Nathan Englander: ‘It’s a writer’s job to be scared by everything’

Nathan Englander is the author of the novel The Ministry of Special Cases as well as two collections of short fiction, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Englander, who lives in New York with his family, is also a judge for this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize. His new novel, Dinner at the Center of the Earth, was recently published by Knopf.

Why did you write your new book?

I've been wanting to write this novel for near 20 years at this point. I moved to Israel during the peace process – for the peace process – in 1996. And, I'm telling you, peace was really happening. It was so close. And watching it all crumble, as it so violently did, broke my heart. During the Second Intifada, I moved back to New York, and have, since then, wanted to find the right story, to capture the maddeningly circular nature of the conflict. I just wanted to look at that epic lost moment – through character, through story – and, hopefully, engage empathetically with both complicated sides. Maybe I wanted to remind myself that peace was right there and can be there again.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

I studied with Marilynne Robinson. She was the first teacher I had in grad school, at the Iowa Writers' Workshop (we are nutty for masters of fine arts in the [United] States). And she literally showed me how my brain works. I grew up religious and had been secular for years by then, but she showed me how I think in circles and write in circles, in a kind of Yiddish-inflected way. "I should wait here all day for you, to show up at 5, when we said we'd meet at 3:30, like I don't matter and you couldn't call?" She taught me to unravel my sentences, to put the linear back in them. Now, with this novel, which needed a sort of spiral structure, I finally earned the right to my circles, at least when it comes to plot.

What scares you as a writer?

I think it's a writer's job to be scared by everything – and I am. It's quality control masked as self-torture.

Which book do you think is underappreciated?

Gob's Grief by Chris Adrian. Or, literally, anything by Chris Adrian. As author and pediatric-palliative-care-oncologist-chaplain, he has a very unique worldview.

If aliens landed on Earth, which book would you give them to teach them about humanity?

Well, if I base it on the go-to Hollywood-movie assumption that the aliens will land in the U.S., there's only one little book they'll need. Sadly, Orwell's 1984 will tell them all they need to know about life here. But, it's humanity you asked about. So, I'd give them the Frog and Toad children's books by Arnold Lobel. They show our good side, as beings (even if we're represented as frogs … and toads).

Which book got you through the darkest period of your life?

I'd say Kafka's Metamorphosis did a grand job, as did Camus's The Plague, when I was feeling trapped as a teenager. And, yes, I recognize I'm talking about teenage angst. And I haven't been so fortunate that there aren't other challenging periods in life that come to mind. But there is something to that time, when you don't have control and don't have full freedom, when, if you feel trapped in your situation, you really may be. And I was this deeply sincere, religious kid, who just had real theological questions. And I wasn't getting them answered in school. My English teacher, who literally saved me, directed me to the books she knew I needed. Kafka, Conrad, Camus and on from there. It's almost embarrassing how obvious my choices are.

What's the best romance in literature?

Oh, that's easy for me. There's an Isaac Bashevis Singer story called The Spinoza of Market Street that brings two people together in a way that kills me. It's dark but transcendent.

What's your favourite bookstore in the world?

It's a little like being a sailor with a bookstore in every port. I have, as writer and reader, so many bookshops I honestly feel deeply connected to and supported by. But I have an especially deep affinity for Shakespeare and Company in Paris. When my now-wife and I decided to semi-elope and were arranging a very tiny insta-wedding in France, the owners of Shakespeare, Sylvia and David, offered us their very legendary bookshop as a venue. So, yes, I actually got married inside Shakespeare and Company and am happily misty-eyed every time I go back.