The Stranger by Camus. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Lolita by Nabokov. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler.
If you weren’t writing, what would you want to do for a living?
I’d be a clown. Somewhere in France, I hear there’s a great clown school …
Are you working on any new fiction now?
I just spent four months in Bombay, walking the streets at dawn and late into the night. These are my two favourite moments to observe the city — when it just wakes up, and when it tries to sleep, but is like a tired beast gasping for air. The brothels, the zoo, temples and churches, potholes, fancy cars, dizzying money, gorgeous women, old beggars, street children — they all invigorate the city, and I wait for all of it to disappear and start a novel with the one image that remains.