Jamil Ahmad’s debut novel, The Wandering Falcon, was released to critical acclaim and won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize in India in 2011

What are you reading these days? Currently Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, the translation of course.

Which books are on your bedside table? John Galsworthy’s The Man of Property. I want to finish it one day.

Which titles are on your bucket list of books? None.

What is the one book/author you feel everyone must read? I think we need to read/reread Kafka. With single minded and painstaking efforts over the past half a century we have achieved our objective — we have created a truly Kafkaesque world around us. It was hard work but — we have done it.

What are you planning to reread? Arabian Nights. The unabridged edition.

What is the one book you read because you thought it would make you appear smarter? Heavens forbid! There is already an overabundance of smart people. If anything, they need to be culled drastically.

What is the one book you started reading but could not finish? Anna Karenina.

What is your favourite childhood book or story? Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott.