Facts: Don Winslow
Age: 68 years.
Family: Wife Jean, son Thomas.
Bor: In San Diego.
Profession: Author.
Previous books in selection: “Savages”, “The winter of Frankie Machine,” the so-called “Cartel” trilogy (“In the Violence of Dogs”, “The Cartel”, “The Border”), “Strength”, “Broken”.
Current: With “City on fire”.
Part two comes in 2023 and part three the following year, and these will be the last books that Don Winslow publishes.
– I love writing and it has been a tough decision. But now I intend to focus on fighting trumpism and do my part to stop the threat to democracy, says Don Winslow to TT in a long zoom call from a hotel room in Boston.
A conversation with Winslow is inevitably about politics as much as literature. He hates Donald Trump and the politicians who support him. For the past two years, Winslow has produced a series of videos that he has since posted on social media – films that harshly attack Trump, his family and other conservative politicians. He has been helped by other well-known Trump opponents – Bruce Springsteen has let him use his music and the actor Jeff Daniels (“The Newsroom”, “The squid and the whale”, “Stupid & Stupid 2” and many more) has read the speaker text for several of the films.
– Can you believe that more than a quarter of a billion people have watched the films? he says.
TT: But do you think the movies can make a difference?
– Yes I do. Hopefully they can make people think. This is my way of fighting. There is a great risk that both the Senate and the House of Representatives will go to the Republicans this fall, and then it will be really worrying.
Political touch
Many of Don Winslow’s books have a political touch, but first and foremost they are suspense novels. “City on Fire” takes place in Rhode Island in 1986. The Italian and Irish mafia have been at peace for years. But a beautiful woman sets a heart on fire and a bloody war begins.
– When I was young, I read, among other things, the old classics, such as “The Iliad”. The start of “City on Fire” is inspired by the story of Helena of Troy, where love started a devastating war. I wanted to see if I could write a modern book and get inspiration from the classics.
The second part of his new – and final – trilogy begins just minutes after “City on Fire” ends, while there will be a time jump of about eight years between the second and third.
– I’ve always thought of this as a trilogy. The cartel trilogy was never intended as a trilogy. When I wrote the first one, “In the Violence of the Dogs,” I had no intention of returning to that environment.
Still, he ended up writing another part, “The Cartel.”
– Then Trump happened and it gave me inspiration for “The Border”.
Voluntary pension
The “Cartel” trilogy will now become a TV series. Recording will start later this year. “The Force”, the novel about police corruption in New York, will be a film with James Mangold as director and probably with Matt Damon in the lead role.
At the same time, Don Winslow is retiring voluntarily.
The long PR tour he is on now takes him throughout the United States. After a few days of rest at home in San Diego, it’s time for seven, eight cities in Germany. When it’s over, he’ll never go on a PR tour again.
– But I would like to go back to Sweden. I love Stockholm. My wife’s family comes from there. A few years ago, my son gave her a trip to Stockholm as a birthday present. They went there together and among other things looked for a house that the family had lived in. It was very moving for her.