Was this book consciously departing from Acts of Desperation? No. I have to stop denigrating that novel – I keep on being, like: Urgh – because it's really rude to people who actually like it. Young women, especially, write to me about it in very moving ways.
Publishing a novel had always seemed an unrealistic ambition on a par with winning the lottery – and then it happened relatively easily. Writing it was hard work but [getting published] was shockingly smooth, which made me feel like an idiot for having agonised for years. I thought: OK, maybe even though it feels unlikely that you can write a more traditional novel, just do it.
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