Alexander Kessler used to work as a lawyer in Frankfurt/Germany. He now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Previous novels (in German) include “Glückstreiben” [Pursuit of Happiness], 2019, and Booties, 2018.
“The Solution for the Eastern Seaboard” was first published in German as “Die Lösung der Ostküstenfrage”. He is currently working on a thriller about the events in Minneapolis in 2020.
TBE: The premise of using stolen Cold War-era nuclear weapons to trigger a massive tsunami feels both far-fetched and terrifyingly plausible. What kind of research went into making the science and technology behind the plot feel so authentic?
Alexander Kessler: Admittedly, the novel has a foot in reality, but some of the details, such as the specifics of the nuclear weapons, are purely fictional. The weapons technology, if I think about it, that’s the only purely fictional aspect of the plot. Maybe one of my readers can enlighten me some day whether that part of the story is close to reality or not. As a disclaimer, I am not a physicist, and surely I did not want to inspire anyone to commit wrongdoing. Those tactical nuclear actually mines; that’s a historical fact. The geological aspects have been on my mind for years. I have visited the Canary Islands many times since the 1990s, and when I found the scientific article quoted in the book, it just reverberated with me. Also, I put a lot of effort into finding out the warning systems which are in place for both tsunamis as well as nuclear explosions.
TBE: Jürgen Kleuthen, the embittered former East German military officer behind the tsunami attack, is a very complex and nuanced character. What were the inspirations or real-world parallels you drew from in developing his psychology and tragic radicalization?
Alexander Kessler: A lot goes into developing a character, and it’s not always a conscious process. I grew up in West Germany; but after the fall of the Wall, I had dealings in East Germany. I visited the East several times, acquired property there and developed ongoing relationships. One of my contacts in the former East was a property manager whose father had been in the East German Air Force. Maybe the talks with her inspired me. Another friend’s father was an official in the Ministry of Defense at the time.
TBE: The book doesn’t shy away from very blunt social commentary and satire, especially in its depictions of U.S. political figures like the dimwitted “Number One” president. How important was it to you to use this narrative as a vehicle for cultural criticism?
Alexander Kessler: The book was originally written for a foreign – non-U.S. – audience, but I believe a U.S. reader can greatly profit from that special “outside view” on U.S. politics. I may add that a lot of that is political satire.
TBE: The scenes of the tsunami itself making landfall are rendered in shockingly visceral detail. As an author, what were the challenges of striking the right balance between spectacle and human emotional truth?
Alexander Kessler: To give the abstract disaster a human touch, I tried to weave at least three human stories into the tsunami scenes: the loving pair, with Sarah disappearing, the family on Todt hill on Staten Island, with the children playing and the entire family surviving when the city is submerged, and finally the news commentator whose end is described in almost satirical terms. So, I tried to give deep romantic love, family love and maybe a little Schadenfreude as human aspects of the big canvas, to make it more relatable.
TBE: Near the end, the novel takes a very philosophically introspective turn in its depictions of the shattered aftermath. Were you aiming to make a broader point about the fragility of civilization itself?
Alexander Kessler: When the great tsunami in the pacific hit several Asian nations in 2004, I felt very connected to the victims. I have traveled to India, and my sister-in-law is from Thailand. I feel natural disasters can devastate modern societies, without really any protections available. What haunts me most, like so many of the children of the Cold War, is, of course, the looming potential disaster of a global nuclear war. I remember, as I was walking to high school in West Germany the NATO fighter jets practicing for a conflict with the East were breaking the sound barrier 60 feet over my head. That’s a physical and emotional experience one never forgets. I was shocked to learn that nuclear powers are planning or, at least, contemplating actually attacking their potential adversaries’ coast lines with nuclear triggered tsunamis. Of course, I don’t have any way to verify that information.
TBE: Thematically, the book seems to be exploring the lingering traumas, grievances and prejudices that endure long after historical conflicts are supposedly resolved. Why did you choose the Cold War Berlin backdrop to dig into those ideas?
Alexander Kessler: I think that’s something that reverberates with my personal story. I witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall shortly after I married an American woman, and the world changed dramatically. The first years of my professional life I spent working for a U.S. law firm in Germany, essentially aiding the Western “capitalistic” invasion of Eastern Europe. As everything in history, there are many aspects of that development, most of them I believe were good for the people in the East. Of course, you also come in contact with stories of lost self-confidence, loss of prestige and the loss of the certainties that make up our personal life stories.
TBE: There’s a staggering amount of technical detail related to everything from geological phenomena to military hardware woven into the narrative. How much of a stickler were you about getting those facts authentic?
Alexander Kessler: I did not have the ambition to review the scientific facts, I took the science as a backdrop for the political story. I do think, though, that many of the scientific concepts in the book are very, very realistic, which enhances the scary aspects of the thriller.
TBE: For a book rooted in such weighty sociopolitical themes, it’s also an immensely propulsive page-turner driven by thriller plotting. How did you balance those two impulses as a writer?
Alexander Kessler: The book’s plot sort of unraveled itself. It was written in a couple of weeks’ frenzy, and I felt that all these different locations, protagonists and aspects came together in one plot while I was writing.
TBE: The ending is utterly devastating but also quite ambiguous in where it leaves many of the surviving characters. Did you have a definitive resolution in mind that you wanted readers to take away?
Alexander Kessler: I don’t like the wrap-up endings, which make a book a nice little package instead of planting the seed for the reader’s own imagination. I think, I can rely on my readers to follow their own thoughts about what may happen afterwards.
TBE: Beyond this specific novel, what other creative inspirations or real-world issues most motivate you as a writer?
Alexander Kessler: I am inspired by our immense cultural richness on this planet, in varied cultures, history and religions as well as the unifying human spirit in all of the countries of the world. There is so much more to explore, learn and enjoy.
TBE: The Solution for the Eastern Seaboard manages to blend genres from literary fiction to satire to thriller to apocalyptic horror. What were the particular novels or authors that influenced your unique voice?
Alexander Kessler: Every writer believes he or she is original. So, hopefully I am, and this novel is somewhat original. However, I think I do owe a lot to the great English authors that put the spy novels in the forefront of the public mind, from Ian Fleming to John le Carré. Personally, I love Ian Fleming, whose writing is so much better than you would think watching the James Bond movies.