German novelist Zoran Drvenkar’s thriller Sorry just might be the “Mystery of the Year,” according to our October 2011 Whodunit column. After winning the Friedrich-Glauser Prize in 2010, it has now been released in English. The unique premise is “dark, demented, radical and grotesquely humorous.”
In a Q&A with BookPage, Drvenkar shared a few of his favorite books and imparted some words on being a writer.
Describe your book in one sentence.
Four friends open an agency that sells excuses to corporations who don’t know how to handle mistakes. The four friends get kind of surprised when a murderer books them.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Charles Bukowski said that not being able to write because of the circumstances getting in the way of your life is a lousy excuse and that you can write unter any conditions, even when a cat crawls up your back and six kids scream in the background.
What was the proudest moment of your career so far?
The proudest moment is happening every time, when I finish a book. I sit there and I can’t believe it and smile stupidly and proud and with no real understanding how I did it.
Name one book you think everyone should read.
There are more than 400 books I think everyone should read, but I will narrow it down to four: The Half Brother by Lars Saaybe Christensen, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and Terror by Dan Simmons.
What’s your favorite movie based on a book?
Fight Club.
As an author of children’s books, film, plays and novels, what is your favorite type of writing?
I like to jump in between genres. I don’t like to be predictable, and where is the fun in writing if you don’t use everything possible writing can offer you?
Bad habit you have no intention of breaking?
Being myself.
