Liam Brown and life in a time of apocalyptic tidings

Despite the predictions made by modern prophets of doom, author Liam Brown is confident the novel is neither dead nor dying. In a world filled with flashing lights and fast-food media, he finds unadulterated pleasure in writing long-form works. Brown’s novels Real Monsters (2015) and Wild Life (2016) were both nominated for The Guardian ’s ‘Not the Booker Prize’, while his third book Broadcast (2017) has been optioned by a major Hollywood studio. His latest novel Skin , released last week, is set in a dystopian world where people communicate only via electronic devices since direct human contact has fatal consequences.

Liam Brown

BL ink caught up with the British author when he was in India for a literature festival. Excerpts from the interview.

Your novel Skin is set in a world where direct human contact is so deadly that even standing too close to another person can be fatal. How did this intriguing premise come about?

Years ago, I wrote a short story in which the world ended but everyone was too busy on social media to notice. It seemed absurd at the time but now I’m not so sure. After all, we live in a time of apocalyptic tidings — icebergs bigger than Jamaica melting, insects in terminal decline — yet I hear that the average adult spends about 11 hours daily staring at a screen. Skin grapples with that dislocation between our digital and physical realities, whether our increasing isolation from nature and other people diminishes us somehow and makes us less human.

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Skin questions our alarming addiction to technology. How do you expect readers to respond?

I’m always wary about moralising. I don’t want to come across as a latter-day Luddite, bemoaning the rise of modern technology. The internet has unlocked incredible opportunities. Every day, I communicate with friends and readers around the world from my tiny office in Birmingham. Yet, for all of our connectedness, loneliness is both pervasive and increasing in society, especially among the young. I hope readers will realise I’m not describing some distant dystopia in my novel, but the world we live in today.

War, toxic masculinity, the stranglehold of social media — your novels dive into contemporary issues. What role does the real world play in your creative process?

I’ve never been attracted to the idea of literature as escapism. I prefer to read books that speak to our times. However, I’ve never actively set out to write a book based on a current issue. I focus on things that I care deeply about, things that keep me up at night. If that chimes with what other people are interested in reading about, then all the better.

Is it difficult to write about dark subjects such as war?

Dark stories often tend to be compelling. The more at stake, the more we want to keep reading. Graphic scenes can be a great way to wake readers up. In Real Monsters , I actually set out to sicken people. I was just so angry about so many things. I wanted readers to share my sense of revulsion and to make them angry. Skin is not especially gory though. I’ve realised you don’t always need to cut a character’s head off. There are far worse things you can do...

Some writers plot out a story in detail before starting a novel while others go with the flow. What’s your method?

The first half of the book I tend to vomit up the idea undigested. Then I have a nervous breakdown and put it aside for a few months. After that, I plan the second half, chapter by chapter. Often I won’t know how a book is going to end until I get there. If an ending surprises me, as it did with Skin , I know I’m doing something right.

What made you take up writing as a profession?

I was a pathological liar as a child. I was always making up wild and barely believable stories. With a talent like that, I was either going to be a politician or a writer. The latter seemed more respectable.

You have two sons. How has fatherhood impacted your writing?

I became a dad in my early 20s and I instantly understood my place on the conveyor belt of life. I suddenly had something to care about. Something to lose. Children feature heavily in most of my novels. I was keen to explore that family dynamic in Skin . How we interact with our children when we’re no longer physically in touch. Whether anything is lost when we speak only through a webcam. When a goodnight kiss is reduced to an ‘X’ on a screen. I’m also aware that my children may read my books one day. My elder, Elliot, already has. I asked him what he thought of my last book. ‘You’re sick, Dad,’ was all he said.

What are you working on now?

There is a fifth novel, quite different from Broadcast or Skin . There are no computers. No technology at all. Having spent a few years ‘building a brand’, I’m now actively trying to dismantle it. I think a brand is a dangerous thing for a writer. It’s just another word for a box. And once you’re in a box it can be difficult to get out.

Vineetha Mokkil is the author of A Happy Place And Other Stories

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