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What was the first book to make an impression on you?

I honestly don’t know. I recently rediscovered, in my parents’ house, The Troll Book by Michael Berenstain. It is a children’s book, but oddly encyclopedic and adult, too. It suggests a secret, ancient underworld, faintly persisting if we could just look hard enough and in the right places, much like The Hobbit does.

What was your favourite book as a child?

Donald Hall’s The Ox-Cart Man, illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

And what is your favourite book or books now?

The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian.

What is your favourite quotation?

It’s too long to quote here, but I have always loved the opening of Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, Book IX, Containing Twelve Hours, V. An Apology for All Heroes Who Have Good Stomachs.

Who is your favourite fictional character?

Dr Stephen Maturin.

Who is the most under-rated Irish author?

I don’t imagine he is under-rated in Ireland at all, but here in the US I don’t hear Derek Mahon praised as much as he should be.

Which do you prefer – ebooks or the traditional print version?

Traditional print all the way. I went through a phase of trying to read ebooks, and it was useful as an editor to be able to read submissions on a device. But I just don’t have the need anymore, and I never really had the desire.

What is the most beautiful book you own?

Either my Compact Oxford English Dictionary or my Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.

Where and how do you write?

In my home office at an old wooden table or, since I’m studying law now, in the sterile quiet of the law library. I may listen to or play old-time music to clear my head before I start.

What book changed the way you think about fiction?

One of Thomas McGuane’s earlier books, Panama, completely changed what I thought first-person narration, or narration of any kind, could get away with. Critically, I guess it’s not considered one of his best books, but I still love it. Encountering McGuane’s work invigorated and inspired me as a young writer. It struck me as outlaw work, not so much in content but in the leaps taken by the voice.

What is the most research you have done for a book?

As Dry Bones in the Valley is the only book I’ve written so far, it took the most research. I read a lot on various subjects – forensics, police procedure, hydrofracking, the drug trade, law – and observed, and talked to police and so on.

What book influenced you the most?

In the writing of Dry Bones in the Valley? In the Woods by Tana French.

What book would you give to a friend’s child on their 18th birthday?

This may seem like a drag, but George Packer’s The Unwinding, which is a kind of successor to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Both books deal with class and income inequality in the US, and either one would inspire any decent young person to do some good in the world. Perhaps as importantly, either would explode any teenage notions of deliberately loafing as a kind of working-class dilettante.

What book do you wish you had read when you were young?

I first read The Catcher in the Rye as an adult, and felt like a phony.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?

In college I was in a playwriting workshop. Our class was held in the highest room in the building, just under a clock tower, with the quad stretched out below. One beautiful May afternoon, the semester was almost over, the windows were open and we could hear everything outside, people laughing, flirting, making plans for the evening and so on. And our professor must have sensed our yearning and said, “Listen: if you want to write, you have to be in here. You can’t be out there.” My advice is that that’s terrible advice. Instead, enjoy life. Do research– if no research is necessary to your work, it might not be that interesting of a subject. And get to bed early.

What weight do you give reviews?

It depends on the source, and whether or not I think they’re right. If the publication is reputable and the critic is right, I’m either pleased or weeping under the desk. Otherwise I try not to pay attention.

Where do you see the publishing industry going?

I don’t care, as long as they take me with them.

What writing trends have struck you lately?

It is hard to ignore the purported abandonment of narrative artifice in favour of something resembling unflinching, quotidian honesty, as demonstrated by Knaussgard and others. It strikes me as pretty extreme. I mean, what if everybody took that approach? Then we’d have to roll all the way back to the other side. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy that mode, but neither am I embarrassed to want to be transported or to hope to transport others.

What lessons have you learned about life from reading?

I think reading teaches you to think slowly and on a large scale. This is not always useful.

What has being a writer taught you?

Writing itself has reinforced the importance of empathy. Being a writer is a new experience, and has taught me that I am a lucky bastard, and shouldn’t take it for granted. That said, having a book out is not any kind of end to my struggles as a person or a professional. Those struggles will never end.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

This is a hard question to answer. I’d be embarrassed to name anyone alive, and reluctant to disturb anyone dead. My wife and I once actually did have dinner Robert Stone and his wife. That was a wonderful experience. He passed away this year, unfortunately. There was a man with stories.

What is the funniest scene you’ve read?

David Copperfield’s first meeting with Miss Betsey Trotwood in chapter 13. I don’t have any tattoos, but I’d consider “Janet! Donkeys!”

What is your favourite word?

“Thanks.” My daughter, who is two, says it without being asked, and I always think, “There is a fine human being”.

If you were to write a historical novel, which event or figure would be your subject?

In the mid-19th century US, robber barons were fighting over control of railroad lines in upstate New York and Pennsylvania coal country. It got crazy. Deliberate head-on train crashes, ax-handle brawls, police impersonations and industrial espionage, etc.