Katabasis is your sixth novel. Do you already have ideas for the next ones?I think I have up to my 12th. Beyond that, I have to live some more life. The seventh is called Taipei Story: a coming-of-age novel about a college freshman who is doing a language study abroad programme in Taipei. She is grappling with loss and grief and family histories,... See more

I had just started a PhD programme, and after a few months of everybody going on about how a PhD is hell, it seemed a natural conceit. But as I kept writing, I found myself asking: “What kind of suffering would you have had to have gone through for hell to seem like a better alternative?” At its heart, it’s a novel about depression and suicide and... See more