The Accident
In The Accident, a New York literary agent named Isabel Reed receives an anonymous manuscript, revealing dangerous truths about a powerful man. And then people around her start dying. It becomes clear that Isabel is at the centre of a complex web of loyalties and betrayals that includes myriad media types in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, as well as intelligence operatives in Copenhagen, and the author in Zurich, as well as all their interconnected back stories in Paris, London, and a winding rural road, long ago and late at night, which is the scene of the eponymous accident.
Please tell us about the character of Isabel Reed.
Isabel managed to hold on to her youthful idealism for longer than her contemporaries, but eventually she became the type of wheeling-and-dealing literary agent whose main job is to connect already rich celebrities to the multinational corporations that can make them even richer. Then she married rather hastily, had a son she absolutely adored, but tragedy struck, and she lost nearly everything. Now Isabel is trying to fight her way back, to once more become a woman who people respect instead of pity.
You were an editor in the publishing industry for 15 years, so how much of your experiences are embedded in Isabel’s?
Isabel’s experiences are an amalgamation of a number of people I’ve known in the book business, but I’m not one of those people. You’ll need to look to other characters in The Accident to find traces of me.
Your first book The Expats, received awards and nominations, so how much did this affect your confidence as a newly published author?
I stopped spending 100% of my time worrying that I’m a crappy writer. These days, I think I’ve got that down to maybe 98%.
How much has your personal background helped you to write and publish your books?
Immensely. As an unpublished, nonprofessional writer working on my first novel, I nevertheless had access to extremely talented people who would help make my manuscript better, people who’ve made careers out of providing careful, constructive criticism to writers. I’m tremendously grateful to them. And then during the process—working with an agent, revising the manuscript, selling the project, the year-long pre-publication activities—I generally knew what was going on with my book as a commercial product on its way to market, and that knowledge helped me to stay calm, and to be a productive participant in the goings-on, instead of sitting around tearing my hair out.
You were behind other peoples books for years so what made you turn to writing yourself?
I always wanted to write. But honestly I’m glad I didn’t do it back when I was twenty-five or so, when it’s now clear to me that I was a very poor writer, and could’ve ruined my career before it even started.
The Expats secured a major film deal, so was this something you had in mind when writing it?
I tried to make the novel very visual, so that readers could picture the action of every scene. Even when that action is as static and interior as a character thinking about herself; she does this navel-gazing while sitting in the back of a car that’s being driven too fast through the German countryside by an amphetamine-fuelled driver. I think this type of staging can make the reading experience more engaging for a book like mine. I also hoped it could make it easier for a producer to imagine filming it.
What is next for you?
I’m writing my third novel, about an accidental spy.
The Accident by Chris Pavone (Faber & Faber) is out now in hardback, £12.99