What was the inspiration for your new novel, The World and All That It Holds?
There was no single source of inspiration, I was possessed by no spirit. I read a book by Colonel Frederick Bailey called the Mission to Tashkent. He was sent by the British to see what the situation was like around the time of the Revolution. A lot of adventures ensued but he ran into a Sarajevan who was working for the Bolsheviks, but who told him that he knew who he was and that he would help because all he wanted was to get home to Sarajevo. I was interested in someone whose only plan and ideology was returning home. That was the beginning.
You signed the contract for it in 2010, but your one-year-old daughter Isabel died that year, which you wrote about in The Book of My Lives (2013). How did such a terrible loss change you as a person and as a writer? Did the unusually long gestation period for this novel have pros as well as cons?
The death of a child changes everything in ways that are too many, too small and too big to recount. For one thing, you become even more alert to the ever-present possibility of catastrophe. The novel took its own time, because it covers a lot.
Your multilingual background comes across strongly in the work, which is rich in words from other languages. Was this a conscious act? Does writing in your second language affect your style, or is it second nature now?
Whatever language I am writing in is my first language at the time of the writing. But the other language[s] are always present, like extra dimensions. In a two-dimensional system multidimensional objects can only be represented in two dimensions. In the minds of multilingual people, words/objects are present differently. I don’t know if that affects my style. I have no access to any other style.
You wrote a powerful critique of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Peter Handke in 2019: “Perhaps the esteemed Nobel Committee is so invested in the preservation of Western civilization that to it a page of Mr. Handke is worth a thousand Muslim lives. (...) For them, genocide comes and goes, but literature is forever.” What was the response?
There was no particular response, certainly not from the Nobel Committee or Handke. A lot of Bosnians and people from the Balkans knew that Handke was a genocide denier, just as they knew that Muslim lives are less valuable to the sophisticated European readers who pretend that politics and literature are strictly segregated.
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Your background is a mix of Ukrainian and Bosnian Serb. What is your take on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is genocidal. It was and is made possible by the appeasers of Putin, the buyers of his oil, who had VIP seats for the Olympics in Sochi and the World Cup. Also, my mother identifies herself as Bosnian and Yugoslav, not Serb. I’ve spent more time in France than in Serbia in my life. I have no Serb background.
What was it like to co-write The Matrix Resurrections screenplay with Lana Wachowski and David Mitchell?
It was great. Lana and David are close and beloved friends of mine, and they are brilliant thinkers and writers. I learned a lot from them, and loved every minute of it.
What projects are you working on?
Presently, I am focused on producing music as Cielo Hemon.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
I went to Drohobych because that was where Bruno Schulz lived and died.
You teach creative writing at Princeton University. What is the best writing advice you have heard?
I never listened to writing advice.
Who do you admire the most?
My parents.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
I would instantly ban any kind of music that identifies itself as “light” or “smooth”.
What current book, film, TV show and podcast would you recommend?
The only podcast I listen to is Scriptnotes, produced by Craig Mazin and John August, who are brilliant screenwriters. I am also enjoying The Last of Us, for which Craig Mazin is the showrunner.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
Shanghai.
Your most treasured possession?
In 1972, my father gave me a chess board, and inscribed my name and the year on it.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
I still have my first English-Serbo-Croat dictionary, now more than 50 years old.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
I’ve been to many writers’ dinner parties. They’re not all that they’re made out to be. There is a lot of gossip and everyone is always aware of the present hierarchies. I’d rather have a dance party with writers, in which case everyone would be welcome.
The best and worst things about where you live?
There are a lot of smart people in Princeton. There is little to do here after dinner.
What is your favourite quotation?
“Love is the weight of the soul” – Hannah Arendt.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Leopold Bloom.
A book to make me laugh?
Anything by Gary Shteyngart.
A book that might move me to tears?
My Heart by Semezdin Mehmedinović, tr. Celia Hawkesworth.
