The inspirations behind my Booker-longlisted book 

I’m deeply interested in the ways people talk and write – and how the lines between truth and fiction, or real life and entertainment, can become blurred. Universality explores these ideas by shining a light on people who are exceptionally good at using their words: for power, profit, or shaping cultural narratives. 

In recent years, the funding model of traditional cultural institutions like journalism has been upended by the emergence of the quaternary sector of the economy. This has created new incentives for industry participants, causing complex, unpredictable changes to what ‘the truth’ (as a product) is. Through the perspectives of Richard and Lenny, each from opposite sides of this phenomenon, Universality traces some of the consequences of this shift. 

The book that made me fall in love with reading 

When I was about 12, I decided to read Wuthering Heights because I couldn’t sleep and it looked really boring. I ended up not sleeping at all that night. I’d found my first ‘unputdownable’ book. 

The book that made me want to become a writer 

Rather than a book, it was Roland Barthes’ essay ‘Myth Today’. In the essay, Barthes explores how ‘myths’ – language and images taken out of their original context and used to signify something new – can be used to make history (man-made constructs) appear as nature (things that have always existed). He makes the case that novels have the potential to reveal the effects of our cultural myths. The essay inspired me to start writing. 

The book I read again and again 

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. 

The book that changed the way I think about the world 

Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. 

The book that changed the way I think about the novel 

Scarlett Thomas’ Our Tragic Universe. 

The book I’m reading right now 

I just finished Jayne Tuttle’s The Sea in the Metro, a frank and insightful exploration of working motherhood. I don’t think I’ve read anything else like it. 

The Booker-nominated book everyone should read. 

Tash Aw’s Five Star Billionaire. 

Where and when I most like to write, and the tools I need 

I’ve learned not to be at all precious about when and where I write. With a handbag-sized laptop, I can make a makeshift writing desk pretty much anywhere. Still, my favourite place to work is my home office. Settling in for an uninterrupted day of writing, with a mug of fresh coffee and surrounded by books, is pure luxury. 

My dream book club, what we’d read, and where we’d meet 

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think a corner in a pub is an excellent setting for a book club. Also potentially unpopular: I think poetry makes for lively book club discussions. So, I’d pick Rachel Long’s My Darling from the Lions at the Morgan Arms in Mile End.