A History of Insects

"A History of Insects is about a girl of about eight or nine growing up in Pakistan in the days of Empire, getting very friendly with a Pakistani man who works in the household and treating him like a favourite uncle. She keeps a diary of events, but, because she doesn’t want anyone to read it, she writes ‘A History of Insects’ on the cover. She can’t understand the adult world about her, the racism that is endemic, and then, sure enough, a major thing goes wrong and the adults try to blame the Pakistani. She doesn’t understand this, she doesn’t understand the dynamics of infidelity that are going on among the adults, she doesn’t understand anything at all. It’s all very puzzling to her. I think it’s a brilliantly controlled book because you never come out of the character of the child, who’s just looking on the adult world in bafflement. I think what all the books I’ve chosen have got in common is that the child at the centre of them simply doesn’t understand. You’ve got exactly the same sort of situation in The Go-Between."