave you stiff, lazy and out of sorts.
Contributing editor, Clare Langley-Hawthorne,
was raised in England and Australia. She was an attorney in Melbourne
before moving to the United States, where she began her career as a
writer. Her first novel, Consequences of Sin, has been nominated for
the 2008 Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Macavity award. The
second in the Ursula Marlow series is The Serpent and The Scorpion.
Clare lives in California with her family. 
