Adam Johnson, writer of THAT North Korea novel, on his absurd world

THE SUCCESS OF The Orphan Master’s Son (Random House) turned Johnson almost overnight from what he calls a “normal writer” into one with celebrity status.

“North Korea is a topic that people care about around the world, so suddenly I started getting invited everywhere,” says Johnson, a professor of English at Stanford University, in the United States.

But there was a drawback to the international invitations – separated from his family he began to get lonely. The solu­tion? Take them with him.

“Everywhere I go I drag my wife and kids,” says Johnson.

So, when he arrives for the Hong Kong International Literary Festival this week, he’ll do so accompanied by a family entourage of four.

"I’m a writer and [when he disappears into his study] I’ll say to them, ‘I’m going to go off and work’ and it doesn’t seem like work to them, it only seems like I’m missing. It’s only at events like this that they realise maybe what the product of that is,” says Johnson, by Skype from his home in San Francisco.