Bestselling author Naoise Dolan spoke to Cathy Buckmaster in April about her debut novel, character observations and literary inspirations.

Naoise Dolan’s first novel, Exciting Times, was the subject of a seven-way bidding war between publishers — something that sounds bloody but probably isn’t. At 27, Dolan is young to experience such success — not that she’s thrown. In a recent social post she wrote “I was on a ‘30 under 30’ list and I was going to share it but actually I don’t like the concept of them and think it’s an unhelpful marker of writing achievement.”

Her story, which is populated by characters that are young, bright and destructively self-aware, follows Ava, who leaves Ireland at 22 for Hong Kong by spending her “abortion fund.” While there, she enters into a casual relationship with an Etonian banker, Julian, which at times threatens to collapse under its own emotional weight. A pause in their relationship gives Ava the opportunity to meet Edith, who is much more willing to reciprocate feelings. Exciting times ensue.

How are you enjoying the rollercoaster of your hit debut?
It’s not really something I have a personal emotional response to, or not one that I’m capable of articulating in public forums, because it’s not happening to me; it’s happening to a cultural signifier who has the same name as me. I have to think about it that way or I’d go quite mad. Imagine your actual self being available for anyone’s consumption! I could never do it.

Has your life changed demonstrably since the book’s release?
Not in spatial terms, because I’m under lockdown like everyone else. I’ll have to wait and see if anything feels different when restrictions have lifted. I suspect it won’t. Nobody recognises authors. Zadie Smith could walk into a cafe in Dublin and most people would be trying to work out how they knew her.

How was Exciting Times born?
I just started writing! The story came from the characters. I didn’t plan how I wanted the plot to unfold, I just invented the characters and then wrote around them until I had a book. I think for me the fun of writing is getting to just experiment and see what happens.

One of the hazards of writing a book in the first person is that people assume it’s autobiographical. Is this something you’ve encountered?
Yes, virtually every interview raises that question. I think some of it is because not a lot of people write novels, so if it’s not something you have the inclination for, you probably attribute to authors the reasons that you would have for writing what they’ve written. Like, not everyone enjoys making up stories completely from their own head, but everyone narrativises things that actually happened to them; we all tell other people about events from our own life. So it probably feels like less of a leap to assume an author is doing a version of something you do, than something you don’t. There’s a gendered element to it, too, because we don’t see women as imaginative; we tend to think they just kind of have experiences and then vomit them out, which is an unfair assumption about any decent writer, autobiographical or not.

Some reviewers labelled Ava ‘ruthless’. How do you feel about readers and reviewers judging your characters in this way?
I don’t personally find it interesting to read novels by asking myself whether I like or approve of the characters. There’s a reason that the Victorian authors who wrote one-note eulogies to virtue have gone out of print, while the ones who allowed their characters to be bad are still read and loved. But ultimately, people are entitled to their own response. I’d get very bored if I read novels moralistically, but I don’t know what it’s like in other people’s brains. Maybe it’s fun for them.

Did the hyper-aware, analytical style evident in Exciting Times come naturally to you or was it something you worked at?
I’m not sure if that’s a claim I want to make about my own work! To me it just sounds like a compliment, like saying I have a ‘good’ writing style. But that probably says a lot about the kinds of books I enjoy; I find verbal clarity very satisfying. I do also enjoy more lyrical writing styles, but for different reasons: I like Toni Morrison and Vladimir Nabokov because it’s a fascinating window into how other people think, but I like Hiromi Kawakami and Jane Austen for the thrill of having my own thought patterns mirrored.

How did you feel when you were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as an adult — was it unexpected or a relief?
Definitely a relief! For me it was exactly like being queer—I always knew it about myself, I just didn’t always have a word for it. Once I had that word, it became easier to understand how it affects my life. And it’s definitely a relief having people know it about me when I’m an object of public scrutiny. I know I said I try as much as possible to dissociate from my public persona, but as a backup, it’s still good to have at least the hope that people will check themselves from making assumptions based on how I come across to them.

And lastly, have you read a book recently that you'd recommend?
Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out is delightful. It’s her first novel and it’s not as formally experimental as later work, but it’s no less ambitious. Woolf doesn’t get enough credit for her wit, I think; she’s really funny about all the little ideas people have of themselves.

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan is published in Trade Paperback by W&N, £13.99

@NaoiseDolan