Jan Buruma – romantic archive thrillers

Online research? Or onsite?

I agree with the late Polish travel writer Richard Kapushinski that onsite research for a book is by far the very best.

That is what I do for my romantic archive thrillers, starring Irina Petrova, the Bulgarian female archive professor.

For Treasure lost I was very curious to know about Rio de Janeiro. Is that megacity dangerous? How is Copacabana, one of the world’s most famous beaches? Is the infamous favela Rocinha lethal? Or can you have there a safe travel? Is the airport a South American chaos? How is domestic airplane travel?

Since Brazilians are crazy about football, how is it to visit a match? How is the Maracana stadium? One of the most famous football arena’s in the world?

Can you speak English there? Or is only Portuguese useful? My Brazil visit was for the first time, after many visits to Bulgaria and to Ukraine, that I did not speak the country’s main language?