Richard Lewis Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Richard Lewis talks about Indonesia, the setting for his first novel, The Flame Tree, and his views as to whether Christians and Muslim can happily co-exist.

What led you to write The Flame Tree?
There's two parts to this. One is the story idea itself, which plopped into my head in 1998 when I cut short a surf trip to Indonesia's outer islands because of riots in major cities. What if, I thought, an American boy became caught up in the riots? That was the seed for this particular novel.

Also, I'd gone to university in the States, and I'd long been aware of a general lack of awareness of Islam as a religion. I wanted to address some basics misconceptions that Americans, and in particular those of my own Christian evangelical background, had of Islam. The attacks of September 11 underscored, to me, the importance of this.

You do a great job of showing how the the Muslim and Christian religions are more similar than they are different and you also expose some of the weaknesses in both - to the point that I imagine that you've been criticized by both camps. What has been the reaction to The Flame Tree?
In the novel, I don't address geopolitical issues so much as I do the religious ones. Both Christianity and Islam have historically been proselytizing religions, and that proselytizing element still strongly remains, and adds to a common mistrust. ...