Ben Fountain's new novel is a thriller set in Haiti

Why it matters: Since being heralded as a 10,000-hour "late bloomer" genius by Malcolm Gladwell, Fountain has become Dallas' most celebrated author.

• "Billy Lynn" was a bestselling sensation before it was adapted into a big-budget Hollywood movie.

Background: Fountain first visited Haiti in 1991. He tells Axios he was drawn there by "the suspicion that things were happening in there that I needed to try to understand, or at least engage with in the most serious way I might be capable of."

• He took 40 to 50 trips to the country over the next 25 years to learn and experience as much as possible.
• "I never intended to stop going, but the past few years the insecurity has become so extreme that I'd be pretty foolish to go there now," he says.
• He worked on this Haiti novel on and off for the last decade, while also writing some scorching nonfiction about America.

The intrigue: Fountain actually wrote an entirely different novel set in Haiti before "Billy Lynn," but he never sold it.

• "I suppose that was the necessary failure I had to write in order to get to the point where I might write something worthwhile," he says.

What's next: He says he's got a good start on a new novel that's coming faster than usual.

Worthy of your time: Zac Crain's excellent D Magazine story about Fountain.