‘I Am Pilgrim’ author Terry Hayes talks about his new spy epic ahead of Westerly stop

January 26, 2024 1:30 pm • Last Updated: January 26, 2024 1:31 pm

By Kristina Dorsey
Features Editor

Terry Hayes (Photo by Stuart Simpson)

Terry Hayes wrote the bestselling 2013 novel “I Am Pilgrim.” He also had a booming screenwriting career, starting with “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” and continuing with the likes of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” and “Dead Calm,” which was Nicole Kidman’s breakthrough movie.

Now, Hayes has released a new book that has been a decade in the making. “The Year of the Locust” comes out in America Feb. 6.

Hayes will do an author talk and signing Feb. 3 at The United in Westerly.

This new tome is about a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA. His name is Kane, and he’s sent into the Middle East to meet with someone who says he has information on terrorist plans on a 9/11 scale. The mission goes sideways. Thanks to Hayes’ writing, “Locust” moves with a propulsive, page-turning power.

Hayes was born in England, grew up in Australia, and, after time in America, now lives in Portugal.

During a phone interview on Thursday, Hayes, in his mellifluous Australian accent, was an engaging conversationalist — thoughtful, funny, and self-deprecating. (When the reporter said she was happy to talk to him, he cracked, “Well, not many people are, so I’m pleased for you.”)

One of the distinctive elements of “The Year of the Locust” is how, at a certain point, it takes an unexpected turn (but don’t worry — no spoilers here). Hayes breaks down the reasoning behind it:

“It takes a twist, and of course that’s what you’re trying to do with novels — well, these types of novels. You hope that the reader will go with you. There’s that sort of desire to do that, that built-in thing of we can’t be predictable (even though) the world is full of very predictable spy thrillers … I spent a good many years of my life in journalism and then in movies. Narrative storytelling in movies and streamers and on Netflix and things like that is changing the form of storytelling very, very dramatically. Novels tend to be very conservative. The people that read them tend to be older, and they tend to be accustomed to going down a relatively well-traveled path, especially in the spy thriller genre. Movies are not like that anymore,” he said.

He mentions the first season of “True Detective” and the film “Oppenheimer” as examples of audacious storytelling and structure.

“Novels have yet to catch up with that. You need to be bold. You need to make creative and narrative leaps. You need to take risks, which is what happens in good movies all the time. If you can do that, you have a good chance of picking up a much younger reading audience and hopefully not lose older audience,” he said.

More than a million words

For “The Year of the Locust,” Hayes wrote a million and 80,000 words. The final product was 270,000 words. So he threw away about 800,000. Asked if that’s his usual process, he responds:

“God, no! Don’t wish that on me, please. Please. Please, no. No, no, no. This was a unique — it’s the only way I can describe it — it was a unique experience. … Not many people in the world get a chance to do what I do. I really appreciate that. I’m very, very conscious of that. It’s not just being a writer. I mean, who knows if you’re any good. Compared to J.D. Salinger and Tolkien and Tolstoy, I guess the answer is no. Compared to some self-published novels on Amazon, I think the answer could be well, yeah, he’s not too bad.

“It’s not about having an opportunity to be good, bad or indifferent. It’s the opportunity to make a living at it, which is pretty unique, and further than that, having an opportunity to tell the stories you wanted to tell in an epic format. I have landed in that space, which was a lifelong dream of mine, and I feel completely blessed. I do. My theory is the work you do is the rent you pay for the space on Earth. I’ve got to pay my rent.”

By that, he means he feels required to do the very best he can.

“I have to get up every morning and say, ‘Good is not good enough.’ I have to push myself further. Now, it still might not be any good, but at least I’ve gone to my limit. So I write paragraphs, pages, chapters, I read them through, and I say, ‘Well, good effort, no cigar, back you go.’ So you build it up a brick at a time,” he said.

Hayes doesn’t read reviews, but someone in his family showed him one from Goodreads before “Locust” was published. Someone wrote that they were never going to buy another book by Hayes because he’d broken all trust with his readership — how could it possibly take him so long to write this book?

“I would have thought I would have broken trust with the readership by dashing it off and cashing the check. I would have thought that is the real offense,” Hayes said. “I’m sorry it took so long, believe me. Nobody’s more sorry than I. But it was not for any other reason than an incredible respect for the reading public. And it’s my duty to do the best job I can no matter what it takes out of me. … I have to write a book of which I am proud.”

‘Pilgrim’s’ progress

As for “I Am Pilgrim,” Hayes is starting work on a sequel. He offered a few tidbits: There is a “very, very bold and risky central relationship” where Pilgrim falls for a woman who appears in the original book. It might not be Pilgrim’s smartest decision. In addition, Ben Bradley returns and has Pilgrim’s old job.

Meanwhile, a movie version of “I Am Pilgrim” has been kicking around Hollywood for years, falling victim to studio regime changes and other sundry issues. Right now, it’s with MGM. If MGM doesn’t move on the project, rights revert to Hayes late this year, and there are other people who have expressed interest in making it as a feature. So he’s hopeful about a “Pilgrim” film.

On set with Mad Max

Not only will Hayes discuss “The Year of the Locust” at the United on Feb. 3; he’s also talk about “The Road Warrior” before a screening. He will discuss the movie’s genesis, how they came up with the story, why they wanted to tell it, and so on.

He talked in this interview about one of the iconic moments in the film and it developed on set. In the script, a chase was supposed to happen, but there wasn’t anything detailed beyond that. Director George Miller suggested they have villainous Wez slide over the front of Mad Max’s vehicle and disappear underneath. The audience would think he’s dead. But then, at a given moment, he would leap back over the vehicle’s front “and scare the living daylights out of everybody.” Hayes said they needed to figure out why Wez would need to leap back. Miller said that was the problem; he wasn’t sure. Hayes figured Wez had to need something. So they had a kid climbing onto the hood to try to retrieve shotgun cartridges there — and the cartridges are what Wez is going for.

Hayes hasn’t seen “The Road Warrior” in years. He can’t watch it in the same way he has never reread “Pilgrim.”

“I have enough people in the world telling me about all the mistakes I made. I don’t need to add my voice to theirs. ‘My God, what were we thinking? My God, why did we do that?’”

When he did watch the film back in the day, it mostly prompted a host of memories. He would think about what was happening on set the day a scene was shot — about the people, maybe, or the weather.

Kidman’s recommendation

Hayes made a miniseries with Nicole Kidman years ago, and her performance in that gave everyone the confidence to cast her in “Dead Calm.” They have remained friendly, as this story, set as “I Am Pilgrim” was coming out, attests:

“I messaged her and said, ‘Hey, listen, Nicky, time to do me a favor.’ She said, ‘Oh, yeah, what’s that?’ I said, ‘I’ll make a deal with you. … I will buy or download every piece of music that Keith Urban has ever been involved in if you will tell your millions of followers that this is a good book.’ So that was the deal,” he said. “We’ve got a huge collection of Keith Urban music, and she kept her side of the bargain. She’s a great woman. She’s a really, really lovely person.”