The last child john hart movie

See more author interviews at end of story.

John Hart’s long-awaited fifth book, “Redemption Road,” has already become his fifth New York Times bestseller, further validating his decision nearly a decade ago to quit his successful day job as a stock broker and devote his career to full-time writing.

The Durham, North Carolina, native is also the author of ‘The King of Lies,” “Down River,” “The Last Child” and “Iron House.” The only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels, he’s also nabbed the Southern Independent Booksellers’ Award for Fiction, The Barry Award and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award.

MISSISSIPPI READS: Top books, signings (week of May 23)

Now living in Virginia with his wife and two daughters, Hart insists that writing has been his “only real dream.”

Please share a little about your background, and how it led to your love of writing.  

I was born into a medical family. My grandfather, Deryl Hart, was the chief of surgery at Duke for most of his adult life. He was also the university president for a time in the '60s. My father is a doctor as is an uncle, an aunt and four cousins. Logically, I thought, I was destined to be a doctor, too. After two years as a pre-med student at Davidson College (near Charlotte, North Carolina), I realized what a mistake that would be for me. At loggerheads, I took six months off and moved to France to study the language. When I returned I switched my major to French. As part of that curriculum I studied a lot of existential writers, and feel those studies affect my writing even now, specifically the concept of the existential moment.

Before you became a full-time writer, you worked as a defense attorney and a stockbroker. Looking back, what did you enjoy about those roles, and how did that work prepare you for becoming a writer?

I worked for three years as an attorney before I quit my practice to write “The King of Lies.” I’d written two failed novels at that point and became convinced that I needed to write full time to succeed, that I must be able to call myself a writer and dedicate all of my energies to that end.

I quit my law practice in 2001 and finished the manuscript in 2002, writing almost the entire book in a carrel at the public library in my hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina, where the book is set. When I went to work for Merrill Lynch I was there until 2005 when I finally sold the book to St. Martin’s Press, and was able to write full time.

What I miss most about those jobs is the sense of collegiality that came from time with friends and colleagues. Writing is a lonesome affair, which is why I enjoy being on tour: the people, the energy, the sense of larger purpose.

Being a financial adviser contributed little to my writing. My time as a lawyer, though, was important. It taught me so much about motive and aftermath and all the bad that flows out from a single violent act. It’s why I write the stories I do, because small towns are tapestries, and they can unravel with violent force if the wrong thread is cut.

How did you actually make the switch from your previous career to that of full-time writer?

It took 15 years and two failed novels to make it happen. Once I had the right manuscript it got a little easier. The final leap was frightening. My wife was home with two daughters, and not working. My initial advance was small. What I knew for certain was that my best shot at competing with full-time writers was to have the same amount of time myself, all those hours and days to work on nothing but the novel. Quitting my job was a hard decision, but I never hesitated. I wanted this too much and my wife, thankfully, shared the same vision. That first year was interesting, to say the least.

With five New York Times bestsellers, you’ve mastered the art of the thriller stories with “Redemption Road” — crime, violence, murder, betrayal, despair and, at last, justice and redemption. How do you develop the ideas for your stories?  

In spite of that I’m not convinced I’ve mastered anything. I suspect that sounds strange, but each book is as much an exercise in doubt and uncertainty as it is a pleasure and a journey. I don’t outline the way many authors do, so I’m never quite convinced the novel will work.

The story ideas unfold organically once I have the main character firmly in mind. If I see that person clearly enough — what they want and fear and value — then it becomes a matter of prolonged experimentation. I go to bed thinking of the character and wake the same way. It’s a process, but eventually the ideas come, and the pages pile up. I rarely know the ending of a book until I’m at least halfway through it.

“Redemption Road” moves along at an intense pace, with nonstop twists that cut from one subplot to another, among different characters in their own storylines. Do you find this to be a creative challenge, tying it all up in the end?

Some days I consider it a weakness that I don’t outline. Other times it feels like a gift. That’s about inspiration, epiphany. It’s only in living with the story and the characters for months at a time that I tend to find the best ideas. I would lose that opportunity if I outlined in advance of writing the actual novel. Of course, those who outline probably sleep better at night. I tend to wake at 3 a.m., restless and worried. That being said, every new day feels like an adventure that outliners tend to miss. Epiphany. Inspiration. When those things come, the process is an utter joy.

Writing plot lines as convoluted as those in “Redemption Road” was particularly sleep-stealing, not knowing until the end if the pieces would fit, if I would find that satisfying “click.” When the plotting does work — which is most of the time — the novels come so organically that I can only imagine that great things happen in the subconscious. I fall asleep dwelling on the story and wake with the idea for a scene.

It’s an odd process, and it only works if I write the early chapters so that almost everyone has secrets and history and motivation to perhaps do bad things. That’s the fun part of character building. Once I’ve lived with my people long enough to understand them, the big pieces fall into place and things usually make sense.

This was your first novel with a female main character. How did you tackle that?  

What I feared would be horribly problematic simply was not. First of all, writing any character requires imagination and empathy. I did have to work harder to get into Elizabeth’s head than I did for any other character except, perhaps, Channing. I wanted to get the feel right.

A second trick, for lack of a better word, was to focus on those elements that are universal to the human experience regardless of gender — fundamental issues like family and work, community and the past — and similarly fundamental questions like, in the aftermath of trauma such as these women endured, does one love, hate, trust, forgive? If you think about it, Adrian faces the same questions. Bottom line, I guess, is that if one focuses on deep enough questions, men and women are very much the same. That’s how I chose to approach it, at any rate. I may have gotten it wrong, but I hope not.

Your writing style has been called “poetic.” Would you agree? How would you describe it yourself?

My career has worked because I’m married to a lovely woman named Katie, and because I try to write books she will not just enjoy but respect. That’s tough because I like thrillers, and Katie is not exactly a thriller fan. I still aspire to write the kind of books that speak to her in some meaningful way.

Generally, that’s about language and backstory and depth of character. I enjoy all of that but particularly the language, because there is poetry out there, the perfect turn of phrase. That’s about more than pretty words. It’s especially powerful if I can create in the reader an emotional response that wells from some place beyond pure story. In the end, I want a propulsive novel where the reader might nonetheless stop to savor a bit of writing or to relish a particularly deep character. Do I always succeed? I’m sure I don’t. But that’s the nod I give to my wife’s exceptional sensibilities.

You’ve won many awards for your work. As a writer, is there anything you feel like you haven’t “conquered” yet — any challenges you’ve yet to explore?

In the writing of “Redemption Road,” and in its delay, I learned a lot about humility and professionalism and staying true to the inherent promise a novelist makes to his readers: that every book will be the best it can possibly be. It was a hard time full of doubt and late-night soul searching. If anything, it made me want to work harder, write better books. I guess those are the lands unconquered, all those books out there just waiting to be written.

Why the five-year break since your last book?

I actually wrote 300 pages and what I hoped would be my fifth book only to throw out the pages and start over. The original manuscript was very much Adrian’s story, that of a cop, wrongfully convicted, of an angry man grown hard in prison. In writing that story, though, I couldn’t see in him the kind of credible character that a reader like my wife, for instance, would appreciate. He felt stock, and predictable. The story felt the same way. I didn’t want that to be my next book, so I called my editor lo let him know I would not make the deadline.

When I began the new book I wanted Adrian to remain in the story, but in a more credible way. The answer was to write him strong, but broken too. But I knew immediately that . . . he was, in fact, too broken to work as the lead. Enter Elizabeth Black.

Liz was a small character in the first, failed novel, a bit player whose sole, true purpose to provide the measure by which one might gauge Adrian’s transformation. She was complex and powerful, but just raw, like an exposed nerve. I decided to give her the lead in the new book. She had the same dichotomies as Adrian — both strengths and weaknesses — but could carry those inherent fragilities and still be strong enough to drive the story. Putting them in play together was a challenge and a delight. Again, it’s about the nuance. That took some time.

Anything else in progress?

I’m writing my first ever sequel, and it’s all about Johnny and Jack, 10 years after the events of “The Last Child.” It’s a different kind of book in many ways. There was a hint of mysticism in “The Last Child,” specifically around the character of Levi Freemantle. The new book goes even further, flirting more than a bit with elements of magical realism. While much of it takes place in modern times, there are scenes set in 1853 and during the Great Depression. At the book’s core is Hush Arbor — the slave church in the deep swamp. There’s something about that place, and it’s not something people would ever expect.

Signing

John Hart  will sign copies of “Redemption Road” at 5 p.m. Thursday at Lemuria Books in Jackson and at 5 p.m. Friday at Off Square Books in Oxford.

FacebookTwitterEmail