The author of Call Me By Your Name on laughing out loud at The Pickwick Papers and racing through Enid Blyton
The book I am currently reading
The Republic of False Truths by Alaa al-Aswany, a dentist who lived and practised in Cairo until he moved to the west and now teaches in New York. An amazing portrait of fanaticism and cynicism among Egyptian powermongers, the novel reminded me that years ago I had read his Yacoubian Building.
The book that changed my life
I constantly change my mind: Montaigne’s Essays, Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Basically, it depends when you ask the question. Today it could easily be Austen’s Emma. All four authors taught me something priceless: the ability to examine the human psyche and its twisted, undisclosed, frequently misguided motives.
