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‘House of Spies,’ My Talk with Daniel Silva

July 11, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Daniel Silva is the international award-winning author of the Gabriel Allon series which has topped the New York Times’s bestseller list many times. He burst onto the literary scene with his debut novel, The Unlikely Spy, which became a bestseller.

He soon began writing books about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli art restorer, assassin and spy. These novels have been translated into twenty-five languages and are available in more than thirty countries. Before becoming a novelist, Daniel was the Chief Middle East Correspondent for UPI in Egypt, and the Executive Producer of CNN’s Crossfire.

In House of Spies, London is the target of a horrific ISIS attack. Though coordinated brilliantly, there is one loose thread which leads Gabriel to the south of France where contact is made with a wealthy Frenchman and a British former fashion model. Gabriel must expertly engineer the situation to fight the global war on terror.

You completed “House of Spies” just before the recent ISIS attack in London. And last year, you completed “The Black Widow” just before the Paris attack. Is this prescience or do you have connections in the world’s intelligence communities?

It’s a little of both. Anyone who seriously follows these issues knew ISIS was desperate to attack the United Kingdom. ISIS painted a bulls eye on the UK. There were twelve or thirteen plots British intelligence and security services thwarted and disrupted, but it was only a matter of time before one slipped through the cracks. The Director General of MI 5 told the British people point blank there would be attacks in Britain. That’s why I chose to use Britain as a jumping off point for this story. While I was deeply saddened to see certain aspects of my book actually happen, I was not at all surprised.

“House of Spies” involves two fascinating new characters—one is Jean-Luc Martel. Tell us a bit about him.

Jean-Luc Martel is a wildly successful French entrepreneur who is in the hospitality industry—restaurants and hotels. That’s all a cover for his job as a drug trafficker.

After the eruption of the Arab Spring, and the eventual toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, ISIS set up shop along the Libyan coast, moving huge shipments of hashish and narcotics into Europe.

In my book, Jean-Luc Martel’s drug network is doing business with ISIS.

This presents Gabriel Allon and his allies an opportunity to penetrate ISIS indirectly by enlisting France’s biggest drug dealer as an unwilling asset of Israeli and French intelligence.

Among other things, the book explores the very real subject of coerced recruitment of assets.

The other new character is Olivia Watson. Tell us about her.

Olivia Watson is a former British fashion model who left the industry with some expensive habits, shall we say. She wasn’t in great financial shape and wanders down to St. Tropez where she works in a small art gallery. She meets Jean-Luc Martel. They form a partnership. He sets her up in business in a posh art gallery, but the gallery is a front for a giant money laundering machine for his drug enterprise.

Is there some significance to your having decided to make Gabriel Allon, a spy-assassin, and also an art restorer?

When I created Gabriel, I wanted him to have a distinct and prominent “other side” to his character. He had been a gifted painter, until he lost his will to create art because of his work as an assassin for Israeli intelligence.

Art restoration not only provides the perfect cover for him, but allows him to stay connected to art, which is his passion.

He’s a complex man, and it’s important to me that the reader see him in all his dimensions.

At the time I was creating Gabriel, I happened to be having dinner with one of the world’s foremost art restorers. He helped me turn this Israeli assassin into a restorer of Italian masterpieces.

You publish a new book during the second week of each July. Is there any significance to that date?

If you look at the publishing calendar, many authors publish books around the same date each year, whether it’s John Sandford, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, or myself. We all have our ‘slots.’ Mine became the second Tuesday of July. I’ve had at least ten books published on that day: it helps the industry with such things as production schedules and ordering; and hopefully, I’ve got readers who know to look for my next book at that time.

How long does it take you to write a novel?

Roughly, from Labor Day until April Fool’s Day. I finish my draft by about March first, and spend the next month rewriting and editing.

Do you have first readers for your novels?

I rely on two people only: my wife, and Lewis Toscano, my editor. Lewis has been editing my manuscripts and making them better since I was a twenty-four-year-old kid.

I’ve learned you write in longhand on a legal pad. Is that true?

Yes, that’s true.

Why not use a computer for that first draft?

I do use a computer for parts of that first draft, but I sit comfortably and quietly while I write in longhand. I think better by writing in longhand. I love the quiet atmosphere of it. I prefer not staring at a computer screen all day. For me, the pace of putting words on paper with the human hand lets me form my sentences as I go. I end up with a skyscraper-tall pile of legal pads by the end of a book.

I’ll tell you something: you could go through those papers and pull out large sections of the novel written in one take from beginning to end. For me, writing in longhand produces a far more polished first draft than I could ever produce by typing on a keyboard. I think it has to do with the slower pace of physically executing words and sentences. Thoughts go from my brain to my fingers and onto the paper via my pen.

All your novels, have plot twists and explosive turns. Do you usually pre-plan them or do they arise as you write?

For the most part, they arise as I write.

I don’t outline at all. My first draft is my outline. [Laughter]. I tried outlining once and felt it was a complete waste of time.

Tell us about the deal with MGM Television to turn Gabriel Allon’s adventures into a series. And why TV instead of a feature film?

It’s the deal I’ve been waiting for. We’re moving forward at full speed.

I had to make a basic choice: film versus television.

That decision became easy when I considered having the prospect of twelve hours of a television series devoted to Gabriel Allon versus two hours of film.

There’s a vast amount of material to capture and explore, and I’m fascinated by the prospect of seeing some of the older material updated.

Television has become quite innovative, and I think it was the way to go.

You once said you wanted Gabriel to live solely on the page. What changed your mind?

For many years, I was convinced Gabriel should live only on the page.

But, after The Black Widow was published, I was inundated with so many offers, I was finally able to feel pretty confident that the offer I would ultimately select would get the complex character of Gabriel and the tone for the series done correctly.

Do you see Gabriel Allon continuing for many more books?

That’s a difficult question to answer. Let’s just say that I’m working on another Gabriel Allon novel right now. [Laughter].

Congratulations on penning “House of Spies,” another electrifying novel about one of the most intriguing protagonists on the planet.

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Filed Under: About Books, book launch, crime, Huffington Post Column, Interviews Tagged With: intelligence, Israeli assassins, Israeli Mossad, spying

‘The Black Widow,’ A Conversation with Daniel Silva

July 18, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Daniel Silva is the international award-winning author of the Gabriel Allon series which has topped the New York Times’s bestseller list many times These books about this art restorer, assassin and spy have been translated into twenty-five languages. Before becoming a novelist, Daniel Silva was the Chief Middle East Correspondent for UPI in Egypt, and the Executive Producer of CNN’s Crossfire.Daniel Silva photo c Marco GrobThe Black Widow, cover

In The Black Widow, ISIS has detonated a bomb in Paris, and a desperate French government wants Gabriel to eliminate the man responsible before he can strike again. A master terrorist known as “Saladin” is intent upon establishing a new caliphate in the Islamic State, and he will strike throughout the West, including on U.S., soil to reach his goal. Gabriel hatches a daring plan: he will insert an Israeli agent—a woman—posing as a vindictive Palestinian “black widow” into ISIS.

Looking at actual events and the publication date of The Black Widow, it’s clear you wrote about the Paris bombing before last November’s attack. How did it feel to see your own plot element play out in real life?

It felt so terrible that I seriously considered setting the book aside and writing something else. In the end, I chose to pretend the Paris attack in November had not happened in the universe where my characters live and work. The similarities between the attack—the use of bombs and guns, the links to Molenbeek in Brussels—were all written before the actual Paris attack.

I think people like me who’ve been writing about jihadism in Europe and have been watching and listening carefully to ISIS, were not at all surprised by what happened in Paris. We all knew because of the number of foreign fighters who have gone to Syria and who then return to Europe with their European passports which allow them freedom of movement within the EU, that Europe is low-hanging fruit for ISIS.

Everyone who reads international thrillers and spy novels knows about Gabriel Allon. Is it true he was never intended to be a character in an ongoing series?

It’s true. When I wrote about Gabriel in the first book, he was going to appear only in that novel and then quite literally, sail off into the sunset. My publisher at the time, Putnam, wanted another book on Gabriel. My editor was the great Phyllis Graham, and I explained to Phyllis all the reasons why an Israeli continuing character was not going to work. [Laugher] I felt there was too much anti-Israeli sentiment and frankly, too much anti-Semitism in the world for Gabriel Allon to work in a mass market way. No one has been more surprised than I to see an Israeli character appear at the top of the New York Times bestseller list on a regular basis.

What happened after book two?

Well, then came book three. [Laugher] My third book in the Allon series is called The Confessor and I originally conceived that book as a non-Gabriel Allon novel. After the success of that book, I had the sense I had a series going.

What do you think makes Gabriel Allon such an enduring and popular character?

I really think it’s the fact there are two distinct sides to his character. He’s a man of violence, a soldier and assassin, but he’s also an art restorer. His duality allows me to construct my stories in a way that might make them appeal to someone who might not necessarily read spy fiction. I know for a fact that many of my readers really don’t read much else in the genre besides the Gabriel Allon books. I think that’s a testament to the character. He makes the books appealing to a broader range of people. I also think the abundant controversy about Israel and the Middle East gives him a certain heft and significance. It gives him some personal heat because the subject matter is both real and critical. Many historical tides move the character of Gabriel.

The heroine of The Black Widow, Natalie Mizrahi, is a fascinating character. Tell us a bit about her.

Natalie was born and raised in France and is a recent emigre to Israel. She and her family moved there like many thousands of other French Jews to flee the rising tide of anti-Semitism in France. She’s a skilled emergency room physician at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and happens to speak fluent Arabic. She’s recruited by Israeli intelligence to undertake a mission ‘That no one in their right mind would ever undertake,’ as it’s described in the book.

What would Gabriel Allon say is now the greatest threat to the world arising from the Middle East?

I think he would say ultimately, the threat is twofold.

As an Israeli, he would view the nation-state actors as the biggest threat. I think he would say the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran in the near future—let’s be clear: it’s only a temporary scaling back of the program that will expire in the blink of an eye in the historical arc of the Middle East—is the biggest threat to Israel and the world.

That said, there’s a sea of instability in the Middle East. Various Middle East factions are fighting each other, and ISIS is now a real threat both regionally and worldwide. The region is a cauldron of unrest. Millions of refugees pouring out of the region have politically destabilized Europe. That’s a consequence of the Syrian civil war with which we’ll live with for a long time. The greatest potential threat to Western security is some sort of radiological or nuclear device being smuggled into an American city. A very senior Israeli intelligence officer said to me, ‘We don’t know what we don’t know.’ We really don’t know the capabilities of ISIS but we should assume the worst, that they will try getting their hands on the most destructive weapons imaginable.

The Black Widow, as do all your novels, has plot twists and explosive turns. Do you usually pre-plan them or do they arise as you write?

It depends on the type of plot twist. For the most part, I don’t write with a structured outline. I have a sense of the story and some touchstones and landing pads before I start, but I begin writing with very little plotted out.

How did you learn so much about intelligence and spycraft as exemplified in The Black Widow and your other novels?

I have read every single major work on the history and practice of intelligence. Then, quite frankly, some of my best friends are spies and I spend a lot of time around them. I don’t go to an Israeli who’s a former spy or intelligence officer and ask ‘How do you do that?’ I can make that stuff up. But I do like to capture their view of the world, their characters, and sense of humor.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about writing?

I always thought the dumbest piece of advice I ever heard was ‘Write what you know.’

I disagree. Write what you’re passionate about. Write what you’re interested in writing. Choose your material; then bury your face in it. I learned not to worry before starting a project. I’ve never quite understood the fear some writers have about beginning a novel. I never fear beginning something; I know I can always fix the book.

The other very important lesson I learned is to try to enjoy the writing of that first novel, because once you’re a published author, it’s never quite the same again. It’s important to make sure you’re doing something that’s a lot of fun to do.

You’re hosting a dinner party and can invite any five people, living or dead, real or fictional, from any walk of life. Who would they be?

Churchill would be there. I’d invite George Orwell who might be coughing and wheezing and not feeling well but I’d love to talk to him.  It would be fun to have FDR along with Churchill—to have the two leaders who saved the world sitting at the same table. How about inviting the acerbic Graham Greene? And then, I’d love to have Hemingway join us. Can you imagine the amount of drinking going on with Churchill and Hemingway there? [Laughter]. I’d watch the whole evening explode.

What’s coming next from Daniel Silva?

I haven’t quite decided and I’ve learned a very important lesson: never talk about a book that isn’t written yet. [Laughter]

Congratulations on penning The Black Widow, a page-turning novel exploring the foundation of ISIS, jihad, the Syrian civil war, anti-Semitism in France, and the future of the Middle East.

 

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Filed Under: About Books Tagged With: espionage, Israeli Mossad, syping, Terrorism

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