Kafka and the kid

Published on Friday 7 March 2008 13:57

A boy dreams of space in Communist Britain in Andrew Crumey's sixth novel, Sputnik Caledonia - an inspired flight of fancy.

Crumey has said his books form a sequence that can be read in any order, but he did set out to make this one distinctive.

"When people say after a certain number of books, 'Oh he writes this kind of stuff,' there's a devilish urge to do something different....."

"I've written about people in different centuries, so you don't start out looking for a link between author and character. The classic quote is Flaubert, 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi.'

I'm not sure if he said it, but it's the idea that all your characters are you in one sense or another....."

This interview will be published in full in tomorrows Critique section of The Scotsman.