For June, we feature Swedish-born Jenny Mustard, author of Okay Days, which looks at male body dysmorphia, women’s reproductive rights and the pitfalls of modern love as its protagonists search for a life with real meaning.

What’s the first book you remember reading as a child?
I read a lot as a child, mostly books centred around some horse-rescuing gambit. Quite early I got into a Maria Gripe phase, Swedish young adult novels often with some ghost story at the heart. I don’t remember much of the plots but I do remember the eerie but beautiful mood in those books. 

What was the book you read that made you decide to be a writer? 
There isn’t that one book. For me it was more storytelling in general, no matter the format, culminating in an urge to make up people and have them do things with each other. Some authors always inspire me to pick up a pen though, like Rachel Cusk, Chekhov, Gwendoline Riley, Françoise Sagan, Raven Leilani, Jean Rhys and Mieko Kawakami.

What’s your favourite first line in a book?
It changes weekly, honestly, but listen to this one: ‘This strange new feeling of mine, obsessing me by its sweet languor, is such that I am reluctant to dignify it with the fine, solemn name of “sadness”.’ That’s from Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan.

Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you?
One debut novel that meant a lot to me is The Picture Of Dorian Gray. It was one of the first books I ever read in English and I remember being floored by how a serious classic could be so easy to read, entertaining, sexy and powerful. It was the gateway drug to ransacking the English language modern classics section in my local bookshop as a 15-year-old. Kafka, Woolf, Bulgakov. Great bewilderment ensued!

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? 
Wash my face and brew a large pot of sencha. 

What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day?
Go for a long walk to process the day’s work and figure out what to write tomorrow.

In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn?
Oh man, did other writers answer this? This will surely get me into trouble, but maybe Jane Eyre, simply to force people to pick another book when asked what their favourite is.

What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? 
Read, a lot. View rejection as just another part of the process. Nurture and encourage your hubris. 

Okay Days is published by Sceptre on Thursday 29 June.