New Voices: Stephan Eirik Clark and 'Sweetness #9'

The book:

Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark (Little, Brown, 336 pp., on sale Aug. 19)

What it's about: Debut novel starring chemist David Leveraux, who tries to expose the truth about the disturbing side effects of America's most popular sweetener.

Why it's notable: It got a shout-out on The Colbert Report as part of Stephen Colbert's crusade to give first-time Hachette novelists a lift when Amazon removed the pre-order button from Hachette books in a dispute over e-book pricing.

Memorable line: "So again I kept my silence, telling myself that even if I did attempt the truth, I couldn't possibly substantiate my claim."

The author:

Quick bio: Clark, 43, was born to a Norwegian mother and Texan father in West Germany, and grew up in both England and the USA. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and two sons and teaches at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Getting the 'Colbert bump': "As a debut novelist you just hope that your book will get some attention, that somebody will pick it up if they don't know you by name. So to get that type of publicity on TV like that, it's great. It gives your book a chance."

Whether Hitler had a flavor chemist: "That's completely made up (laughs). That's me having fun. But also I thought it was important to bring in that time period because after World War II, so much changed. The supermarkets, the way we farmed, the way we eat, the way we got together as a family."

The inspiration: "I hadn't really thought about flavorings until I read Fast Food Nation (by Eric Schlosser)."

His research: "It was all new to me. I didn't even take chemistry in high school. I didn't want it all to be about chemistry. I wanted it to be about our cultural anxieties and our relationship to food. The chemistry only takes you so far."

The Amazon/Hachette controversy: "It's distressing. Whenever you're a debut novelist you're only looking to have a fair chance, to have somebody pick up your book, buy it perhaps, and fall in love with the story. So when something other than the story decides it, you start to worry. Writing a book is an act of faith."

What's next: "I'm working on a novel about the collapse of the U.S. dollar and imagining a Russian/Stalin revolution in America. Sort of the Glenn Beck paranoid fantasy come to life. It's called American Gulag."