Interview with Terence Gallagher, Author of Fujita 4

What can you tell us about your new release, Fujita 4?

The title of my book takes its name from a scale used to measure the power of a tornado. It tells the story of what happens when a high security prison in South Carolina is struck by this terrifying natural phenomenon.

What or who inspired you to become an author?

As a boy from a working-class background growing up in Dublin, my public library was my window to the outside world. Books took me to places and introduced me to characters I could never hope to meet in my real, very circumscribed, life. I thought authors were like magicians! I wanted to be one of them!

What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read?

Germinal by Emile Zola, Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe, Dubliners by James Joyce, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, All quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?

The Australian author Peter Carey. ‘How do you manage to populate your novels with such interesting and idiosyncratic characters. They seem to leap off the page !’

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

I like to be able to escape into a world of my creation and interact with my characters who often take on a life of their own and end up doing things that I never had in mind for them initially!

What is a typical day like for you?

My day always starts with feeding and exercising my two Irish Setters. After that, my morning depends on whether I am in Dublin or Naples. In Dublin, the morning is taken up with gardening. In Naples, I generally run errands while I go for a bike ride. In the afternoon I write. In the evening I answer emails and likely watch a movie.

What scene in Fujita 4 was your favorite to write?

There is a scene where Rob Williams, the escaped death row convict, asks Andrew Burke, the College Professor who is helping him, why he is doing it. Describing that interaction between two of the most unlikely protagonists was a lot of fun.

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

‘Life is made up of meetings and paintings. That is the way of it’- Kermit the Frog

Terence Gallagher is the author of the new book Fujita 4.

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