- Matt Rees
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For the rugby player see Matthew Rees. For the actor see Matthew Rhys.
Matt Rees, (also known as Matt Beynon Rees, born 1967, Newport, Wales) is a Welsh novelist and former journalist. He is the author of the Omar Yussef (character) series of mystery novels about a Palestinian sleuth and of historical crime novels. He is the winner of a Crime Writers Association Dagger for his crime fiction. He lives in Jerusalem.
Rees grew up in Newport, Cardiff, and South London, and studied at Oxford University and the University of Maryland, College Park. He worked as a journalist in Washington and New York, before moving to the Middle East in 1996, where he was correspondent for The Scotsman, Newsweek, and Time (magazine).
His first work of nonfiction was Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East in 2004 (Free Press).
The New York Times called The Collaborator of Bethlehem, the first of his Palestinian crime novels about Bethlehem sleuth Omar Yussef, “an astonishing first novel.”[1] The Independent (London) hailed Omar as “the next big sleuth in crime fiction.”[2] Le Figaro called the book “a masterpiece.”[3] Under its UK title The Bethlehem Murders the first Omar Yussef novel won the Crime Writers Association's John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2008. The Omar Yussef Mysteries have sold in 23 different countries and 20 different languages.
The Omar Yussef novels are an exercise in cultural immersion as much as they are detective stories. Rees leads readers on an exploration of Palestinian culture, from the charm of social customs and traditional cookery to such darker topics as a character's declaration that "in our society, women are worth less," and Honor killing.[4]
Contents
Profile
Matt Rees is an award-winning crime novelist who lives in Jerusalem. Major authors have compared his writing with the work of Graham Greene, John Le Carre, Georges Simenon and Henning Mankell. The French magazine L’Express called him “the Dashiell Hammett of Palestine.”[5]
As a journalist, Rees covered the Middle East for over a decade. He was Time magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief from 2000 until 2006, writing award-winning stories about the Palestinian intifada. He also worked as a Contributing Editor to Time and as Middle East correspondent for The Scotsman and Newsweek.
He was born in Newport, Wales, in 1967 and holds a BA in English language and literature at Wadham College, Oxford University, where Terry Eagleton was his tutor. He holds a MA in Journalism from the University of Maryland.
He published a nonfiction account of Israeli and Palestinian society called Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East in 2004 (Free Press). The book examines the divisions within Israel and within Palestinian society, suggesting that a peace deal would only be possible between the two sides when these internal frictions were resolved.
While on a vacation in Rome, Rees came up with the idea for his Palestinian crime series. "I was chatting with my wife in our favorite hotel in the Campo de’Fiori," Rees has written.[6] "I realized I had become friends with many colorful Palestinians who had given me insights into the dark side of their society. Like the former Mister Palestine (he dead-lifts 900 pounds), a one-time bodyguard to Yasser Arafat (skilled in torture), and a delightful fellow who was a hitman for Arafat during the 1980s. To tell the true-life stories I had amassed over a decade, I decided to channel the reporting into a crime series. After all, Palestine’s reality is no romance novel."
His first crime novel, The Collaborator of Bethlehem (UK title The Bethlehem Murders), was published in the U.S. in February 2007 by Soho Press. The novel is set in Bethlehem, West Bank, against the backdrop of the Palestinian intifada and involves the gangs of gunmen operating in the town and the situation of the Christian Palestinian minority. It won the prestigious Crime Writers Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2008, and was also nominated for the Barry First Novel Award, the Macavity First Mystery Award, and the Quill Best Mystery Award. The New York Times called it “an astonishing first novel.” It was named one of the Top 10 Mysteries of the Year by Booklist and, in the UK Sir David Hare made it his Book of the Year in The Guardian. Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse novels, called Rees’s Palestinian sleuth Omar Yussef “a splendid creation.” Omar was called “Philip Marlowe fed on hummus” by one reviewer and “Yasser Arafat meets Miss Marple” by another.
The Omar Yussef Mystery series has been sold to leading publishers in 23 countries: the U.S., France, Italy, Britain, Poland, Spain, Germany, Holland, Israel, Portugal, Brazil, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Iceland, Chile, Venezuela, Japan, Indonesia, Greece and Turkey.
The second book in the series, A Grave in Gaza, appeared in February 2008 (and at the same time under the title The Saladin Murders in the UK). Omar Yussef travels to Gaza, where he struggles against corrupt security chiefs who are smuggling weapons. The Bookseller called it “a cracking, atmospheric read.”[7] The third book in the series, The Samaritan’s Secret, was published in February 2009. Set in Nablus, it takes place against the backdrop of the city's ancient casbah and the small community of Samaritans still living on a hilltop overlooking the West Bank town. The New Republic called it "a wonderful detective thriller."[8] Rees's fourth novel, The Fourth Assassin, appeared in February 2010 and showed Omar Yussef to be "one of the most beguiling of current sleuths," according to the Sunday Times.[9] Omar goes to New York for a UN conference and uncovers an assassination plot.
Rees's novels approach the Middle East conflict from an often unexpected direction. There are almost no Israeli characters, and the novels maintain a focus on Palestinian society, good and bad. Rees has written that this perspective was dictated by his discontent with news reporting of the conflict, which focused on stereotypes of Palestinians as either terrorists or victims. Instead, Rees writes, the diversity of Palestinian society awakened him creatively and made him look at the Middle East from a different angle. For example, Gaza "is the most beautiful spot imaginable," he has said.[10]
His latest work, Mozart's Last Aria, published in 2011, is a historical crime novel set in Vienna in 1791. Nannerl Mozart, the great composer's sister, comes to the Imperial capital to investigate Wolfgang's death. She uncovers a plot involving illegal Masonic meetings, espionage, and a secret hidden in her brother's last great opera The Magic Flute. The book is based on real historical research into Mozart's last days.
Other Interests
During his twenties in New York, Rees performed as a singer and guitarist for the alternative band Money Shot, appearing onstage at the legendary CBGB. He currently plays bass in a Jerusalem band, and learned to play piano as part of his research for Mozart's Last Aria. Working on a forthcoming novel about the Italian artist Caravaggio, Rees learned to paint with oils and to duel using a seventeenth-century rapier.[11]
Books
Nonfiction
- Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East 2004 (Free Press).
Omar Yussef novels
- The Collaborator of Bethlehem 2007
- A Grave in Gaza 2008
- The Samaritan's Secret 2009
- The Fourth Assassin 2010
Historical novels
- Mozart's Last Aria 2011
External links
References
- ^ The New York Times Book Review, "HMS Bounty Hunting" by Marilyn Stasio, February 25, 2007
- ^ The Independent, | http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/news/article2697799.ece |June 23, 2007
- ^ Le Figaro Magazine, p.86, "Policierement Incorrect" by Jean-Louis Tremblais, May 12, 2007
- ^ Many truths, one secret, Ilana Teitelbaum, Jan. 29, 2009, Jerusalem Post http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233050204481&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
- ^ http://www.mattbeynonrees.com/L%27Express.pdf
- ^ Official website [1]
- ^ Tom Tivnan, in The Bookseller, Nov. 5, 2007
- ^ http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/the-council-foreign-relations-hamas-no-longer-terrorist-group
- ^ John Dugdale, "Thriller Roundup", The Sunday Times, March 28, 2010
- ^ Matt Rees, {http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3672788/Matt-Rees-how-I-found-peace-in-Gaza.html "How I found peace in Gaza"], The Sunday Telegraph, 20 April, 2008.
- ^ Matt Rees, "Gentleman and thug: researching my new historical novel" The Man of Twists and Turns, 4 November 2010
Categories:- People from Newport
- Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford
- Welsh novelists
- English mystery writers
- University of Maryland, College Park alumni
- Living people
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