Chris Bohjalian is the author of 25 books, most recently “The Jackal’s Mistress.” Here, he takes the Q&A to discuss the book and share some recommendations.
Q. Please tell readers about your new book.
“The Jackal’s Mistress” is a Civil War Romeo and Juliet, inspired by a true story. A hero of the Vermont Brigade was left to die in the Shenandoah Valley after the Union Army moved deeper into Virginia in 1864, and a rebel woman – whose Confederate husband had been captured at Gettysburg – had to decide how much she was willing to sacrifice to save him. He’d already had a leg amputated by surgeons and most of one hand blown off by cannon fire. The risks to herself and her young niece grew more dire every day. In 2022, I realized there was a fascinating novel in this story: romance, drama, history. And, yes, I saw this as a tale that would be shockingly timely right now.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
That changes all the time. This spring I have been recommending Geraldine Brooks’s “Memorial Days”; Sally Rooney’s “Intermezzo”; Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Message”; and Tom Lamont’s “Going Home.”
Q. How do you decide what to read next?
My editor or my wife or my daughter recommends something, or I read a review in a newspaper. Also, I am sort of in the business, and so I receive no fewer than four galleys every week of my life. My home is a series of Jenga towers of books.
Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?
There might be three that earn that distinction. I still know the last sentence of Esther Forbes’s “Johnny Tremain” from elementary school: “A man can stand up.” I still know the first sentence of Joyce Carol Oates’s “Expensive People” from middle school: “I was a child murderer.” (I read it on my own, not for a class.)
And, as a little boy, I drew a pretty accurate Starship Enterprise in the sky above the Caribbean Sea on the dust jacket of my mother’s first edition of her copy of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” I think we have to count that.
Q. Is there a book you’re nervous to read?
I am avoiding any book about politics right now as if it’s a deadly snake.
Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that has stayed with you from a recent reading?
Oh, so many moments from Sigrid Nunez’s, “The Vulnerables,” especially when the characters, including a renowned book editor, are laughing about odd lines of dialogue that would make great titles for novels, i.e., “The men will take care of it.” (I am calling dibs right now on, “Let the Men Do It.”)
Q. Do you have any favorite book covers?
The original hardcover of “The Secret History.” A classic and so radically different from anything else.
Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend?
I love audiobooks. In 2024, I actually listened to one more audiobook than books I read on paper. My favorite narrator is Grace Experience. Yes, she’s my daughter, but she is a fantastic audiobook narrator.
Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?
The creative writing professor at my alma mater who would not allow me into her creative writing seminar after reading one of my short stories and said, “I have three words for you: be a banker.”
Q. What’s a memorable book experience – good or bad – you’re willing to share?
When I was researching the Armenian Genocide for “The Sandcastle Girls,” my love story set in the midst of the nightmare, I thought some days my head might explode. I’m a grandson of two survivors, and so I felt the pain acutely of what my ancestors endured.
Q. Is there a book that tapped into an emotion you didn’t expect?
Well, since March of 2020, I can find myself weeping alone in the woods with my dog when I am finishing an audiobook. This is only weird because even baseball books can do me in. So, I tell myself it is because life is ephemeral and all about saying good-bye, and ending a good book is just one more indicator of how transient our lives really are. (Just for the record, I am not sure I ever cried before March 2020. Good Lord, I was a Netflix comedy special when I was eulogizing both my parents or very good friends before then.)
Q. Do you have a favorite bookstore or bookstore experience?
I am in heaven when I’m in a bookstore. Same with libraries. I could browse for hours. We still have a totemic connection to books made of paper, and I can tell you where I was and the state of my life just from the dust jackets of so many books in my personal library. For instance, the cover of Henry Roth’s “Call it Sleep” instantly catapults me back to the snack bar at Smith College, where my wife went to school, and the smell of the onions the cooks there placed on the hamburgers.
Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?
Should I write a novel narrated by a dog or a cat?