Bibi Slippers asked Michiel Heyns a few questions about writing his Sunday Times Literary Award-nominated book Lost Ground.
If there were to be a large-scale film adaptation of your book, who would you cast as your main character, and why?
I would cast Brad Pitt, because I’ve always wanted to meet him, but in fact he’d be entirely unsuitable. So someone more inward and reflective – Ralph Fiennes? Or Daniel Craig, before he became James Bond.
Was there anything you found particularly difficult in writing your book?
The ending – whether to end on a bang or a whimper. (I settled for both.)
What was the first book you ever read that made you think, "I want to be a writer"?
George Eliot’s Middlemarch always puts in an appearance in my Q&A sessions. So let’s say George Eliot’s Middlemarch, though in truth it’s more likely to have been Enid Blyton’s Noddy. (The real truth is I can’t remember.)
Do you have a "first reader"? And relating to this question, who is your ideal reader?
My friend Christine Roe, to whom my latest book is dedicated, has been the first reader, or one of the first readers, of all my novels. She is also my ideal reader, in that she is critical without being devastating, admiring without being gushing, and utterly in tune with my way of looking at things. Above all, she has a sense of humour.
What has been your favourite South African read of 2011/2012?
Two: Damon Galgut’s In A Strange Room and SJ Naudé’s Alfabet van die Voëls.
Which one of the nominated books would you place your betting money on to walk away with this year's prize?
I would rather place my betting money on the Durban July than on a literary prize – it’s so much more predictable.