Do you feel this disconnection is something Americans feel more strongly? A yearning for a past?

That seems a particularly American thing. It’s the same way you’ll meet some guy who says ‘I’m Polish-going back five generations.’ The idea goes into the territory of what is an American. Everyone tries to form their own niche, to hold onto something, and people can get lost in that.

Sometimes to the point of getting pedantic..!

Yeah that’s the worst. They start saying I’m Scottish-American and start wearing a kilt. And ‘I’m a quarter this and a quarter that’…it is kind of grasping at straws. Everyone is drowning in the present I think. We’re all stuck in a weird present and I think it’s easier for most other cultures to easily trace where they’re from than Americans. Americans are quite nomadic...

Why did you choose to give Burt such a prominent nose?

The nose came from the painting [An Old man and his Son by Domenico Ghirlandaio]. When I saw the Ghirlandaio painting I knew that was my character, and that was his son.

Who in your novel do you feel has the healthiest relationship with the present?

I would say Burt’s wife Kitty, though what we know of Kitty is very tainted by Burt, and he’s quite an unreliable character. Kitty never comes into focus, she’s never allowed to. We see her through Burt and briefly through the children, so I would say she was for the most part a very stable presence and when she was gone everything swirled out of place.

When you chose that title, was it meant to evoke deluded optimism or do you want to leave readers with a sense of hope for Burt?

Yes. Just like the nose I was doing research for my method writing, reading things that I imagined Burt would read. And as soon as I read those words [a chant by medieval mystic Julian of Norwich] I instantly knew that would be the title of the book…I thought this is the title Burt would use. It evokes a desperate, repetitive optimism.

If you were to pick a different period in which to live what would you choose?

I’m quite interested in medieval times though I’m rational enough to know it’s not the best time to live of all the historical time periods. I’m also really interested in Roman history—it’s absolutely fascinating

What’s next? Are you working on another book?

Yes. It’ll be called Clowns at Night.

So what do Clowns do at night?

Well, have you heard of something called sleep paralysis or night terrors? It’s an extreme sleep disorder and I’ve had it since I was a kid and basically you wake up at night and your body is paralyzed and you feel the presence of something else there and it often feels like some kind of evil spirit…I’ve had it since I was a kid and always thought I was literally crazy; how do you tell someone about that? Then I read symptoms about it that other people had experienced and thought ‘holy shit! I’m not crazy.’ So it’s going to be about that and be kind of an existential horror/comedy…anyone who likes my first book will probably not like the next one…!