Page 34 October 2016 your ARcadia Realtor.com 602.463.3359 H i L L A R Y GURLEY GURLEY SOLD Brought Buyer SOLD LEASED 4th Time Working with THIS Family 5th Time Working with THIS Family THIS COMPLEX: 8 Leases, 5 Landlords 2 Sales Referrals & REPEAT CUSTOMERS are The Heart of my Business By Amanda Goossen New York Times best-selling author Andrew Gross has built his writing career on thrilling novels about regular people. In his most recent novel, the 10th of his career, he takes a departure from modern day crime and delves into history, writing a story based in World War II, with elements drawn from his own family history. An edge-of-the-seat historical fiction novel, The One Man shares the experiences of physics professor Alfred Mend as he is ripped from his family and taken to a men’s concentration camp in 1944. Mend’s paperwork and life’s work is stolen from him by the Nazis and destroyed – work that is priceless. As a renowned physicist, Mend is one of only two people in the world with his particular knowledge. Knowledge that could start a war, or end it. The Arcadia News Book Club will meet on October 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Saguaro Library to discuss The One Man . We will explore the book as a group as well as Skype with author Andrew Gross. Please RSVP to amanda.goossen@me.com if you would like to attend. Recently, I was given the chance to ask Gross a few questions about writing, publishing and his new novel. AN: Historical fiction is a new thing for you. What made you decide to go back in time? AG: On one hand, I felt like after nine books I was pushing a boulder uphill writing “suburban thrillers,” always having to come up with new ways to entrap my characters – yoga moms and hedge fund dads – in familiar, upscale settings, and how to extricate them as well. The truth was, I wanted to write stories with bigger bones and broader themes, but publishers have a way of wanting you to stay in a familiar niche, as consistency is the touchstone of branding. So, finally a long-term contract ended. An idea stared me in the face. So I decided to let the boulder fall. AN: With science, technology and history all playing a major role in this novel, what type of pre-writing research had to be done? AG: The One Man is set during WWII, and is the story of an escaped Polish Jew who is convinced to go back to where his parents were murdered to smuggle out the one man who the Allies feel can win them the war. That man is an atomic scientist with an expertise needed on the Manhattan Project. And the place he ends up in is Auschwitz. So yes, science, and I would say, setting and history are vital to the story. I probably read eight or nine first-hand accounts of life in the [concentration] camps, unpublished memoirs of Jewish life in Poland in the 1930s, studies of [Franklin D. Roosevelt] and how he handled the Jewish issue, poorly, in the end, I would say; and yes, even how an atom bomb is made. Because understanding the science, why Nathan Blum risks his life – though it is delivered in an entertaining way, I think – was vital to the credibility of the plot. AN: What was the best and hardest part about writing a story that takes place during a real moment in history? AG: Well, the best part is transporting yourself – and your readers – back into a time and place that is so rich and affecting in our history. Getting every detail right, making one feel they are there, not only to ratchet suspense. The beauty of this book, I think, is in its rich detail. The hardest part, well, as a Jew, the subject of the Holocaust is like handling the Holy Grail. Those same details must be right, there is no tolerance for error. And, while in years past, I’ve read all the books, seen the movies, and been to the museums, writing it, taking responsibility for the life and death of the characters, adds a whole new dimension to what it was like to study the Holocaust. AN: Of your main characters, who is your favorite and why? AG: Tough question. Nathan Blum is built off my father-in-law, a man who came here in 1939 before the war, and never found out what happened to any of his family. He was the only one to survive the war. Still, I like Leo and Greta. Leo, a brash, young chess champion in Auschwitz with the most exquisite mind our scientist Alfred has ever encountered. And the Commandant’s wife, who plays an unexpected crucial role in the book. AN: Many readers know you from your time working with James Patterson. What did you learn from that time in your career that you still employ today? AG: While James Patterson may not be looked at as the best stylist when it comes to crime literature, as an innovator, he is unparalleled. So I wrote a bunch of books with him, and I know that time changed my writing life. While I’m hardly a Patterson clone, there are a few things I still carry into my own work: one is relatively short chapters – not like his! – that end on a dramatic edge, linking to the following one. And while this book is not so, usually I – and a lot of thriller writers – work with a combination of first person and third person point of view. Heroes are writing in first person, so you get that close emotional tie, and victims and bad guys in third person, so you are in their heads as well, can see the crimes, and empathize with the victims. It’s all part of building a high emotionality in your story. AN: What are you working on next? AG: Well, the luxury of waiting a year and a half for my current book was that I’ve already finished the next one, a WWII story as well. This one, which I came upon while researching The One Man , is kind of a straight up adventure story of how one man, a Norwegian, in a raid on the Nazi heavy water facility in Vemork, Norway, almost singe-handedly destroyed the Nazis attempts to obtain an atomic weapon of their own and altered the course of the war. If anyone remembers the great Alistair MacLean (and his works, which include The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare ), it’s that kind of pulse-pounding suspense story set in WWII. AN: What is your favorite book of the last year and of all time? AG: My favorite book of the past year is An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, a story set in France a century ago based on the Dreyfus case, where a French Jewish army officer was scapegoated as a spy and put on Devil’s Island to cover up gross errors in the military command. It’s a masterpiece. My favorite book of all time... that’s a big one. I’m going to go with All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, which most of us read in high school as a political novel set in the South. But read it as an adult and it’s a whole different story. There is the story of a man’s search for a father that resonated on a completely different level. To me, it’s also the most gorgeously written novel in the English language. Author of suburban thrillers goes back in time BOOK CLUB BOOK OF THE MONTH The One Man BY ANDREW GROSS Saguaro Library Oct. 27, 2016, 6:30 p.m.

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