Simon MacDonald

I'm picturing him sort of decked out in Ralph Lauren who introduces himself as Brink Adams and it turns out he's the son of...

ends up talking to Brink who says that he's the son of an old girlfriend and he's in a bit of trouble, he's dropped out of uni, he's sort of run away from his parents.

So Micah takes pity on him and takes him in and there's a funny scene the next morning where Micah gets up at his normal time and he's incredibly agitated because this young man has used Micah's phone charger and there's language where

Micah talks about feeling like his home has been invaded.

So it's as if this little sanctuary that he's created for himself has been invaded by the presence of somebody else in it.

And that presence of Brink then does lead to complications in relation to Micah's relationship with the very long-suffering Cass.

I think it's a great character study of this one lead character, Micah, and of his getting of wisdom, if you like to sort of think of it in that way, when he thinks a certain way and then he realises that he's been mistaken and then he rethinks himself and his attitudes.

I think Sally Rooney actually is a mentor of Nisha's.

I think she mentions her in the acknowledgements as one of the people that has inspired her.

So it mightn't be entirely coincidental that there's parallels in their writing style.

Well, he was already part of the world of Eton and Oxford, which is where he spent time as a young man.

And then he's come to London.

I'm sorry, he's come to Hong Kong.

And he's, from memory, he's a banker.

He's very much in the corporate.

Yes, he's a banker.

I'm sorry, I read it a little while ago.

But yes, he mixes in a very different milieu.

He earns a lot of money.

He has a