"The books that changed me as a teenager I read China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and The City & the City when I was in college. I had been falling out of love with fantasy I felt too old for Redwall, and I thought I'd outgrown the genre but Mieville's work opened the door to the enormous world of adult fantasy literature that grappled with the problems I was now interested in."
"The writers who changed my mind I had never been wildly interested in books that are primarily or even largely about romantic relationships, but in the past few years, works by Sally Rooney, Banana Yoshimoto and Mieko Kawakami have changed my mind. They have opened my eyes to the potential in describing the subtle shifts in any interpersonal encounter, and I'm working out how to do that in my own writing now."
"I tried Pnin when I was in college and it just didn't work. I gave it another try last month and I couldn't stop giggling. It also took me a while to find the charm in Victor Hugo's bloviating. In high school, I only read the bits of Les Miserables about the Friends of the ABC (I had a crush on Enjolras, just like everyone else.)"
Brian Jacques's Redwall and its sequels were a childhood favorite that inspired a wish to be a squirrel in the Mossflower Woods. China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and The City & the City rekindled interest in fantasy by opening access to adult fantasy that grappled with complex problems. Works by Sally Rooney, Banana Yoshimoto and Mieko Kawakami revealed the possibilities in depicting subtle shifts within interpersonal encounters, and I am exploring that approach in my own work. Vladimir Nabokov's humour and Victor Hugo's expansive digressions became enjoyable on reread, with Les Miserables's unabridged edition appreciated for its detail. David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks regained their former enchantment on rereading.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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