“A pervert, and a madman and a stone cold genius” isn’t a way we often introduce a Festival author, but Carmen Maria Machado’s quote about major new literary star Tony Tulathimutte was too good to resist.

From his Whiting and O. Henry award-winning debut novel Private Citizens to his already cult-status novel-in-stories, Rejection, the Thai-American writer has emerged as one of the sharpest, funniest and most incisive writers about modern life, internet culture, identity and relationships today.

Featuring the viral short story “The Feminist”, and following interlinked lives of characters derailed by rejection of some form, it was hailed as “startlingly good” by The Wall Street Journal and “the year’s feel-bad book” (complimentarily) by The Boston Globe.

Victor Rodger meets him.