Emily St. John Mandel's "The Singer’s Gun"

Emily St. John Mandel's new novel The Singer’s Gun concerns a man named Anton Waker, who’s trying to lead a more honorable life. Everyone he grew up with is corrupt—his parents are dealers in stolen goods, and his first career was a partnership venture with his cousin Aria, selling social security cards and forged passports to illegal aliens in New York.

As the novel opens, the tenuous life he’s built for himself in the legitimate world is beginning to come undone. The process begins on the day his secretary Elena disappears. Elena is Canadian by birth, but has lived and worked in the United States for a number of years; she has secrets of her own, and she’s being pressed into service by a State Department agent named Alexandra Broden.

Here she shares some insights about casting an adaptation of the novel:

I’ve just started touring with this book, and at several events I’ve been asked about movie rights. Which haven’t sold yet. But if they do, I’ve often thought that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would make an excellent Anton.

When I was imagining what the character of Sophie looked like, I pictured Ginnifer Goodwin, whom you may know as the youngest wife on Big Love. (Which I haven’t seen, but I thought she was wonderful in both Walk the Line and Mona Lisa Smile.) I imagined Alexandra Broden as looking something like Cate Blanchett, but a Cate Blanchett with very close-cropped dark hair. If I were casting for Elena, my first choice would be Michelle Williams. She’s a remarkable talent.

Learn more about the book and author at Emily St. John Mandel's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Singer's Gun.

--Marshal Zeringue