Award-winning Flemish author Bob Van Laerhoven has lived a life as dramatic as the stories he writes—from years as a travel writer in war zones to publishing forty-five books across genres. In this Dutch Treats interview, he shares the inspiration behind his story Checkmate in Chimbote, his favorite American authors, and where readers can find his English-language work.
• Tell our readers a little about yourself.
I’m a seventy-two-year-old author living on the Flemish side of the border region between The Netherlands and Belgium. After thirteen years as a travel writer in war zones, I became a full-time writer at forty-seven and have published forty-five books in Dutch.
• Where did the idea for “Checkmate in Chimbote,” your contribution to Dutch Treats, come from?
The story was inspired by a period in Peru in the ’Nineties when Sendero Luminoso rebels ravaged the country. Peru was a dangerous country at that time, characterized by political instability, economic crisis, and high levels of violence, all caused by the abyss between the rich and the poor.
• What are some of your favorite books by American writers, and why do you like them?
I am a great admirer of The Journals of John Cheever and Cheever’s short stories. Martin Cruz Smith’s Stalin’s Ghost inspired me, and Elmore Leonard’s crime books taught me how to write suspense novels. There are so many more great American authors I should mention, but at my age, memory becomes an elusive part of the brain.
• Do you have other work available in English? If so, where can interested readers find it?
Several of my novels—which cross over between mainstream literature and the suspense genre—and three collections of my short stories have been translated into English (and a dozen other languages) and have earned numerous awards. Baudelaire’s Revenge, The Shadow of the Mole, Alejandro’s Lie, and the story collections Dangerous Obsessions, Heart Fever, and Scars of the Heart are available in English from the usual online vendors.
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