Craig Silvey chats with Jessica Au about his new book,

Tell us about writing The Amber Amulet – where did the idea start for you?

Curiously enough, for a story that boasts an astonishing amount of pseudo-science, featuring, as it does, a boy-hero named The Masked Avenger who believes he can absorb and adopt the dormant energy embedded in geological items, and that this in turn imbues him with specialised powers (for instance, the constituent nickel in coins affords him Strength and Endurance, the bronze in his grandfather’s service medal offers him amplified levels of Bravery and Valour, and coating his loyal sidekick - who happens to be a beagle - with aluminium foil will ward away Dark Energy), at its inception, this story was sparked by my listening to a Nobel prize winning physicist discussing the carbon cycle. Go figure.

The book is stunningly illustrated throughout - what was your experience of the design process from the writer’s seat?

Let me first say that I was enormously fortunate to be a part of an infinitely patient, tolerant and trusting creative retinue, who, by the conclusion of this project, were proud to call ourselves Team Avenger. I stress their patience, because I am a complete maniac. I tend to be very specific about my design ideas, I can see them very clearly in my mind’s eye, but tend to be completely useless at communicating them. Fortunately, the incredibly, frighteningly talented Sonia Martinez is able to somehow make sense of my sound and fury, and from there her art was further refined by Team Avenger. We were all really passionately involved, and I couldn’t be prouder of our book. It’s an absolutely beautiful object to hold, it really is.

If you could have one chosen superpower, what would this be?

Let’s be clear: Invisibility, Invulnerability, Super-Strength, X-ray vision and so on… these are relatively dull options. I think the only power worth pursuing is the ability to transmute, at will, into any living creature.

I’d quite enjoy an Alaskan summer as a bear - it’s all ripe huckleberries and sockeye salmon and pleasant mountain vistas, all punctuated by the fact that I look fucking terrifying.

Tell us about the first time you ever saw one of your books in a bookshop.

It was a stunning, privately proud moment. However, it was tempered slightly by the thought: Christ, I’ve got an ugly baby. My first cover was objectively hideous. Fortunately, I’ve had better luck since then. I think my most amazing bookstore moment was actually a couple of years ago, when I walked into a little place just off the Plaza Mayor in Madrid and saw the Spanish edition of Jasper Jones sitting in a stack. It just floored me.

Finally, what was your big rites-of-passage book as a teenager?

There are a few I will always go back to, but for the moment I’ll narrow it down to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, To Kill A Mockingbird and Drown.

The Amber Amulet

Come along to Readings Carlton on October 11 and

A book by Booki.sh