Chaos is a Kind of Order for Dutch Writing Couple and International Sensation Escober

    
   (As I've documented, Underland is currently running an "Agent of Chaos" contest that lets you win the pictured materials.)

One of year's more intriguing North American debuts this year is Chaos by Escober, not least because "Escober" is a husband-wife writing team from the Netherlands. Chaos itself is a big, smart juggernaut of a novel, perfect summer reading but also razor-sharp in its depiction of a man seeking not only the solution to a mystery but a solution to himself.

The plot? British soldier Alex Fisher returns home from a tour in Bosnia, only to be haunted by blackouts, recurring nightmares, and uncontrollable acts of violence. After escaping to Mexico, Fisher sets off across several countries trying to distance himself from the demons in his head. A mysterious woman named Angela introduces Fisher to a far more passionate-and far more dangerous-life. As he attempts to sort through his complicated and half-remembered past, Fisher discovers that the truth is harder to accept than the lies. It's non-stop action, and a tense thriller.

A bestselling phenomenon in Europe, "Escober" answered my questions via email, one or two at a time, "whenever we had a free moment over the last three days, cruising through the Netherlands from one signing to another. So: in our car in between book signings in the provinces, computer on Esther’s lap, Berry driving the BMW (same car as in Chaos: black 5-series)." Sounds like their lives are almost as frenetic as Alex Fisher's, but more fun! And, as you'll find out, this is an extremely focused and talented team. (I believe this is their first extensive interview for a U.S.-based site.)

Amazon.com: When, why, and how did you start collaborating on novels?

Escober: Our lives, passions and work have always been intertwined. We practically grew up together: we met in our teens, in 1986, when Esther was still in high school. Two years later, after Berry served in the army as a sergeant, we bought a small house. We had numerous jobs, sometimes two or three at a time, but in 1994 we started writing non-fiction (illustrated books) and taking photos for our own work and, later on, advertising companies. From 1996 this was our full-time occupation. Berry wrote books about beer, Esther specialized in animals. We travelled through Europe taking pictures and doing research. Together we wrote more than 60 reference books and encyclopaedias, which have been published in more than 80 countries. In 2002 we felt like a new challenge and started to write our first novel, Restless (“Onrust” in Dutch), the first part of a trilogy about philosophical one-man-army Sil Maier. In the Netherlands and Belgium this trilogy has been described as a successful, remarkable, international hybrid of Lee Child, Andy McNab and serious literature.

Amazon.com: What's the nature or process of the collaboration?

Escober: We don't have a standard procedure, every book has its own flow and feel. In general we both contribute to the manuscript according to our individual strengths; for Berry this is plotting, he has the overview and keeps an eye on everything during the process. He loves to find solutions for plot problems and is also very good at writing dialogue. Esther is more interested in the scenes themselves, the details, she puts herself in the characters’ shoes and tells the story from their perspective to make it as real as possible for both herself and the reader. She is very serious about the text: it must have a natural rhythm, the lines have to “sing”. Naturally, Esther focuses on the female psychology and Berry (“Ber”) concentrates on the male roles. Esther writes during the night with headphones on (she writes to alternative music and hard rock), Berry finds her work on the kitchen table in the morning, and takes it from there (in absolute silence).

Amazon.com: What do you find are the advantages of collaboration?

Escober: Except for what we have described above: particularly in the early stages of the writing process you don’t want to share your thoughts and ideas with other people, it’s a very fragile, intuitive process. Because we know each other so well we can share anything we choose. It is great to have a partner in (fictional) crime. The collaboration is so intense that sometimes we say: together we have three children and four novels.

Amazon.com: Chaos is non-stop intrigue and action. How do you sustain that in a novel? And how do you accomplish it without wearing out the reader?

Escober: It comes naturally. Esther writes with hard rock in her headphones, so the text automatically takes on a hard rock rhythm. We don’t write with the reader in mind. We just write the book we’d love to read for ourselves. We are fully aware that our books are exhausting for some readers and consider this to be collateral damage.

Amazon.com: Why do you think the books have been so popular in Europe?

Escober: Readers tell us they get the feeling they are watching a film instead of reading. We do love action, never a dull moment, but at the same time don’t want to sacrifice psychological depth. The characters have to be as real as possible. You get to know our characters, love--or hate--them, and eventually they do feel like friends or acquaintances. The story also feels real. We take research very seriously. We go to the places we describe in our books and speak with experts in the field to get everything spot on and as true to life as possible. A lot of Alex Fisher’s memories in Chaos have happened to people we know. At the same time Escober books are considered to be easy to read, a perfect present for people who are bored easily when reading; which doesn’t mean they are easy to write, quite the opposite; we believe that the writer has to make the effort, not the reader.
 
Amazon.com: What're some of the most unusual reactions you've gotten to the books from fans?

Escober: One quite dramatic one that we will never forget was a reader who emailed us to tell us that he recognized his own restlessness and frustration in Sil Maier in Restless, and decided to divorce his wife and change his life completely...Some readers think at least half of what they read happened to us in real life. Even army-people think we served in Bosnia, because from their perspective it is impossible to know how it feels if you’ve never been there (in reality Bosnia is the only place we didn’t visit for Chaos, we did go to Mexico, England, Spain, etc). We think this is the best compliment anybody can give a writer--people think parts of our books are autobiographical. Some fans visit our signings wearing Escober T-shirts, which is also a great honour; in Europe people are not overly star-struck and only behave like this at rock concerts. Not at book signings.

Amazon.com: What are you working on now?

Escober: Esther is going through an extremely busy time at the moment, she is the thriller Author of the Month in the Netherlands and she wrote the Dutch book-week gift book, which has a first print run of 805,000 copies. Almost every day she is busy from dusk till dawn (and later) with book signings, interviews, photo-shoots, radio, television etc. Next month we will drive to our house in the French hills, it’s very quiet there, the nearest shop is a 30-minute drive away and we don’t have internet. A perfect place to clear our heads and explore the ideas we have both for a new Escober and a new solo Esther Verhoef .

Amazon.com: Where can readers find out more about you?

Escober: Our site is in Dutch but you can still visit it to see the pictures we’ve taken on our research trips and listen to the music that inspired Esther while writing (click on ‘Klik hier’ bottom of the page). Please feel free to leave us some words in our guest book, which is in Dutch: ‘Gastenboek’.