Will Dean

But perhaps you could describe her for us.

What else do we need to know about her?

And why did you choose to create a character who is hearing impaired?

Mind you, you give her a very stressful life and all sorts of terrible things happen.

But I'm interested that you said you're a very visual thinker because you've given us some extraordinary scenes that I can see.

So, for example, in Red Snow, there's this incredibly eerie, gothic seeming licorice factory, but with licorice coins on dead bodies.

I mean, that is such a striking scene.

And I think there are...

snowballs like formed into skulls.

And so I wonder how much there's a sort of Gothic tradition in forming your work as well.

What does it do for your idiom, though, given that you're writing in English?

I mean, I'm just thinking about your novel Black River, for example.

At one point, there's some wispy mist and someone looks at it and says, the elves are dancing tonight.

And then another character explains that that's a Swedish expression.

So how much does the language of the landscape and of those fairy tales, how much does that impact on your writing in English?

And so you've got this sort of ancient folkloric language.

And then, as you say, a character like Tuva is having to deal with driving through snow.

And at least two of your novels start with a scene in a car.

Well, I'm always interested in the books that writers see as influences or inspiration or antecedents.

So you've already mentioned some and how important reading has been to you.