Small Talk: Milton Hatoum

Milton Hatoum, 57, grew up in Manaus, Brazil, and has written four novels set in the Amazon region. He studied architecture in São Paulo and literature in Paris before devoting himself to writing. His debut novel, Tale of a Certain Orient, was published in 1989. Cinzas do Norte (2005), translated as Ashes of the Amazon (Bloomsbury, 2009), has been longlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Literary Award. Hatoum is married with two sons and lives in São Paulo.

When did you know you were going to be a writer?
When I was 12. My grandfather used to tell me stories. Years later I found out these stories were a free adaptation of the Arabian Nights.

What books are on your bedside table?
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad; Light in August by William Faulkner; À la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust; Macbeth by Shakespeare; Dubliners by James Joyce and the poetry of Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

What is your writing routine?
I wake at six. I start writing at seven and I never know when I’ll stop.

What is the strangest thing you’ve done when researching a book?
When I was writing Ashes of the Amazon, I entered the rainforest by myself. I wanted to hear the sounds of the forest and to wonder how it would feel to get lost there.

Do you keep a diary?
Yes, a diary of dreams and nightmares.

Who is your perfect reader?
One who reads my novels twice.

When were you happiest?
During the 1980s, when I was a poor young expatriate in Barcelona and Paris, trying to become a novelist.

When do you feel most free?
When I’m writing fiction. Sometimes when I make love.

How do you relax?
Playing football with my sons.

What would you go back and change?
Nothing at all.

What book changed your life?
Epitaph of a Small Winner, a novel by Machado de Assis [1839-1908], perhaps Brazil’s greatest writer.

What book do you wish you’d written?
Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal.

How would you earn your living if you had to give up writing?
Perhaps as an architect. Or as a crooner, just like in my youth in Manaus where I was in a band.

Milton Hatoum’s latest novel is ‘Orphans of Eldorado’ (Canongate)