I had the pleasure of meeting AJ Sidransky when we were both reading excerpts from our novels at KGB Bar in New York, as part the Mystery Writers of America Reading Series. I am delighted to have him join me for this BLOG BIRTHDAY month, as today is the 3rd birthday of his debut novel, FORGIVING MAXIMO ROTHMAN. Below, he shares what inspires him, along with an excerpt from his latest novel, FORGIVING MARIELA CAMACHO.
Inspired by the Sound of Memory on a Tropical Breeze
By AJ Sidransky
As the third birthday of my debut novel, Forgiving Maximo Rothman approaches, I continue to be inspired by both Washington Heights, where I live and the Dominican Republic which I visit every year. They are the venues in which that novel and my most recent release, Forgiving Mariela Camacho are set.
Both novels, at their hearts mysteries, tackle many themes, the most important among them, identity and friendship. All were inspired by my move to Washington Heights twelve years ago from the Upper West Side. What I found was a community in transition. Diverse and full of energy, Washington Heights is the home to several communities.
At the time I arrived there was a large and vibrant Dominican immigrant community (the largest outside the Dominican Republic anywhere in the world), an old, established Jewish community spanning the various cultural currents in the Jewish world and dating back to the period before World War II, and the remnants of a community of Soviet Jewish émigrés that arrived in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, very different in culture and outlook from the prior Jewish community. Today there are fourth and fifth groups of residents, recently arrived refugees from lower Manhattan seeking adequate housing at an affordable cost who have chosen to raise their families in an urban environment and an growing community of Mexican immigrants.
What struck me as I observed these communities was how they inhabited the same space but had virtually no contact with each other. I, unlike most in the neighborhood, became involved in the larger community, which led to friendships within the various groups and the beginnings of my annual visits to the Dominican Republic.
As a writer I wanted to investigate this community disconnect, and so was born Forgiving Maximo Rothman. I soon learned that publishers have a lot to say about what ultimately ends up on your work and what doesn’t, in my case about 150 pages of my original manuscript. Part of what ended up on the cutting room floor became the basis of Forgiving Mariela Camacho. What remains I hope to turn into the basis for the third book in the series, Forgiving Stephen Redmond, in about two years.
My work has been described as a murder mystery wrapped in a historical novel wrapped in a love story. Sort of Philip Roth meets Junot Diaz. Because really, what helpless romantic can resist a fast paced mystery laced with romance in a beautiful exotic local.
I’m working on a new novel now, which I hope will be out in the next year. It’s titled, the Girl in the White Gloves. It doesn’t happen in New York or in the Dominican Republic. I needed a break. But talk about inspiration, I wrote most of it on the terrace of my best friend’s house in Santo Domingo, the palm trees swaying with the tropical breeze, the sounds of salsa and Bachata in my ears. Washington Heights and Santo Domingo inspires me. I hope what I’ve written inspires you too.
AJ SIDRANSKY is a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker. He resides in Washington Heights with his wife. The National Jewish Book Awards selected his first novel Forgiving Maximo Rothman as a finalist in Outstanding Debut Fiction for 2013. Next Generation Indie Book Awards selected his next book, Stealing a Summer’s Afternoon as a finalist for Best Second Novel for 2015. Forgiving Mariela Comacho, was released in September 2015. Learn more about him at www.ajsidransky.com.
FORGIVING MARIELA CAMACHO by AJ Sidransky
Detective Pete Gonzalvez knew from the start that the dead woman he and his partner, Tolya Kurchenko discovered in a Manhattan apartment did not commit suicide. Pete knew her batter than that. Mariela Camacho was the love of his life. The road to the truth winds through the slums of the Dominican Republic, the cold streets of Soviet Moscow, the hot sands of the Judean hills and into the dark clubs of New York City’s underworld. They learn that Mariela was not merely murdered but the most recent victim of an international serial killer-a phantom from Tolya’s past-and Karin Kurchenko, nine months pregnant, could be in his cold-blooded cross hairs.
AN EXCERPT FROM FORGIVING MARIELA CAMACHO
Prologue
Washington Heights, NYC
1 June 2010
9:55 p.m.
Mariela felt the steel blade slide across her neck. It didn’t hurt, not at all. That made her smile. She liked that her face would look forever happy. The coldness of the blade was what struck her. A knife never felt like that in one’s hand. Then she felt wet and realized it was her blood, warm against the place where the cold knife had been. It dripped down her neck, then reached her T-shirt, producing yet another sensation, a thick stickiness between her skin and the shirt. She wanted to sigh but couldn’t.
She opened her eyes and looked around the room, realizing this was the last thing she would ever see. How sad, so far from the place she thought of as home and the people she loved. In the corner of the room, on top of the ebony dresser was a framed photograph of her daughter. Love welled up in her. She had done this for her and thanked God she was safe, far away from here. Her eyes closed slowly. She saw only blackness. The blade finished its job and, before she realized it, this world had slipped away.
You can connect with AJ Sidransky at:
www.ajsidransky.com
www.Facebook.com/ajsidranskybooks
www.facebook.com/forgivingmarielacamacho
www.facebook.com/forgivingmaximorothman
https://twitter.com/AJSidransky
