He has long been fascinated by the postwar period in Germany. Leaving Berlin is Kanon at his historical best, capturing, as he has in his previous books, the haunting complexity of life in Europe after World War II and revealing how survivors on all sides of the conflict-fascists, communists, and civilians alike-struggled to adapt to the unfolding cultural and political protocols. Kanon considers himself lucky to be with Atria, and to have Peter Borland as his editor and Judith Curr as his publisher. The reality is that a publisher is doing 150 books a year, and the writer is publishing one, so there’s a difference in focus and the amount of attention a book can receive.” “You just let the publisher take ownership of it. “You do know how it all works, but you don’t want to be one of those interfering authors,” he says. Kanon’s knowledge of the publishing industry was a challenge for him when he became an author. To be able to live in your head for a while, and do any kind of creative work, is a wonderful freedom.” “I liked that aspect of it, but now I think it’s a great privilege to have a creative life.

“Publishing is busy, and you’re surrounded by people, and there’s lots going on all the time,” he notes. “What could be more embarrassing than a publisher who can’t write? But as it happened it was a wonderful ending, because the book worked.”ĭespite spending over 25 years in publishing, Kanon says making the transition to writing was relatively easy for him. “There’s just a time when you’re ready to do it.” He didn’t let anyone know he was writing Los Alamos. “I’m sort of a poster child for midlife career change,” says Kanon, who, at 68, is charming and eloquent. Kanon’s final publishing role was at Houghton Mifflin, where he was executive vice-president and director of the trade and reference divisions for eight years before leaving in 1995. Dutton as editor-in-chief, publisher, and then president. Within a few years, he joined Putnam/Coward McCann as editor-in-chief. After graduating from Harvard in 1970, Kanon took a job as an editor at Little, Brown. Kanon says he was too busy publishing works by other authors to consider writing a book of his own. But Kanon didn’t write Los Alamos (Broadway,1997), his first novel, until he was 50 years old. 3), has firmly established himself as an heir to Graham Greene. After seven postwar European thrillers, Edgar Award–winning author Joseph Kanon, whose latest novel is Leaving Berlin (Atria, Mar.

Leaving berlin by joseph kanon