Michelle Cameron is the author of the new novel Napoleon's Mirage. Her other books include the novel Beyond the Ghetto Gates. She lives in Chatham, New Jersey.
Q: Why did you decide to continue the story of your
characters Mirelle, Daniel, and Christophe, who appeared in Beyond the Ghetto Gates, in your new novel?
A: In fact, Napoleon’s Mirage (Mirage) was supposed to
be the third book in a trilogy. Before I embarked on Beyond the Ghetto Gates
(BTGG), I actually wrote an entire novel about the Jews during the French
Revolution.
I made the (brave?) decision to abandon that book when
I couldn’t get the story to work and found myself bogged down in the complex
politics of the day. Daniel and Christophe were 9 years old in that first book,
working in Uncle Alain’s print shop as apprentices and becoming friends despite
Christophe’s rabidly antisemitic mother.
But while I wouldn’t recommend this approach to
anyone, having written this novel gave me a head start when it came to both BTGG
and Mirage. Ethan, who is a new character in Mirage, was fully fleshed out in that
unpublished novel, including his romance with his now dead wife, Adara.
And, of course, I needed to contend with the
unresolved romance between Daniel and Mirelle at the end of BTGG. I actually
wrote three very different endings for that novel, two of which needed significantly
more time to successfully develop them in an already lengthy novel.
I owe the actual ending to my son, Alex, who I turned
to when I was well and truly stuck. Of course, I knew that Mirelle needed to
end up with Daniel, and the fact that it would take another novel to arrive at
that fitting conclusion impelled me to keep writing.
And finally, there was the fact that Napoleon’s next military
campaign – the expedition to Egypt – struck me as rich fodder for a novel. I
couldn’t send him to Egypt without Daniel and Christophe, could I?
Q: How do you think the characters have changed from
one book to the next?
A: Christophe remained the same, swaggering, heroic
figure he was in BTGG. He eagerly embraced adventure, whether that was in
battle commanding his men or falling in love with a Coptic maiden, harkening
back to his infatuation with Mirelle – though this time he married the girl.
At the end of the novel, he sacrifices himself for
Daniel and Mirelle, but that rose naturally out of the character already established
in BTGG.
Mirelle learned a bitter lesson in Mirage – that her
Jewish community would not tolerate her past misdeeds and that, despite her
immense managerial skills, she could not overcome either her erstwhile best
friend’s devious plotting to undermine her, nor the inordinate French taxes levied
on her workshop.
At the end of Mirage, she realized that she had hurt
people to achieve her desires in BTGG – and that she was again hurting them in
Mirage. Despite this, she had the courage to follow her love into battle in the
face of great uncertainty and danger.
Daniel is the most changed of the three, particularly
when it came to his feelings toward Napoleon.
From a callow young soldier who hero-worshipped the
general during the Italian campaign, Napoleon’s constant disregard of the
welfare of both his troops and the indigenous people of Egypt eroded that admiration,
to the point where Daniel needed to take decisive action to preserve his sense
of morality.
Q: The writer Allison Pataki said of you and the book,
“She sweeps readers from the quays of Toulon to the shimmering heat of the
Egyptian desert with a transportive narrative of assiduous research and
textured, vibrant language.” What do you think of that description, and how did
you research the novel?
A: Oh, I love Allison! She’s always been so supportive
of my novels and this was a delicious blurb to include with other advanced
praise.
In researching this novel, I followed the same basic
approach I’ve used with the others. I spent about three months in pure
research, using histories, websites, visiting museums, spending time with
paintings, etc.
Because Napoleon, emulating his hero, Alexander the
Great, took more than 100 savants with him – scientists, mathematicians,
artists, and more – I could dip into their material. I owe a special debt to
Nina Burleigh’s Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt, as
she chronicled how these professionals interacted with the “mysterious East.”
And I was lucky enough to find al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the French
Occupation, which gave me tremendous insight into how native Egyptian Muslims
felt about Napoleon and the French troops. I fictionalized the author in the
novel and made him a spy for Haim Farhi, another real-life character whose home
in Acre I actually visited.
While I haven’t had the opportunity to travel to many
of the locations I’ve used in my novels, I was able to go to Israel and to
visit several of the places – particularly Jaffa, the Carmel, and Acre – where
Napoleon engaged the Mamelukes.
In Jaffa, I stood outside the blue church door where
the French soldiers were treated for plague.
At the top of the Carmel, I visited the Stella Maris
Monastery on Mount Carmel, where my characters sheltered in Elijah’s Grotto
while the Turkish troops slaughtered the injured and ill French soldiers. A
monument to the soldiers is actually located outside the monastery.
And in Acre, I stood on the embankment where the
cannons still point out to the sea and where Napoleon was handed his first
significant defeat.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it
signify for you?
A: The phenomenon of mirages were first given a name
by the French scientists who accompanied Napoleon.
In many ways, all of Napoleon’s ambitions in Egypt –
to thwart the British trade routes, to use Egypt as a jumping off point to
India, even to emancipate the Egyptians from Mameluke rule – were themselves
mirages, distant illusions that Napoleon never realized.
So the title felt appropriate. And it is the first working
title I’ve ever chosen that I didn’t have to change in the published novel!
Q: What are you working on now? Will you be returning
to these characters again?
A: I have no plans to return to these characters again
– unless I try to fix that first failed novel and complete a prequel.
Right now, I’m writing a historical novel based in
Shakespeare’s London during his early writing career. There is, of course, a
Jewish aspect to it – the main characters are Conversos, Portuguese Jews who
are passing as Christians.
I’m excited about it – it returns me to my literary
origins, when I wrote a verse novel about Shakespeare and his compatriots,
called In the Shadow of the Globe. It’s a rich period of history with such fantastic
characters that it’s practically writing itself.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: While Napoleon’s Mirage is a sequel to Beyond the
Ghetto Gates, I was careful to make sure that it could stand on its own. So,
readers who are particularly interested in Napoleon in Egypt and Israel can
start here. Of course, I’d love those readers to then go back and read the
previous book!
As usual with my novels, there is a substantial Jewish
element to it. Napoleon is said to have issued a Proclamation to the Jews,
asking for their support and, in return, promising them a homeland in
Jerusalem.
Historians are widely divided on whether or not this
actually happened as few copies of that Proclamation survived – and those that
did may be suspect. But as a historical novelist I decided that this did, in
fact, happen – and devised fictional reasons why so many of the documents
disappeared.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Michelle Cameron.
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