Q: ‘Now these books are so elusive. You don’t seem to like to make it easy to get hold of your work’

A: ‘It’s frustrating for anybody wanting to track them down. That’s deliberate. I haven’t used ISBN because that makes it just too easy. With ISBN you can move a book from whatever shelf it’s currently on somewhere in the world to wherever your shelf is. I don’t like that. That’s OK for a web page but not for an object such as a book. It needs to be discovered. And lost. Books are magical objects to me but placed in supermarkets, for example, they’re now less interesting than a pack of loo paper. I’m not trying to have a bestseller so the placement of the Michael K books is deliberate and integral to the books themselves.’

Q: ‘So if I want your book, I have to go to, in one example, the Kafka bookshop in Prague to get it?’

A: ‘Yeah. You’d have to be quick as there was only one copy there but a very nice one.’

Q: ‘How does that work exactly? Do you agree with the shop to sell it there? How do they feel about one copy?’

A: ‘They don’t know anything about it until they try to ring up the sale.’

Q: ‘You just place the book in the shop and then leave?’

A: ‘Yeah. Not a word. In that book at the Kafka shop, there was a bookmark which invited the purchaser to write to me about it, to email me. She did and the first thing I wanted to know was how much she paid for it because I didn’t stick a price on it or anything. Anyway, I was quite pleased with what they charged for it, without any clue other than it’s intrinsic qualities.’

Q: ‘How much?’

A: ‘It was a nice custom-bound job with lots of little extras. They charged the equivalent of about fifty UK pounds which I wouldn’t have dared suggest myself.’

Q: ‘And you’re happy to let them have this profit?’

A: ‘No. Of course not.’

Q: ‘You’re scary and hilarious at the same time. What are you going to do if they don’t pay you?’

A: ‘Place another book. But that’s all I’m saying. Anyway, the bookshop got the story on this from the person who bought it from them and there’s been generally a good vibe from it all. I’ve no doubt it’ll work out nicely in the end. It’s not like they ever agreed to sell the book. It’s not like I’ll ever ask for the money. There’ll just be this nice relationship as a result. With the Kafka Bookshop no less. I love it.’

Q: ‘What about the buyer of the book? What did she think?’

A: ‘Oh she thought it was wonderful. She said that by buying it she seemed to have entered a magical realm where things are done differently than in mundane reality. She said the sky looked different after reading it. I was really delighted with that comment because, you know, a magical realm is what I’m aiming at but without the need for goblins and trolls.’