Yes, Don Winslow retired. And yes, ‘City of Dreams’ is his new novel.

Don Winslow’s new novel, “City of Dreams,” hits stores today, but if you google his name the results will tell you that he’s a “retired writer.”

It’s true. Last year, Winslow, who is the author of 23 novels, which include “The Winter of Frankie Machine,” “The Force” and the Cartel Trilogy, announced that he was stepping back from writing novels once he completes the publication of his final trilogy, which began with last year’s “City on Fire” and continues with the new novel. 

The fact he’s still publishing might explain why some people don’t believe he’s planning to stop. 

“I think that people don’t expect writers to retire, they just sort of expect us to one day keel over on the keyboard,” says the 69-year-old novelist — sorry, former novelist. “I mean, good friends of mine, just flat-out don’t believe it.”

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But Winslow, who toiled for years on his writing as he worked as a photographic safari guide in Africa, a director of Shakespeare’s plays in England and a private investigator here in the States, isn’t taking up golf or watercolors. As those who follow him on social media know, his post-retirement career involves speaking out and producing films about Donald Trump, the MAGA movement and the state of democracy in this country.

“The image of people bearing an American flag with Trump’s face emblazoned on it while they attack the Capitol is one of the most infuriating things that I’ve ever seen,” says Winslow. “We need outrage about this and I tend to express it.”

Winslow, who will be appearing at Warwick’s in San Diego on April 18 and at Book Soup on April 19, spoke more about his work, his politics and his post-retirement plans (and you can read a separate Q&A on his book recommendations and writing tips in the Book Pages newsletter). This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. You announced your retirement last year, but some don’t believe you. Why does retirement seem so unlikely? 

I’ve written 23 novels, co-authored a nonfiction book, and written 20 or 30 short stories, a couple of screenplays, and a few television scripts. I think I’ve had a pretty productive and fruitful career. But I’ve said, I think accurately, that I was sort of addicted to writing, and it was hard for me not to write. 

But now, whatever skills I do possess, or whatever energy I have, is better spent on other things — particularly the fight against Trump and Trumpism, not to put too fine a point on it.

People have asked me, “Why don’t you write a novel about it?” It would take three to four years to write anything decent, and then it’s another year or two in the publication process, and by that time, I’m afraid I’d have been writing an elegy for American democracy. What is happening now requires quicker responses. And the sort of social media presence that is not a novel. 

Q. Danny Ryan, the protagonist of the “City on Fire” trilogy, is trying to leave one career for a different line of work. Do you see parallels between your retirement and his desire?

That’s the first time anyone’s asked me that. [laughs] No, to tell you the truth, that’s the first time it’s occurred to me. I mean, I’ve often written about characters who are trying to get out of what they’re doing. My first five books are about a guy named Neal Carey, who was trying to be a graduate student in English literature, but he was also a private eye and work kept calling him away. Later on, I wrote a book called “The Winter of Frankie Machine” about a retired hitman who gets pulled back unwittingly, so maybe it’s a theme with me. But no, that parallel hadn’t occurred to me until you just mentioned it.

Q. In the new book, there’s a sense of what it feels like to live in a place that’s not your home, to be a person that the more established locals don’t notice, but who does the things that keep life moving for the people who are settled.

We, my wife and my son and I, lived in hotels for three years. I was doing casework, and you never knew how long the case was going to last. It could go for months or could suddenly be over tomorrow. And so we were living in Residence Inns in L.A., San Diego and Orange County. I actually loved it, by the way; I look at that as really kind of happy time.

I was maybe six or seven published novels into my career before I could quit those jobs. So I kind of relate on that level a little bit to Danny. 

Q. Can you talk about “City of Dreams” and the trilogy since most won’t have read the book when they’re seeing this?

If they read the first book, they know that this guy, Danny Ryan, was a longshoreman in Rhode Island, who marries into the ruling family of the Irish mob and ends up leading it but losing a war, which was roughly equivalent to the Iliad story, the Trojan horse. In Book Two now, he has to flee as the loser in a war. He’s a refugee. He’s a fugitive. The mob’s after him, the feds are after him, the Rhode Island cops are after him. He has a senile father and an infant son. He’s a widower and he flees cross-country just trying to survive and keep his family alive. And then he runs in to Hollywood.

Q. Are gangsters and Hollywood stars comparable to Greek gods and other mythic characters? 

That was the original idea behind these books. When I read “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey” and “The Aeneid,” which the trilogy is really centered around, and the Greek tragic dramas, I thought, these are all crime stories. 

They resembled very much what I was reading, but also resembled very much real life. I grew up during the New England mob wars when these guys were going at it and one of them started over an argument about a woman on a beach, by the way. So when I read “The Iliad,” I thought, Oh, yeah, I know this story. So that was the original idea behind trying to do this, you know, 28 years ago, or whatever it was, when I started it: Can I take these, these classic Greek and Roman heroes and gods and goddesses and make them believable contemporary crime characters? My test was always, Could you read this without knowing anything about the classics at all and have it stand alone as a crime novel? That’s the test I was always trying to apply to every chapter.

Q. You also directed Shakespeare’s plays in Oxford, England. What did you learn from doing that?

Before I answer that, let’s observe that “The Godfather” is Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fourth” with the moral poles reversed. It’s exactly the same plot. 

What did I learn from Shakespeare? You know, everything. I was that geeky kid who was reading “Julius Caesar” when I was 6. Even as an adolescent or teenager, I would often take Shakespeare out into the woods and sit under a tree somewhere and read. Between the Greek classics and Shakespeare, it’s hard to invent anything — mind you, Shakespeare didn’t either, of course, only one of his plots is original — but you learn rhythm, you learn big themes, you learn the uses of language, particularly spoken language.

Q. You’ve published more than 20 books since 1991. Which were the hardest ones to write?

The first one, always. “A Cool Breeze on the Underground” took me three and a half years because I had no clue what I was doing. I was trying to cobble together a living. I started writing “Cool Breeze” outside of a tent in the Samburu Reserve in Africa and continued it in China. hiking through the Wolong Panda Reserve up this crazy mountain. And so it took me a long time because I was working on other things and trying to make a living and writing when I could. I told myself, I was gonna write five pages a day, and I did.

So that one was tough. Well, “The Power of the Dog” and “The Cartel” — “Dog” took me six years of research and writing, and “Cartel” because it was just so tough. I don’t know if you’ve ever read that book, but it’s a tough book about the Mexican cartels. That was physically and psychologically really difficult to write. Because you were just dealing with this horror and sadness, you know, every day for years. 

Q. You’ve pivoted to your political work with your friend and agent Shane Salerno. Can you talk about that? 

The overall focus has been fighting Trump and Trumpism and right-wing politicians. We’ve taken a few swipes at Democrats as well when I feel that they’ve gone off track, and I want to express my opinion on that. The focus will shift slightly depending on the need of the moment. But the overall focus has been what I believe is a fight for American democracy. And I think we’re in an existential moment for that.

Look, the fight goes on. I was happy to see this indictment come out. But I wish that other indictments had come out first. I think that was the least of his many crimes. The attempted coup, a fascist putsch against this country, I don’t think has been addressed. I see no signs of it so far being adequately addressed.

But you can’t allow yourself, I don’t think, to be discouraged. I’ve said this before, but pessimism is a suicide pact at the end of the day. And we don’t have the right to lay down on the couch in the fetal position and let this happen. We don’t have the right. We inherited a certain country and we need to pass it along.