Linden MacIntyre drew from journalism career for new novel about 'violence, memory and shame'

Askbest-selling authorLindenMacIntyreabout his new book and he might tell you about something he calls "the Charles Dickens formula."

"No good book is without an early death," MacIntyre, the Giller Prize winner andformerCBCjournalist, told a crowd gatheredin Calgary on Wednesdayto hear a reading from his latest novel,The Only Caf.

"This is a book about violence, memory and shame,"MacIntyretold CBC Calgary News at6. "A man who is troubled by the violence in his pastand he's ashamed of some of it, and he wants to purge some of it."

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MacIntyresays the book's mystery begins when the protagonist's father disappears after meeting a ghost from his violent past and the civil war in Lebanon a conflictMacIntyrereported on while a journalist with the CBC.

"I had covered that up close and personal,"MacIntyretold The Homestretchabout the civil war and a massacre in Beirut. "Having written it journalistically and put it on TV, I never really took it anywhere else and I thought maybe it was time."

'You have to write what you know'

Drawing upon the violence hesaw in Lebanonduring in the '80s,MacIntyretells thestory of Pierre, a Toronto lawyer traumatized by his past, and his son Cyril, who struggles to learn more about his distantfather.

"You have to write what you know, and I knew that particular debacle,"MacIntyresaid of the war in Lebanon."It was a civil war that went on for like, 25 years. People would argue that it's still going on."

MacIntyresaysthebook,which takes place in Canadaandin the Middle East,exploresCyril's"obsessive curiosity"with his father's violent youth and suddendeatha curiosity that leadshim to The OnlyCafin Toronto and the same mysterious man from his father's past.

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MacIntyresaid hismemories ofLebanon stuck with him over years and served as an "eye-opener" to the violence of the 20th century.

"The worst part of it isn'tall the people that are killed, horrifying as that might be.The worst part of it is the effect it has on the people who survive. People who witness.People who loved the people who were murdered. That's where the peril for the rest of us, and for the future, lies."

One of the challengesMacIntyrefaced while writingThe Only Cafwas "exploring the thinking of somebody in their early 20's," the author said.

"I made a mistake in this bookI had people in their late teens and 20s emailingisn'tthat awful?"MacIntyresaid with a laugh."Some young editor said, 'They don't do that anymore.'"

Before retiring from journalismin 2014, MacIntyrewon 10 Gemini awardsand an international Emmy for his work on CBC's Fifth Estate.

He is theauthor of several books, includingThe Bishop's Man, winner of the 2009Giller Prize.

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With files from CBCNews at 6 and The Homestretch