The acclaimed journalist and prize-winning novelist Linden MacIntyre discusses his new novel The Only Café (Random House, 2017), with Joseph Planta.

The Only Cafe by Linden MacIntyre (Random House, 2017). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Only Café

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

After a break for summer, this is the 1,489th program and the beginning of another series of shows. I’m coming up to fifteen hundred shows, and in a few months, 2018 marks the 15th year of the podcast, so you’ll allow me a little housekeeping. Linden MacIntyre is coming up in this show, so stay tuned for that.

I’ve said for at least the last four years or so, when the show marked its 10th anniversary, that there are more shows behind me than ahead of me. With each year, the shows, the interviews themselves, my calendar, are all getting more time consuming to plan, organise, and carry out. I’ve mulled cutting back, but the last two years have seen me increase the number of shows altogether. I enjoy the work a great deal, but it’s time to look into the future a little more carefully and considerately. I intend, barring illness or something sudden to continue the show into the next year, and into the fall of 2018. I feel so close to the 15th anniversary of the show, that it would be a little silly to avoid making it to that anniversary. But I will be cutting back this year, and be thinking about the sort of programs I want to do from here on in. I do wish to narrow the focus of the sort of topics I talk about. For example, you haven’t heard here a day-to-day covering of political issues like the 2015 federal election through to this past spring’s provincial election here in British Columbia. That’s been deliberate, as there are plenty of other podcasts that do the political coverage much better than I could. And as current affairs moves at a fast pace especially in the Trump era, covering world affairs daily is not something I could do since I prefer taping the interviews in advance. Part of the cutting back in at least the last four years or so is taping well ahead of schedule, sometimes under embargo. It allows me to have a bit more of a life outside of this show, and it works and I enjoy it. Not having tape to turn around and post allows me to conduct interviews at a more reasonable pace. For example, today’s show with Linden MacIntyre was taped in mid-August. So I should be here for the next twelve months or so. I will be taking longer breaks in the winter and in the summer, and days in between. But I’ll be back, and Two P’s in a Podcast with Jackie Pierre will be back as well in a few weeks. I’ll update on Twitter naturally. On to today’s show.

Linden MacIntyre joins me again. The award-winning and bestselling author, and acclaimed broadcast journalist has recently published a new novel, The Only Café. A son, Cyril, tries to solve the mystery of the life and death of his father, Pierre Cormier. Mr. MacIntyre and I talked about the book, about these characters. The themes of family relations, coincidence, and Lebanon, where Linden covered the conflict there in the 1980s. There will be at least a couple of appearances at the Vancouver Writers Fest later in October. Visit www.writersfest.bc.ca for tickets and more information. Linden MacIntyre’s been on this program before for his books Why Men Lie in 2012, and 2014’s Punishment. He had a distinguished career as a correspondent for CBC’s the fifth estate, winning many awards for his journalism. In 2009, he won the Giller Prize for his novel The Bishop’s Man. This new book is published by Random House. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Toronto this past mid-August, Linden MacIntyre; Mr. MacIntyre, good morning.

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