Los Angeles, once again: in his latest novel, "The coming storm," the American writer James Ellroy evolves his characters in the rain of the City of Angels. The darkness of the plot, it remains intact, as he described the micro Europe 1 Nicolas Carreau, Sunday, in "The Voice is book."

INTERVIEW

A new novel by James Ellroy, one of America's best-known writers, is still an event. The pedigree of the author, fourteen novels on the counter before The Tempest that comes *, enough to fill the bookstores for dedications and frenzy the literary world. Passing through France for the release of his latest work, the second part of his second tetralogy on Los Angeles, the emperor of the American black novel confided in Nicolas Carreau's microphone in La Voix est livre , Sunday.

Rain and corruption

Those who are used to sailing in the latitudes of James Ellroy will not be confused: there are always so many immoral characters, twisted minds and corruption. And again, the decor is located in Los Angeles, placed for the occasion under a terrible rain that falls continuously on the megacity, 700 pages during. "I love Los Angeles in the rain," insists James Ellroy, a native of the City of Angels.

" All smart readers understand everything I do "

The darkness of the plot, which unfolds after Perfidia , is only reinforced: after the attack of Pearl Harbor, in 1941, the Japanese are tracked throughout the Californian city soaked to the bones. In this context, the police find a corpse in a landslide. The investigation begins and Ellroy's decomposition-recomposition style unfolds.

A "superstructure" as a departure

A trompe-l'oeil style, precisely, that the novelist has been promoting since his first world success, The Black Dahlia , in 1987. The facts seem to follow one another without a guiding line, to the point of letting one think of literary improvisation. "When I start writing, I know exactly where the end will be," replies James Ellroy. "All smart readers understand everything I do, I never go against the superstructure." Understand by this "a plan of 500 pages" where the writer details "the whole of the work" that he will then compose.

In his superstructure, James Ellroy puts the historical backdrop around Los Angeles, of course. And his imagination does the rest. "You can not write a convincing historical novel by sticking to the facts," he believes. So ? James Ellroy then makes the whole thing swing between sin and redemption, with a certain faith in him. "I want to rewrite history according to my own specifications and I want to give my story to the whole planet," he says. "I'm not interested in the reader, I'm only interested in myself."

* James Ellroy, The storm that comes , editions Rivages, 702 pages, 24,50 euros