After Dinner Conversation – Interview with Joe Giordano
Your new novel Drone Strike takes readers deep into the workings of Islamic terrorism. What new insight about the Middle East will the readers gain from Drone Strike?
Black market sale of oil and refined products were an important financial source for the Islamic State in the Levant, and Karim worked as a drilling manager in an ISIL-controlled section of Iraq. After Karim’s family is killed by a U.S. drone strike, Al-Nasir, the leader of ISIL recruits him for a terrorist attack on the States. As readers follow Karim’s indoctrination, they’ll get a glimpse into a terrorist training camp, ISIL’s drug operations in Afghanistan, how suicide attacks are orchestrated, and ISIL’s ‘shock and awe’ execution of prisoners. When Karim travels surreptitiously with Miriam, the Syrian Christian, they’ll get a sense of the heartbreaking suffering refugees endure.
You cover several contemporary subjects with Drone Strike such as the ongoing crisis of illegal migration into Europe from the Middle East and elsewhere. Your novel rightly highlights Greece and Italy as main gateways. Why do both countries have such difficulties in securing their borders?
Under European Union law, asylum seekers cannot be turned away and must make their application in the country of arrival. Both Italy and Greece are accessible by sea. The UN’s 1951 convention requires asylum cases be handled individually and refugees can’t be returned to countries unable to guarantee their rights, like Turkey or Libya. Despite attempts to stem the tide, desperate refugees often arrive in barely seaworthy crafts, overwhelming the available resources to handle their processing. Greece faces a crisis within a crisis, a collapsed economy under a weight of debt and a deluge of refugees when the country can hardly sustain its population. Italy’s economy is larger but seemingly always at the precipice of recession. In Italy’s recent parliamentary elections, Matteo Salvini campaigned to expel immigrants, and his League won thirty-four percent of the vote becoming the largest party in Italy. Unlike the U.S. which received and assimilated wave after wave of immigrants, European countries maintained more homogeneous populations. Multiculturalism, separating distinct immigrant ethnic groups, rather than the melting pot approach often created isolated enclaves, and the huge spike of Middle East refugees sparked societal tensions, and a political backlash not anticipated by European politicians.
Anthony Provati is the main character. This is the second thriller where Provati is the protagonist; the other being Appointment with ISIL. What led you to conceive Anthony Provati?
I wanted an unlikely hero, someone readers could identify with, having strengths and weaknesses, a normal-type guy thrust into extraordinary circumstances. As a fellow Italian American and New Yorker, I understand where he’s coming from. Anthony pursues women, loves art, sails, is a nightclub pianist, and has an uncle in the mob – attributes which cause him to careen into all sorts of trouble. Characters living on the edge fuel good fiction.
Central to Drone Strike are characters such as Provati and Middle East migrants Karim and Miriam. They all share personal tragedies based on catastrophes caused by either man or nature. What more can you tell us about this theme and how tragedy propels people to greater ambitions, be they good or bad?
The genesis of Drone Strike was the question I posed to myself: How would I react if my family were killed in a drone strike as ‘collateral damage?’ Where would I turn for justice? Terrorism isn’t defensible, but in some instances, we might resonate with the motivation. Our individual characters are formed and developed by how we deal with adversity. Our knockdowns rather than our knockouts teach us who we are. The tragedies endured by Miriam, a Syrian Christian, and Karim, an Iraqi Moslem, simultaneously draw them together and keep them apart. At a point where Karim realizes he’s fallen in love with Miriam, he regrets their meeting, because the precursor was the death of his family. The affection he feels for her conflicts with his perceived duty to seek revenge. He asks, why else would Allah have spared him?
Drone Strike is an amazing novel and Anthony Provati and incredible character. Can we expect more novels to come with Anthony as the main character?
I’m drafting my fourth novel, working title Angelica’s Secret. Anthony will be joined by a female co-protagonist, Angelica Esposito, brilliant, beautiful, intrepid – with a secret. I’ll be launching another series of books with her in the lead.
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