My grandfather and I were very close.

For me it was a lot harder to come to terms with the death of my grandfather than it was to come to terms with what's happened to the former Yugoslavia.

I am very interested in place, and the influences of place on characters.

I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young.

My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.