I talk to... RAJORSHI CHAKRABORTI and MYSTERY MR X

age: 33
from: India
type of visitor: regular
drinking: pot of darjeeling tea

I know highly entertaining Indian novelist Raj from a couple of readings we've both attended. His first novel Or The Day Seizes You was shortlisted for a prestigious prize, and his second novel Derangements has recently been accepted for publication in the U.S.

Raj sweeps into the Elephant House hoping for some heavyweight literary discussion. This explains why he's looking not for me but mystery Mr X, a regular in the Elephant House who prefers not to be identified on account of a becoming modesty. Experiencing Raj and Mr X talk literature is like being pleasurably happy-slapped by Jacques Derrida wielding a studded copy of Middlemarch. With relish they set about discussing all the books ever written, while I chip in with my own distinctive slant on literature (“Um, no, haven't read that”; “Or that”; “Er, who?”)

Mr X goes to the toilet - even enigmas have their down-to-earth aspects - and Raj asks me whether a good novel needs to be all trees, or trees and lawn; in other words, does incident need to be set off by reflection, or can it be packed in like a forest? I say something highly intelligent about trees, lawns, valleys, mountains, glaciers. Just want to put that on the record.

Raj is a sentence maker - the language of his novels is endlessly rich and fecund, and hearing him read his work aloud is one of the most enjoyable experiences a reading can provide. He writes short stories too...