What’s the first book you remember reading as a child? I remember my mother reading The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde over and over to me and my siblings as children. I also remember reading Aesop’s Fables and an old book of fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen. But the books that have always stuck with me are Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. I think I am always trying to recapture the feelings those books gave me.

What was the book you read that made you decide to be a writer? When I was 15 my mother gave me a copy of The Outsider by Albert Camus and ordered me to read it. I gave it to a friend after I finished it and I won’t ever forget how deeply it impacted us both. As well as this, the plays Ubu Roi and The Tempest. Two dreams.

What’s your favourite first line in a book? ‘The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new’ from Murphy by Samuel Beckett. It is perfectly weighted and encapsulates the novel’s tone.

Which debut publication had the most profound effect on you? A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man by James Joyce. More recently, it surely has to be Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett. I read it at a time when I didn’t know I needed it. It gave me a lot. I adore it for that. It’s so plentiful.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up on a writing day? I tend to go on a run then read through the morning. I can’t really begin writing until the evening. My mind doesn’t switch on until the afternoon.

What’s the first thing you do when you’ve stopped writing for the day? Try to sleep. Or to the pub. If it’s not too late, my partner and I will watch something.

In a parallel universe where you’re the tyrant leader of a dystopian civilisation, what’s the first book you’d burn? Absence by me.

What’s the first piece of advice you’d offer to an aspiring novelist? Fail. Go on. Repeat ad nauseam.

Absence is published by Granta on Thursday 8 May; main picture: Jim Larsen.