
is here today and we’re chatting about his new literary fiction (with humor), On the Run.
make me laugh, make my day!”
That’s why Izai Amorim reads and writes books. He has great interest in the
interplay of media, information, and politics in a globalized world and the
quest for identity and borders in a worldwide cultural melting pot. Izai was
born and raised in Brazil but spent most of his adult life abroad, briefly in
the USA, mostly in Germany.
He was trained as an architect and worked many years in this profession. But
his real passion is storytelling. At some point in his life he decided to mix
storytelling with architecture, changed professions, and became a branding
consultant, something that he loves and has been doing to these days with his
branding company BRANDLEAGUE. He also runs a social business, CERTIFIED
COOLNESS, where he uses his branding and storytelling skills to advance the
cause of sustainable behavior and environmental protection.
and photography. He has already published two photography books: The Lace
Curtains of Berlin (2013) and Sky Over Liberty Farm (2014).
His first novel, The Games (2013), is
a humorous but dark, even mean, political thriller. This mother of all
conspiracies shows how information is processed to create and spread the
stories needed to establish power structures not accountable to anyone.
current release.
and is about identity. It’s the story of Pablo, a young, rich, and
well-educated Central American man on the run from the police and Colombian
drug dealers. He is accused of crimes he didn’t commit. Ready to do what it
takes to survive, Pablo ironically embraces the very drug trade that threatened
his life in the first place. Who is he? What is he really capable of? More than
a contemporary story of survival, it’s a journey of self-discovery.
is told in the first person by Pablo. His voice is funny, sometimes mean and
merciless. He moves with nightmarish ease from recounting his adventures to
recollecting his early life. Not always politically correct, On The Run gives
you an insightful, twisted, humorous, and often disturbing view of conflicting
worlds and beliefs: North and Latin America; black, brown, and white; rich and
poor; rational and esoteric – and shows how they mix, match, and clash.
cultures, I’m very interested in the issues of identity and borders, especially
our own limits, taboos, and red lines. How do we feel when we are forced to
cross one of those red lines? And after we’ve crossed it, how far will we go?
How does our moving between cultures change our sense of right and wrong? If we
were given the chance to start over, to build up your identity from scratch, who
would we choose to be? Which values would we have? How would we behave? I find
these questions fascinating and I tried to answer them.
die, you see your whole life flashing before your eyes, like you’re watching a
movie. Others say that you see angels. Some talk about out-of-body experiences.
These different theories have one common characteristic: it’s supposed to be a
cosmic experience.
I didn’t see any angels. No out-of-body experience. As the bullets were flying
around me, all I could see and hear was Mom screaming at me, “Shame on you,
Pablo! To die wearing dirty underwear! How could you do this to me?” There was
definitely nothing cosmic about that.
with my back to the glass wall. That way I could observe the whole restaurant.
I had been doing that since my nightmare started two days before. Never sitting
with my back to the door. Always keeping an eye on everything happening around
me. Looking out for cops or killers.
door, I knew that he was trouble. Big trouble. His eyes looked weird. As he
walked in, I scanned him from head to feet. I saw the bulge under his
sweatshirt, and I instantly knew that it was a gun. In my head all bells
started ringing. The Colombians found you, boy. You’re dead. You can run but
you can’t hide. But then I noticed something strange: he was a redneck. Blond
and blue eyed. Not the Latino killer I was expecting. Could he be an undercover
cop? No, he didn’t look like a cop. Unless he was a cop on drugs.
the Run! The project is not over when you finish writing. I have spent the
last months getting the book reviewed. I’m very happy that it has received such
a good response. Now that it is finally published, I have to promote it. The
Frankfurt Book Fair is coming up soon. I guess I’ll be busy with On the Run until the end of the year.
first book, The Games, is set in
Europe. On the Run, in America. Maybe
time has come to write a book set in Brazil. I’m considering writing a family
saga. Right now I’m doing some research and thinking about plot and characters.
But I’m at a very early stage.
writer?
thousand words. I started it just for fun and it turned out really well, though
everything was still very sketchy: characters, plot, etc. Last year I decided
to develop the story into a full-length novel. But considering oneself a writer
and feeling like one are two different things. I really felt like a writer when
I got a hard copy of my first novel in my hands.
If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
full time. But in my free time I work on the story all the time, inside my
head: under the shower, jogging, riding the subway, etc. I only write things
down when I know exactly what I want to say, so I don’t have writer’s block. Of
course the story has a life of its own and sometimes I end up writing down
something completely different from what I had initially planned. I find these
surprises very gratifying! Then I spend my free time thinking about how this
sudden development affects the story and what should follow up. And so it goes…
writing quirk?
my head, I tend to get lost in my thoughts a lot and forget the world. This can
be very annoying to people around me. I hear very often, “Are you still there?”
grew up?
architect (buildings), civil engineer, (bridges) mechanical engineer (cars and
machines), aircraft engineer (airplanes), marine engineer (ships)… I ended up
choosing civil engineering and architecture.
the readers?
reading this interview. Gaining exposure as an indie author relies mostly on
word-of-mouth. Please spread the word!
for being here today, Izai!
Thank you very much for the interview, Lisa. It was great talking to you.