Chris Muir - Author Q & A
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5 minutes with Chris Muir
Chris Muir has worked in the advertising industry for 36 years and has won many creative awards.He has travelled widely; trekked the Kokoda Track, been kidnapped by orang-utans in Borneo, driven herds of brumbies across the Australian Alps and lived in New York, London and Singapore. But it was Africa that stole his heart. Since his first trip in 1994 to experience his ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ moment in Rwanda, he has gone back many times to continue the adventure and his love affair with this amazing continent and its even more amazing people.
Chris has lived with the Massai in Tanzania, spent months on end in the Congo, lived with gorillas on the top of mountains, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in the winter, seen the worst of humanity in the prelude to the Rwandan genocide, canoed down the Zambezi River, hot air ballooned across the Serengeti, sailed a dhow across Lake Victoria...and been held at gunpoint more times than he cares to consider...But even with that, Africa continues to lure him back.
Chris Muir lives in Sydney and has two boys. He regularly competes in long distance endurance races (because he’s slightly mad) and likes to cook for friends, but mostly you’ll find him clanking away at a keyboard writing his next novel.
What was the last good book you read?
The Son by Philipp Meyer. A sprawling epic spanning generations. Well researched and beautifully written.
Do you have a favourite Library?
My book shelves are choc-a-block and people are always giving me new ones so my favourite library is at home… hang on… The Library of Congress in Washington DC. Amazing place.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever read about yourself or your work?
That I got a 5 star review. I didn’t ever think that I have something to be reviewed, so that’s very strange.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Be humble.
What drew you to the subject matter of your latest book?
The Gorillas in the Mist movie made me want to go to Africa and then it captured me and I had to keep going back.
Want to know more about A Savage Garden?
No stranger to the intense beauties and hardships that pervade Africa, Chris Muir has drawn upon his own experiences of the continent to write his debut thriller, A Savage Garden. From living with gorillas on top of the mountains in the Congo to witnessing the chilling lead-up to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Muir’s time spent in the country has been nothing short of life-changing. He has seen both the worst and the best of life in Africa, and manages to weave this into his captivating thriller.
A Savage Garden introduces Jack Norton, an ex-Navy Seal who arrives in Africa with noble intentions, but the corruption has turned him into a jaded mercenary. When he meets the compassionate French doctor Sophie Boissieux and a man named Papa Jim who aims to save a troop of rescued child soldiers for an ‘intelligent revolution’, Jack’s steely façade begins to crack.
After Jack agrees to help Papa Jim, he is beset by many enemies who want to get their hands on the blood diamonds that fund the operation: rebel militia armies, corrupt governments, corporate profiteers and bounty hunters. Can Jack fight with the others for justice? Or will he be drawn into the continent’s deep social malaise?
Chris Muir is a new talent - Australia’s very own Lee Child - offering a remarkable debut that is a love letter of sorts to Africa, combining elements of political thriller, adventure story and romance.
Information provided by Random House Australia