The International Festival of Authors takes place in Toronto from October 22 until November 2. Over 120 authors will descend on the city for a celebration of the written word; expect soirées, readings, interviews, and parties galore. This is heaven for book nerds and lit lovers.

Throughout the festival, The Ampersand will introduce you to many of the writers taking part in this year's IFOA. We've sent out a questionnaire to the writers and asked them to answer a few questions in order for you to get to know them a little better.

NAME: Arnon Grunberg

BOOKS: The Jewish Messiah

Is this your first time at IFOA?

No I was there in 1997.

What’s your most memorable IFOA memory?

The Russian author Viktor Pelevin who sat in the back of the bus to the Niagara Falls and didn’t say a word to anybody. On the way back this ritual was repeated.

Who is the author coming to IFOA you’re most interested in meeting?

This might sound dubious but I haven’t checked out who are the other authors coming to the festival. I love surprises.

Where do you write?

In my kitchen.

What do you write with?

A laptop.

Do you have a writing routine?

I guess so.

What book do you wish you’d written?

Besides the bible? I don’t know.

Has the Internet helped or hurt your craft?

Neither.

What is your favourite form of procrastination?

Eating dinner. Isn’t sex a form of procrastination as well?

What books are on your bedside table?

I don’t have a bedside table.

Who is your perfect reader?

Perhaps I have a perfect reader but thank God I have never met him or her.

Who are your literary heroes?

I have literary heroes, but I don’t like to mention their names.

What stimulates the writer in you?

The writer in me? Life I guess.

What’s your favourite literary magazine?

I’m afraid I don’t have a favorite literary magazine.

What’s more important, the first chapter or the last?

They are equally important.

Which do you prefer: prologues or epilogues?

Epilogues.

What’s the worst reading of your career?

A reading in Philapdelphia. Nobody showed up. The bookstore owner escorted me to a bar, ordered a beer for me and shortly after disappeared.

Do you ever track your book sales on Amazon.com?

I stopped doing this after I discovered that Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (in English translation) sold better than my second novel in English translation

Who should get the next Nobel Prize in Literature?

Why not Michel Houellebecq?

What book would you give a 15 year old?

The same as a thirty-year old.

What book would you give a 30 year old?

The same as a fifteen-year old.

Who wouldn’t you mind being stuck in an elevator with?

My mother.

What do you do when you finish writing a book?

I take a nap.

What blogs do you read?

Not too many.

What do you think of electronic books like Amazon’s Kindle?

I never used it.

What persistent grammatical or spelling mistake most irks you?

My own.

Should the letter Y be given full-time vowel status?

If this makes people happy yes.

Is there a famous book you haven’t read that you tell people you have?

I stopped doing this after I embarrassed myself too often.