Imraan Coovadia chatted to Siphiliselwe Makhanya of The Times about his new novel Tales of the Metric System recently.

At the Cape Town launch of the book a few weeks ago, The Book Lounge owner Mervyn Sloman said: “I don’t think anyone in our country has done anything as ambitious or extremely well pulled off.” In this interview Coovadia admits he may have “ruined” his earlier books “by a certain flippancy”, but says with Tales of the Metric System he welcomes comparisons to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, especially her novel Half of a Yellow Sun, which he especially admires.

Read the interview:

Your book has been likened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. Did that surprise you?

It wasn’t too surprising, since I suggested it.

I very much liked the structure and the seriousness of Half of a Yellow Sun.

You’ve said you were unhappy with your first attempts at writing a book in your 20s. How do you feel about the quality of the works that have followed?

I think I may have ruined them by a certain flippancy.

• Keep reading: The Times

Book details

• Tales of the Metric System by Imraan Coovadia
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  EAN: 9781415207239
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