Big break for American author living in Finland

Jim Thompson signs with Putnam for publication of two thrillers

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By Markku Saksa
     
      “I am in good hands and very lucky”, says American author Jim Thompson, 44, when he meets his editor Katie Davis at the US publisher Putnam in New York.
      Thompson, who has lived in Finland for 11 years, and who also speaks Finnish, is moving into the big league of adventure writing. Putnam will publish his thriller Snow Angels in English, and in the following year, its sequel, Dead of Winter.
      Putnam has promised to make Thompson one of its brand authors, a group which includes such big fish as Patricia Cornwell, Tom Clancy, and Ken Follett.
     
Thompson has come to New York to agree on all of the things that the publisher’s marketing machine expects of him as a brand author.
      “You have to do a few podcasts for us”, the editor notes.
      “What are they?” the former bartender asks.
     
Putnam gets about half of the approximately 60 books that it publishes each year onto the New York Times bestseller list. It is part of the Penguin Group, which is one of the world’s largest publishers of English-language books.
      The glass cabinet on the wall of the publishing house has a number of successful books published in recent years by Putnam: volumes by J.M Cotetzee, Robin Cook, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Al Gore, the Dalai Lama...
      Thompson looks at the names of the authors and sighs: “That’s quite a bunch”.
     
Success does not come easy, though.
      Thompson tried to get publishers to read his manuscripts for 15 years. Then the doors flew open, first in Finland, and later in the United States, Germany, France, Spain, and Brazil.
      “I haven’t actually done anything. Everything just meshed together. Success in Finland and international success had nothing to do with each other. The one would have come without the other, but now they came at the same time."
     
Thompson’s life in Finland began at the Hilpeä Hauki pub/restaurant in the Kallio district of Helsinki.
      Thompson, who worked as a bartender, got to know Jaakko Pietiläinen of the Jonny Kniga publishing house. He confessed to have written such a dark thriller that no American publisher wanted to publish it.
      “Well, bring it to me, Jaakko said. That is where it began.”
      His first novel, Jerusalemin veri (“Blood of Jerusalem”) was published late last summer.
     
Thompson was helped on the start of his international career by an American friend living in Finland, who knew the New York literary agent Nat Sobel, who is something of a godlike figure in American literature. The friend sent Sobel the manuscript of Snow Angels.
      “Literary agents usually answer in, maybe, three months, but Sobel was incredible. In just four days he said that he wants to represent this book and sell it everywhere."
      Sobel made a few suggestions for improvements. For instance, he wanted more about Finland in the book.
      Then he offered the manuscript to several American publishers, and finally arranged an auction, which Putnam won.
     
Thompson has lived a life that has plenty to write about. He has worked as a bartender, soldier, construction worker, farmer, wrestling announcer, and has a master’s degree in English philology from the University of Helsinki.
      He came to Finland 11 years ago after falling in love with a Finnish woman in Boston. The love petered out a few years later, but Thompson decided to stay here. Then he found a new woman with whom he is still married. Thompson’s wife is an emerging playwright.
     
The folks at home in the United States are truly pleased with the success of their son Jim.
      “Writing books is a funny game. You’re a fool and a dreamer as long as you haven’t published anything, and when you’re successful, you turn into a genius.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.6.2009


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