Deon Meyer is an internationally
acclaimed South African crime writer. His six novels have been translated into 21
languages. His latest, Thirteen Hours (Atlantic Monthly Press, September 2010) was
shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger Award. Meyer lives in
Melkbosstrand on the South African West Coast with his wife, Anita, and four
children.
On your nightstand now:
They've been stacking up, because I watched way too many World Cup soccer matches this summer. I've just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road (a masterpiece), now reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett (wonderful storytelling). After that, it will be So Cold the River by Michael Koryta, Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, John Sandford's Wicked Prey, C.J. Box's Nowhere to Run and Innocent by Scott Turow.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Any of the Owls books, an Afrikaans youth series (Die Uile) by Cor Dirks, featuring the adventures and exploits of five friends in all the wildest parts of South Africa.
Your top five authors:
Objection, Your Honor. Five is not enough, and "top" is such a relative concept. But as I will probably be overruled, here are the five authors whose every new book I've bought with the most impatient and feverish anticipation: Ed McBain, John D. MacDonald, Michael Connelly, Robert Harris and John le Carré.
Book you've faked reading:
James Joyce's Ulysses. But only once, in my 20s, when I wanted to impress a girl. But I think she was faking, too....
Book you're an evangelist for:
Native Nostalgia by Jacob Dlamini. This young Zulu author is one of the hottest new talents in South Africa, and his memoir about growing up in the township Katlehong is intelligent, witty, insightful and groundbreaking. Should be read all around the world.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Essential French Cookery (Chancellor Press). It was the step-by-step photographs of the bouillabaisse on the cover that did it. I needed to cook something very impressive to woo my future wife, Anita, after inviting her for dinner for the first time. It worked.
Book that changed your life:
Well, in addition to Essential French Cookery, there's been so many. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, which made me realize that perfection is possible, and I will never come close. Ten Plus One (or any other 87th Precinct mystery) by Ed McBain, which, at the age of 14, introduced me to a new kind of book--grownup, thrilling, wry, suspenseful, gritty, witty, human.... And a whole new genre, the police procedural, that somehow captured my imagination like none before or since. It was like coming home.
Favorite line from a book:
"The city in these pages is imaginary. The people, the places are all fictitious. Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique." --The disclaimer in every one of McBain's 87th Precinct novels. Supercool.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. To again experience the awe and wonder of the first time.