Q&A with Joachim B. Schmidt

 

 

 

Joachim B. Schmidt is the author of the new novel Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain, a sequel to his novel Kalmann. The book was translated from German to English by Jamie Lee Searle. Schmidt lives in Iceland.

 

Q: Did you know when you wrote your first novel about Kalmann that there would be a sequel?

 

A: No, I wasn´t even sure if the first book about Kalmann would even be published! However, after finding a willing publishing house, that helped me find the success I was hoping for, after having the chance to go on book tours and meeting a lot of Kalmann fans, I started to be open for a sequel. After all, I was wondering myself what Kalmann was up to next. However, I promised myself to only write a sequel if I have a good story to tell.

 

Q: What inspired the plot of Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain?

 

A: I know it sounds ridiculous, but January 6, 2021, inspired me to write the sequel. Dumbfounded, I followed the Capitol attacks in Washington D.C., watching it all unfold on live TV. Madness.

 

But for a second there appeared a young man, holding an Icelandic flag, seemingly lost in the crowd, being harassed by left-wing bystanders. This person made the news here in Iceland; people started to wonder who that young man was, if an Icelander had taken part in the protests, moreover, if someone in Iceland knows that guy. Iceland has a small population, the question was legit.

 

However, nobody knew him, but I realized right away who that guy was; Kalmann, of course! I almost screamed at the TV: Kalli, what the hell are you doing over there! And then it hit me: He went to visit his father, who is American, and his father then took him to see the departing president in Washington, where Kalmann got lost. I knew immediately I had to write that book.

Q: In our previous interview, you said you changed the ending of Kalmann a couple of times. Was that true with this new book too?

 

A: No, this time it was different. I laid out a plot and followed it more or less, probably because I now know better who Kalmann is and how he functions. I know his friends and family. Now I was able to dive deeper into the world of Kalmann – which I enjoyed very much.

 

Q: Do you think Kalmann has changed from one book to the next?

 

A: Yes, definitely. He´s not the same, how could he be, after what had happened in the first book! This Kalmann has a severe case of PTSD, and that make his sometime violent outbursts even worse. Therefore his mother gets a much bigger role in this story.

 

It was very important to me to further develop the character of Kalmann, to send him on a new adventure, to widen his horizon, and to make him feel like a real person with a cognitive disability. The first book was successful, yes, but I didn’t want to go down the route of simply repeating it. That would have been boring.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working a book about a famous ferry man that lived in Iceland around 1900. A true and tragic story. I am almost finished with it, so naturally I start to wonder: what is Kalmann up to these days…

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Well, maybe that Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain is a purely fictional story, but based very much in reality, as you gathered from my Capitol story.

 

I enjoy placing Kalmann into the real world, a world that seems to have gone mad. Kalmann is such a soothing protagonist. Whenever someone tells him to run – a clear reference to Forrest Gump, he does the opposite. He stands still. His catchphrase: No need to worry.

 

Also, in its core it’s a book about loss, about letting someone go. The “sleeping mountain” is kind of a metaphor for grief, a colossal heavy thing inside of Kalmann. As long as it is sleeping it’s OK, but when it wakes up, there’s reason to worry.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Joachim B. Schmidt.