The Interview

by J. David Simons

The President is dead.

Cal Drummond is hiding out deep in the woods of the American South when he hears the news. Once a famous talk show host, he is now a disgraced man living a solitary existence in a cabin, drinking Jack Daniels, enjoying the cover of the trees, and getting on with life as Hank MacPhearson.

But this news – and the journalist who delivers it – will have consequences that reach far back into Cal’s past. They threaten his new life and identity, but they also throw him one final chance: it was an interview that brought about his downfall, but could it be another one, this time with him in the hotseat, that could bring him back to life?

Taking the reader from Scotland to Mexico and from California to Georgia, The Interview is a novel not only about speaking truth to power, but also about speaking truth to oneself.

320 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2024

About the author

J. David Simons (born 27 August 1953) is a Scottish novelist and short story writer. His novels include The Credit Draper (2008), The Liberation of Celia Kahn (2011), An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful (2013), The Land Agent (2014) and A Woman of Integrity’(2017) and are all published by Saraband. His latest novel – The Responsibility of Love – will be available as an ebook as well as a special limited edition from 1stMay 2021 and will be published commercially by BackPage Press in Autumn 2021.

Simons has been awarded several grants from Creative Scotland and the Society of Authors, his work has been shortlisted for the McKitterickl Prize and in 2012 he was a recipient of a prestigious Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. Apart from his fiction writing, he is also an editor with the Blue Pencil Literary Agency and a media journalist for global technology research firm, Omdia.

Reviews

[Raymond Soltysek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mighty fine piece of writing, culminating in one of the most shocking revelations I've ever read, and an ending so enigmatic it will have you desperately searching the previous 275 pages for any passing reference to a particular colour... I'll say no more.

Great stuff.

[Judith Sher · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Simons’ best. As with all his novels, this book is rich in many different subjects which you get to learn about, which he manages to weave into his stories without interrupting the flow. The main characters are strong and the story flows nicely. Found it hard to put down.

[Joan Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cracking story beautifully written. I’ve read all of J. David Simon’s books and loved them all but I think this is his best yet. An unputdownable (is there such a word?!) novel…