Saturday, February 13, 2010

Joshua Ferris

Joshua Ferris’s first novel, Then We Came to the End, was a National Book Award finalist, Barnes & Noble Discover Award winner and New York Times bestseller.

His new novel is The Unnamed.

From his Q & A with Alexandra Alter at the Wall Street Journal:

Did you feel pressure to deliver a stellar second novel after your first book made such a splash?

I never expected much of a public response for the first one, so whatever negative associations one has with a second book just were sort of beside the point. I also take the long view. A writer is a writer for life, and if I live for whatever the actuarial tables tell me I'm going to live, then at some point in time I'll be beyond a sophomore novel. It certainly didn't come into the room with me as I was writing.… I hope it does well, for my editor's sake, because it's the first book of her new imprint, and I hope three million copies are sold because publishing is hurting.

Is it true that the screen rights sold to Miramax before you even finished the book?

Yeah, like 150 pages in or something. It was...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue