One Minute With: Anna Funder, novelist

Where are you now and what can you see?

I'm in a hotel room in Bloomsbury. I can see a lot of mess and outside, a lovely courtyard.

What are you currently reading?

I'm re-reading 'Anna Karenina'; I've also just finished Anne Enright's new book, Orhan Pamuk's essays, 'The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist,' and Ann Patchett's latest novel.

Choose a favourite author, and say why you admire her/him

I'm obsessed with Tolstoy at the moment. The problem with reading 'Anna Karenina' is that everything else just pales. To be so rapidly and completely inside his characters' minds is incredible.

Describe the room where you usually write

I usually rent a room outside the house. I have three children and piles of books. The university [in Sydney] gave me a room for some years. It was a windowless cupboard but I didn't care. I was so happy not to be among the toast rinds at home.

What distracts you from writing?

I have organised my whole life so that I can get to a windowless room or wherever it is, so I don't get distracted.

Which fictional character most resembles you?

I don't think I'm like him but I like [Richard Ford's] Frank Bascombe. I like his tentative, meandering, allusive mind, the gentleness of him, the indecision and the wondering.

What are your readers like when you meet them?

'Stasiland' has had a long and lucky life and its readers vary. People come to me with tattered, beloved copies. It's a set text in schools so there are lots of young people.

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

The real Dora Fabian [on whom 'All That I Am' is based]. I' m very interested in the people who do the right thing. They deepen our understanding of what it means to be human, they show an extraordinary concern that prompts self-destructively brave behaviour.

Anna Funder's debut novel, 'All That I Am', is published by Viking