Zoya Patel

I can't promise the same hijinks.

And also Maxime Boniba-Clark was a really big influence on me.

And then at the same time, I was seeing writers from other parts of the world kind of growing in popularity for writing about these types of issues.

So Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is someone I referenced in the book.

Her book, Americana, was a huge influence.

But I was also really struck by how the Western world was kind of waking up to authors like Chimamanda and really recognising her literary prowess in a way that I think those types of narratives haven't always been accepted into the literary sphere or the mainstream literary sphere in quite the same way.

And probably her best one, I would say.

I really love memoirs.

So one of the books that has definitely influenced me is Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which is kind of an odd one to throw in.

And whenever I mention it, people just go, oh, the Reese with a Spoon movie.

But it's actually a wonderful book.

I don't know if you've read it, but it's fantastic.

And I also really liked Noviolet Bulawayo, who is a Zimbabwean author.

She has a book called We Need New Names, and it's actually quite similar to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americana, so really similar themes but very differently written, and another good one about, I guess, the experience of adolescence and coming of age in a foreign country.

I have.

I was actually looking in the front cover of Grand Union just then and realised that I totally missed one.

There was one that she wrote before Swing Time that I just completely didn't realise had come out, but I've read virtually everything else that she's written.

She's an interesting one.

I don't always like her writing.

So I find her fascinating because I either really, really love the book or I really, really hate the book.