Marjorie McCown's "Star Struck"

Marjorie McCown spent 27 years in Hollywood working on the costumes for movies such as Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Her film career provides the inspiration for her Hollywood Mystery series of books that are set behind the scenes in the world of moviemaking and feature key costumer Joey Jessop as the main character. Her cozy murder mystery, Final Cut (2023) was chosen as an Amazon Editors' Pick in the best Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense category. Deadly Pleasures Magazine named Final Cut as one of the best cozy mysteries of 2023. Her new novel, Star Struck, is Book #2 in her Hollywood Mystery series. McCown is a member of Sisters-in-Crime and Mystery Authors of America.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of Star Struck.

Movie costumer Joey Jessop is working on a film with two of the biggest box office stars in the world. The leading man, Andrew DeRossi, is not only a serious actor but also a philanthropist and climate change warrior -- while his costar, Gillian Best, is an aging beauty who pours most of her time and energy into becoming the next celebrity entrepreneur with her start-up lifestyle brand.

When a fatal traffic accident happens within sight of the movie's shooting location in downtown Los Angeles, Joey realizes the car involved belongs to Gillian, and she starts to wonder if the star is hiding something. Gillian's strange behavior in the wake of the tragedy only deepens Joey's suspicions. When the authorities show no interest in further investigation of the circumstances surrounding the accident, Joey is faced with a choice: she can either maintain her professional detachment from the swirling orbits of the movie stars she works with and turn a blind eye to Gillian's scheming -- or she must launch her own search for the truth.

I have lots of ideas for casting the movie version of my book! Since I spent most of my career working as a costume designer and costumer for feature films, it's almost second nature for me to think about casting the characters.

I think Jennifer Lawrence would be perfect to play Joey. She projects an understated aura of personal confidence and competence that feels authentic on screen. And she has an easy intelligence about her along with a sense of humor that she just naturally brings to all her characters.

For Gillian Best, I think Gillian Anderson would be a wonderful choice, though I didn't select my character's name with her in mind when I began to write. But Ms. Anderson is the right age and she's still a great beauty. She's also a gifted actress with a grace and elegance about her that would allow her to portray the kind of entitled hauteur that is part of Gillian Best's persona without having it come across as caricature.

For Dan Lomax, Gillian Best's shrewd, attractive, and ambitious personal manager, I'd love to cast Ben Mendelsohn, who can play anything. He's a brilliant actor whose performances are always layered and nuanced; his characters are complete people.

For Andrew DeRossi, though the part is small, it is still pivotal to the success of the story. I think Ryan Gosling would be superb. He has a mischievous charm that he brings to every role, and he's also got that "it" quality -- he looks like a movie star.

Visit Marjorie McCown's website.

Q&A with Marjorie McCown.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nolan Chase's "A Lonesome Place for Dying"

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Dying is his first book featuring Ethan Brand.

Here Chase shares some ideas for the above-the-line talent for an adaptation of the novel:

Clint Eastwood is my favorite director—no other American filmmaker better embodies what Keats called ‘negative capability;’ in films like Bird, Mystic River, Honkytonk Man, The Bridges of Madison Country, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Unforgiven of course, he’s able to tell stories about complex personalities without putting his hand on the scale. He’d direct the hell out of A Lonesome Place for Dying.

As for Ethan Brand, the small-town chief of police and former Marine, a younger Clint might be great—or Scott Eastwood, who was very good in a film called The Outpost—but Jon Bernthal would be my pick. He brings depth to his roles, yet there’s part of him at remove from the world, watching it. Ethan is heroic at times, vulnerable at others, and something of a damaged romantic. I think Bernthal can portray the same qualities.

For Brenda Lee Page, the department’s senior officer and Ethan’s very literal-minded rival for the top job, Vera Farmiga or Indira Varma would be great.

Visit Nolan Chase's website.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase.

The Page 69 Test: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

--Marshal Zeringue

Peter Colt's "The Judge"

Peter Colt was born in Boston, MA in 1973 and moved to Nantucket Island shortly thereafter. He is a 1996 graduate of the University of Rhode Island and a 24-year veteran of the Army Reserve with deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. He is a police officer in a New England city and the married father of two boys.

Here Colt dreamcasts an adaptation of his new Andy Roark mystery, The Judge:

In the winter of 1986 Boston based Private Eye, Andy Roark is hired by Judge Ambrose Messer because he is being blackmailed by people who want him to throw case in which industrial waste has poisoned a community. The Judge is paying for a romantic indiscretion and hires Roark to handle it. Roark’s case brings him into contact with Messer’s beautiful and loyal clerk, Angela Estrella, Detective Sergeant Billy Devaney, and Criminal Defense Attorney Johny O’Day.

The Andy Roark that I envision is a guy with life experience, and a weathered look. He’s tough, he’s got skills, but he’s not built like something out of the MCU. I think that Scoot McNairy (Narcos Mexico, Speak No Evil, Killing Them Softly) embodies all of that. McNairy has delivered solid performances and brings an honesty to his roles that allow them to transcend the tropes of their respective genres.

Ambrose Messer, who is the pivotal character in the book, is in his sixties, well to do, and a man with a secret. I would want an actor who can portray the turmoil created by trying to do the noble thing and also realize that his indiscretion can potentially harm the people who are counting on him. I see Ed Harris as being the perfect actor to convey the emotional range of a fundamentally decent man, who is grappling with the fact that his choices might harm the very people he is sworn to defend or at the very least will destroy him.

Angella Estrella is Messer’s fiercely loyal and protective clerk. She is the go between for the Judge and Andy Roark. She is also Roark’s romantic interest in the novel. Angella has a similar upbringing and blue-collar background to Roark and is almost as tough. I would love to see the criminally under-utilized America Ferrera play the part of Angella. She has the acting chops to portray Angella’s toughness, brains and of course beauty.

Detective Sergeant Billy Devaney is a frenemy of Andy’s from the “old neighborhood” South Boston, “Southie”. Billy is objectionable and bigoted, but he is loyal to Andy in his own, crass way. Bill Burr is the only actor who could pull off both sides of the character and still seem likeable.

Johnny O’Day is a criminal defense attorney and not a very good one at that. But he hustles and scrapes and someone ends up in the middle of things. If he can’t make it on brains or looks then he’ll bend a few rules to get buy. I would love to see James Franco play the part. Franco’s range and likeability could best convey the part of a guy who thinks he has it all figured out.

Visit Peter Colt's website.

My Book, The Movie: Back Bay Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Back Bay Blues.

Q&A with Peter Colt.

The Page 69 Test: Death at Fort Devens.

My Book, The Movie: Death at Fort Devens.

My Book, The Movie: The Ambassador.

The Page 69 Test: The Ambassador.

The Page 69 Test: The Judge.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeff Zentner's "Colton Gentry's Third Act"

Jeff Zentner is the author of New York Times Notable Books The Serpent King and In the Wild Light, as well as Goodbye Days and Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee. Among other honors, he has won the ALA’s William C. Morris Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award twice, the Muriel Becker Award, and the International Literacy Association Award, been long-listed twice for the Carnegie Medal, and been a two-time Southern Book Prize finalist. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville.

Here Zentner dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Colton Gentry's Third Act:

Colton Gentry’s Third Act is the story of Colton Gentry, a country musician approaching middle age and for whom some things are going very well. He has a hit song climbing the country music charts and he’s married to Maisy Martin, one of country’s hottest acts who’s preparing to make the jump to pop music. But other things are not so good in his life. He recently lost his best friend in a mass shooting at a country music festival. His wife has been in the tabloids with rumors of infidelity. And he’s always sought comfort from heartache in the bottle. So one night, he takes the stage, drunk, before an arena ground, and offers up his opinion on guns. And it goes over...poorly. His career and marriage implode and he moves back home to his small town in Kentucky, where he begins his third act in life, part of which involves taking on a new vocation and reconnecting with a high school flame.

I love book to movie adaptations and the Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People was one of the inspirations for Colton Gentry’s Third Act. So, if I were able to pick a director to adapt it, I’d want Lennie Abrahamson and Hettie MacDonald, who did that adaptation. I’d also be a big fan of Ray McKinnon, who did Rectify, which was another one of the inspirations for Colton.

As for who to play the leads? I’d love to see Rachel Brosnahan playing older Luann (the story has two timelines⏤high school and present day). I think she’d bring steel, wit, and intelligence to the part. I could see her giving orders in the kitchen (she runs a restaurant). As for older Colton? I’d love to see Brandon Sklenar, whom I saw and loved in 1923. He has this soulful intensity that I really enjoy and a great, charismatic, onscreen presence. I could see him playing a haunted country music star trying to rebuild his life. He doesn’t play much humor on 1923, but I could see him nailing Colton’s sense of humor. And I think he’d play great opposite Brosnahan. My second choice for Colton would be Garrett Hedlund, who’s already done a fantastic job playing country musicians in the past.

As for young Colton and young Luann? I’m afraid I don’t know young actors well. But I know this: I love to see some unknown absolutely crush it in a first big role. I still remember picking my jaw up off the floor after seeing Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. So my official vote is to get talented unknown young actors who look vaguely like Rachel Brosnahan and Brandon Sklenar and turn them into stars. Ditto Luann’s eight-year-old twin girls.

As for Colton’s best friend, Derrick Giles? He’s way too big for a supporting role like this, but Michael B. Jordan would be excellent. And Zöe Kravitz would be phenomenal as his wife, Gabrielle. Again, for teenage Derrick, get some talented unknown.

I think Laura Dern would be really fun as Colton’s mom.

Finally, for Colton’s friend Duane, what we really need is Owen Wilson. But Owen is about twenty years too old for the part, so we need someone with Owen Wilson’s look and, more importantly, his energy. Far easier said than done, I know.

But you know what, Hollywood? I just want to see Colton Gentry’s Third Act onscreen. So I’m open to negotiation on all of this.

Visit Jeff Zentner's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Serpent King.

The Page 69 Test: The Serpent King.

The Page 69 Test: Goodbye Days.

--Marshal Zeringue

Amy Shearn's "Dear Edna Sloane"

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here. She has worked as an editor at Medium, JSTOR, Conde Nast, and other organizations, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Gotham Writers Workshops, Catapult, Story Studio Chicago, The Resort LIC, and the Yale Writers' Workshop. Shearn's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Coastal Living. She has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Here Shearn dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Dear Edna Sloane:

I hadn’t thought about this until you asked me this question and then my brain immediately screamed Olivia Colman, duh. Olivia Colman would be great as Edna Sloane – the way she can be so funny and also have such depth of emotion, how she’s at once totally unafraid of looking or seeming any particular way, and at the same time is so sexy. A slightly unhinged Colman, playing deep smoldering rage frosted with brilliance and wit, that’s what we’re wanting here.

For Seth, we’re going to need Josh O’Connor, from The Durrells in Corfu and apparently some other more famous things as well. In that show, though, he plays a Lawrence Durrell who is at once totally charming and totally obnoxious, which I would think would be just right for dear old Seth. And he has the slightly bird-like look I imagine Seth has.

It’s a small role, but I’m going to need Anna Baryshnikov to be Kim, Seth’s would-be love interest. Because that character could easily seem a little, I don’t know, #basic, but that actress would imbue her with a zany hotness I think she needs.

This is going to be a great film, wow.

Visit Amy Shearn's website.

The Page 99 Test: How Far Is the Ocean from Here.

Q&A with Amy Shearn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seraphina Nova Glass's "The Vacancy in Room 10"

Seraphina Nova Glass is an Edgar Award-nominated author. Her fifth and latest book is The Vacancy in Room 10.

Named a New York Times Book Review Summer Read and an Amazon Editor’s Pick in Mystery & Thrillers, her last book, On A Quiet Street, earned her #1 bestselling status in the Thriller category on Amazon. It was also hailed by Bustle as one of “10 Must-Read Books” and one of “10 Top Thrillers To Read On Your Summer Vacation” in the Boston Globe.

Publishers Weekly has named her “a writer to watch” and Emmy-nominated producer Michael Terence quoted her writing as “page-turning and cinematic.”

Glass is currently working on her sixth novel, The Oleanders, and is also an Assistant professor and Playwright-In-Residence at the University of Texas, Arlington.

Here she shares some ideas for casting the leads in an adaptation of The Vacancy in Room 10:

Anna receives a call one evening to hear her husband in a panic admitting that he killed someone which is followed by a bang and the call dropping. Later, his body is found on the banks of the Rio Grande and is considered a suicide. It doesn't make sense, so Anna moves into the Sycamore apartments where he kept his art studio and decides to investigate herself.

Cass has found herself left with nothing after a messy breakup. She is living in this same rundown apartment complex. Desperate for money, she starts a little scheme, blackmailing men for bits of money to get by. One day, however, she blackmails the wrong person and all hell breaks loose as Anna and Cass’s stories crash into one another.

So, for this book, I have been already tasked to think about who would play the lead characters in a movie because one of my previous books, On A Quiet Street, was offered a movie deal and this book is being shopped around for one as well. My husband jokes that he sees Kristen Wiig playing the protagonist in all my books, and I like that. I’m a big fan and her obvious comedic prowess, but that talent combined with her ability to pull off serious roles make her my top pick to play Cass, and I would put Melissa McCarthy the exact same category as a gifted comedic and dramatic actress and this book has that mix of dark humor and drama, so she would be my choice to play Anna.

Visit Seraphina Nova Glass's website.

Q&A with Seraphina Nova Glass.

--Marshal Zeringue

Caroline Leavitt's "Days of Wonder"

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Days of Wonder, With or Without You, Cruel Beautiful World, Is This Tomorrow, Pictures of You, Girls In Trouble, Coming Back To Me, Living Other Lives, Into Thin Air, Family, Jealousies, Lifelines, and Meeting Rozzy Halfway. Many of her titles were optioned for film, translated into different languages, and condensed in magazines. Many of her titles were Best Books of the Year and Indie Next Picks. A New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow, she was also shortlisted for the Maine Readers Prize, and was a Goldenberg Fiction Prize winner. She recently won an award from the MidAtlantic Arts for portions of her next novel, The Inseparables.

Here Leavitt shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of Days of Wonder:

Days of Wonder is about two fifteen-year-old kids, Jude and Ella, who fall passionately in love, and when the boy’s father threatens to separate them, they fantasize about killing him. Until it’s no longer fantasy. But both are exhausted and sleep deprived, and using drugs to stay awake, and on the night of an attempted murder of the dad, neither one can remember what really happened. Ella goes to jail, gives up a baby, and is let out early, but Jude vanishes. As Ella struggles to create a new identity, she is desperate to learn what happened that night? What is the truth?

One of my favorite movies is Rust and Bone, a French film about a woman who used to train Orcas, who loses her legs in an accident with them and falls for a very tough, very wounded guy. Directed by Jacques Audiard, it has a gritty kind of feel, and it is really wise about knowing the cost of loving—and being brave enough to go ahead and love anyway.

That said, I really, really, really would love unknowns in the Jude and Ella roles, because they’d still have that passion, they wouldn’t be stars yet and/or jaded.

And Michael Shannon for Jude’s dad, because there is nothing that Shannon is in that isn’t absolutely brilliant. Mila Kunis for Helen!

And, of course, I have to have a cameo, as a rude waitress—my dream part.

Learn more about the book and author at Caroline Leavitt's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Pictures of You.

My Book, the Movie: Pictures of You.

The Page 69 Test: Is This Tomorrow.

My Book, The Movie: Is This Tomorrow.

My Book, The Movie: Cruel Beautiful World.

The Page 69 Test: Cruel Beautiful World.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth"

Verlin Darrow is currently a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near the Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary. Darrow is a former professional volleyball player (in Italy), unsuccessful country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign spiritual organization. Before bowing to the need for higher education, a much younger Darrow ran a punch press in a sheetmetal factory, drove a taxi, worked as a night janitor, shoveled asphalt on a road crew, and installed wood flooring. He missed being blown up by Mt. St. Helens by ten minutes, survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (8 on the Richter scale), and (so far) has successfully weathered his own internal disasters.

Here Darrow dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth:

The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth’s protagonist leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka when her mother has a major stroke back in California. When her mother and stepfather are murdered, she plays amateur detective to solve the case.

An actor in a movie based on my book would need to able to portray Ivy as someone who has made a great deal of progress spiritually and emotionally, yet finds her inner strength tested as she sorts through the elements of a mystery. I can think of several skilled candidates. These are actors who embody a degree of natural gravitas and, paradoxically, vulnerability. If I were a casting director, I’d have each of them read as if they were a committed Buddhist and then switch to the role of a frightened amateur detective.

Here’s my list (with no attention to age): Uma Thurman (daughter of a prominent Buddhist scholar), Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix), Tilda Swinton, and Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep’s daughter.) As I write this, I’m trying to narrow down my list to one, but I’m not having success. I fall back on my audition process—that would settle it.

For the all over the place bi-polar sister: Juliette Lewis or Selma Blair. Ivy struggles to remain compassionate in the face of her sister’s abuse.

For the fourteen going on forty niece: an unknown who can display wunderkind abilities.

For the cop who’s drawn to Ivy: Morris Chestnut. I’m a bit concerned that he might be too good-looking for the role, but I couldn’t find anyone well-known who fit the bill better.

For the Bulgarian gangster: one of those villains in the John Wick series acting as charming as he can manage.

For the uncle: Pierce Brosnan. Despite his age, this guy has to still be a successful ladies man.

For the uncle’s fiance: Lupita Nyong’o. She needs to be authentically African.

For the problematic nurse: Louise Fletcher as she played her part in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

I’m sure a professional would do better than I have at matching characters to actors, but there you have it. I wish there was a major dog character so I could name a wonderful one I know to play the part.

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow (May 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Dugoni's "A Killing on the Hill"

Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author, reaching over 9 million readers worldwide. He is best known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, The World Played Chess, and Her Deadly Game. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell received Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year.

Here Dugoni dreamcasts the lead for an adaptation of his new thriller, A Killing on the Hill:

When I wrote A Killing on the Hill, I thought of a young Matt Damon to play the lead role of William Shoemacher, 19-year-old, naïve reporter who comes to Seattle during The Great Depression and finds himself embroiled in the murder Trial of the Century, a showcase of the wealthy and the poor. Shoemacher soon realizes nothing about the trial is as it seems, and no one can be trusted.

While I’m a bit out of touch with today’s up and coming actors, I recently saw Wonka and believe Timothée Chalamet would be fantastic in the role.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

--Marshal Zeringue

Henriette Lazaridis's "Last Days in Plaka"

Henriette Lazaridis is the author of The Clover House (a Boston Globe bestseller), Terra Nova (which the New York Times called "ingenious"), and Last Days in Plaka (2024). She earned degrees in English literature from Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston. She was the founding editor of The Drum Literary Magazine and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. An avid athlete, Lazaridis trains on the Charles River as a competitive rower, and skis, trail runs, or cycles whenever she can. She writes about athletic and creative challenges at The Entropy Hotel on Substack.

Here Lazaridis dreamcasts an adaptation of Last Days in Plaka:

My new novel Last Days in Plaka takes place in contemporary Athens, and follows the unlikely friendship between Irini, an elderly Greek widow and Anna, a young Greek-American. Irini is a Proust-reading, once-well-to-do woman now living on the charity of her local priest who has given her an apartment in Plaka, the ancient (and touristy) heart of Athens. Anna has come to her parents’ native Greece from Astoria, NY, where she grew up, and works in an art gallery while she attempts to make art of her own. Each woman is searching for meaning in her life–Irini, to reconcile what’s past, and Anna, to deepen what’s to come. When their priest introduces them, they connect–despite Irini’s initial resistance. They are soon spending time together, attending a French film series and chatting in cafes as Irini regales Anna with tales of her long-ago elegant life. As Anna drifts away from her peers and further into fascination with Irini, the entanglement of the two women’s lives comes at a larger and larger cost.

Of course the woman I have in mind to play Irini is the late Olympia Dukakis. She would have been perfect in this role. Being Greek-American, she would have had a sense for the posture, the gestures, the facial expressions, that form a huge part of Irini’s character. Irini stands up straight at 82, she still wears heels, she doesn’t tolerate silliness, and she has a quiet elegance despite her diminished financial circumstances. Anna could be played by Zoe Kazan, another actor of Greek descent. Though Kazan is 40 to Anna’s 26, she has a look of wide-eyed innocence that can convey Anna’s naivete. At the same time, Kazan has a set to her jaw that she often uses to express determination, which is one of Anna’s traits as she makes plans for an art project or drives her motorbike through Athens traffic.

Other important characters are Father Emmanouil and Oumer and Tamrat, two Ethiopian transplants who are part of the church’s tiny congregation. Father Emmanouil is a “hip” priest who plays pick-up soccer and stays in shape. I see him as a slightly less handsome Jamie Dornan. In fact, let’s go with Dornan, and, to the thick beard he sports in The Tourist, we’ll add a priest’s center-parted long hair in a bun, which he can wear in a pony-tail when he’s playing soccer. He’s skilled at conveying a sort of quiet worry–which is a large element in Father Emmanouil’s character.

Oumer is a parkour free-runner who works at a cafe, with plans to open a cafe serving Ethiopian coffee in Ethiopian style. He is generally friendly and tolerant of Anna’s enthusiasms and her eagerness to show him she is liberal. Because of the ready smile and good nature he portrayed as Sam Obisanya on Ted Lasso, I’d pick Toheeb Jimoh (who is not Ethiopian), for Oumer. Tamrat is Oumer’s more cynical compatriot. A journalist who has left Ethiopia for political reasons and who works in Athens as a freelancer, Tamrat is reserved and guarded, more circumspect about people’s behavior, and far less optimistic than Oumer. Chiwetel Ejiofor (also not Ethiopian) would be perfect to convey Tamrat’s wisdom and seriousness of purpose.

The Athens of the novel is a city of tumble-down buildings covered with graffiti, a rooftop cinema with a view of the Parthenon, design-forward restaurants, neo-classical apartment buildings, and the incense-dim interior of a small church. The music is new, international, the pop of the moment, and the strains of Miles Davis and Mozart and the ballads of Charles Aznavour. All of it should come together to create the feel of a small group of people striving to make meaningful lives in the chaos of a shifting city.

Visit Henriette Lazaridis's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Henriette Lazaridis Power & Finn.

The Page 69 Test: The Clover House.

Q&A with Henriette Lazaridis.

--Marshal Zeringue