When my wife and I lived in Paris last winter, we met Thomas Sanchez, an American author who had been living on and off in France for many years. My first impression was that Thomas fancied himself to be something of an Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller expat bohemian type. Quickly though, I realized that he doesn't fancy himself to be one of those types at all. Rather, he's the real deal. Since his first novel, Rabbit Boss, was published in 1973, Thomas has been known in literary circles as one of the most important authors of the twentieth century. His novel Mile Zero, about the "end of the American road" in Key West, drew me in with its twisting and twisted tale of crooks, murderers, Vietnam vets, artists, and the voodoo that ties the island culture together. His new book, King Bongo, is described as "a fevered dream of glamour, intrigue, and corruption set in 1950's Havana." I can't wait to read it!
I think Thomas immerses himself so deeply in whatever place he's writing about that he leaves a part of him there when he leaves. (Fortunately, he seems compelled to go back to check on it every few years. That's how I met him.) Thomas has just launched a new Web site filled with background on all his books, interviews, and news. I just read that his novel Day Of The Bees is now being made into a film and his next book is a love story set in 1961 Miami during the Bay Of Pigs. That explains why shortly after we met Thomas in Paris he split for South Beach. Link
