We are very excited to sit down and talk with Aboubacar Diarra. Diarra is the author of Dinika: The Tongue Has No Bones But Can Break a Man.
Thriller Magazine: Your new novel Dinika: The tongue has no bones but can break a man – Volume II has a striking title about the power of words. What does this sentence mean to you, and how does that idea shape the story and its characters?
Words, in general, don’t hurt when they’re used correctly. But some people use them to break others down psychologically.
It is often said that words hurt more than punches. A wound on the body always ends up healing, but an inner wound takes much longer to disappear. In my novel, the characters find themselves in a confrontational conversation with an individual where every word, every sentence matters — hence the expression: “Turn your tongue seven times in your mouth before speaking.” There is always one word or one sentence too many,
and Dinika plays the role of protector for his younger brother,
who sometimes speaks a little too harshly.
TM: This book continues the story you began earlier in the Dinika universe. How has the story world evolved since the first novel, and what new themes or conflicts do you explore in this second volume?
In the first volume, Dinika is on a mission for an Italian association.
He knows he came to Milan for work, so he sleeps very little and sometimes stays on surveillance for several days in order to gather information, analyze routes, and understand the daily lives of certain people. In volume II, Dinika is on vacation at his brother’s place. He has always been ready to help anyone in need. In the medical field, a doctor never operates on a member of their own family: it could prevent them from performing their job with the necessary perspective, because it concerns someone very dear to them. In this second volume, Dinika is faced with a serious issue involving his brother.
He has to make important and rapid decisions, which sometimes leads him to surprise even himself. His brother’s life is extremely precious to him, and the pressure is far greater than anything he has experienced before. It is an unusual situation for this former soldier, who is used to saving the lives of others but not those of his own family.
TM: Your writing is described as being deeply rooted in rap culture from the 1990s and 2000s. How has that musical era influenced your storytelling style, tone, or the way you build characters?
Being a fan of rap, I obviously loved listening to it, but also reading the paper magazines of the time — whether it was Radikal, Rap Mag, or Rap R&B. What struck me the most was conscious rap, the kind that deals with current events, a so‑called “aware” rap that tried to make you react and push you to overcome your situation. I also read detective novels during my years in elementary school, inspired by my teacher, Mr. Dreyer, who gave me a taste for reading. It’s thanks to those books that my writing developed. There was always that mythical phrase: “Knowledge is a weapon.” Not only did I want to arm myself intellectually, but it also helped me enrich my vocabulary, with words naturally imprinting themselves in my memory. I have always looked for themes in magazines, newspapers, and books that reflected the reality of everyday life, especially current events in France. My characters are first described on the opening page: age, name, surname, and key characteristics. But as I continue writing, they evolve, take on a different presence, change tone, shift from positive to negative and the opposite as well. I write as if I could see my characters on stage, almost like in a very realistic screenplay. Maybe one day, I will truly move toward writing an actual script.
TM: You published your first book in 2018 and later gained attention with the suspense novel The Associates of the Declared Enemy in 2021. Looking back, how has your writing evolved since your debut?
My first novel was published in 2018 by Edilivre, a publishing house that offers à‑la‑carte options such as the cover, proofreading, or layout. This first book was written very quickly, because I was unemployed during the winter period, after a long temporary assignment that had ended a few months earlier. I wrote at all hours of the day: in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and sometimes even at night. It took me about three or four months to finish it. In the second novel, there is more conversation between the characters than in the first one, even though that one already had quite a lot of dialogue. Adding more exchanges was preparing me for screenplay writing — a project I postponed because I was working on volume II. The landscapes, settings, and environment are also described with more detail in this second book. I set myself the goal of publishing two more novels, and then moving on to writing a screenplay, since I followed an online course to train for it.
TM: The novel is said to feature complex characters and a finely woven plot. When developing your characters, do you start with their personalities first or with the central conflict of the story?
I start a new novel, I begin by writing the main outlines step by step: the beginning, the middle, and the end. Then I write down all the ideas that come to mind. Once I have emptied my thoughts onto paper (I write all my novels by hand because it allows me to write faster), I choose the first name and last name of the main character, then those of the secondary characters, as well as other names — men or women — who will appear as the story progresses. Not all of my ideas necessarily end up in the novel. Sometimes I write in an improvised way: I take my notebook and write whatever comes to me. Other times, I stick to what was planned and follow my guideline. My characters evolve, for better or for worse, as the chapters go by. It is usually near the end of the novel that I truly perceive each character’s full personality.