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Joseph Knox Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Joseph Knox

Joseph Knox

Joseph Knox Biography

Joseph Knox was born and raised in and around Stoke and Manchester, where he worked in bars and bookshops before moving to London. He reads, writes, and runs compulsively. His novels have been translated into 14 languages.

Joseph Knox's website

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Interview

Joseph Knox discusses his sophomore book, The Smiling Man, and how the main protagonist has evolved over the course of his first two novels.

What was your inspiration for writing The Smiling Man, and what can you tell us about the true crime that the book is based on?

The real case that inspired The Smiling Man is known as Tamam Shud, or the Somerton Man. It refers to a man who traveled to a small town in Australia by untraceable means and was found dead, the victim of a suspected poisoning, in 1948. To this day, he's never been identified, and the bewildering circumstances of his death have never been explained. There's almost too much to go into, but those circumstances include a personalized book, an unbreakable code, and an ominous message sewn into the man's clothing, Tamam Shud, which translates from Persian as "ended" or "finished."

How did you go about bringing a case from 1940s Australia to modern-day Manchester? Do you have theories about what really happened to the Somerton Man?

What spoke to me about the case was the man's lack of identity. Without giving too much away, in both the real-life case and the adapted one I used for The Smiling Man, the victim seems to have discarded or intentionally obliterated his own identity. Aidan Waits, my protagonist, is a man who lost his identity at a young age when his mother gave him up for adoption. As Aidan ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Joseph Knox at BookBrowse
True Crime Story jacket The Smiling Man jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Joseph Knox but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Antonio Hill

    Antonio Hill

    Antonio Hill, known as Toni, has a bachelor's degree in psychology. He is a Spanish author, who also translates English books. He has translated for authors including David Sedaris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Glenway Wescott, ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Smiling Man

    Try:
    The Summer of Dead Toys
    by Antonio Hill

  • Stuart Neville

    Stuart Neville

    Stuart Neville's debut novel, The Ghosts of Belfast (published in the UK as The Twelve), won the Mystery/Thriller category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Smiling Man

    Try:
    So Say the Fallen
    by Stuart Neville

We recommend 3 similar authors

View all 3 Read-Alikes

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