Mateo Askaripour | 'The lines are intentionally blurred, which puts the responsibility on the reader to decide what’s what'

On publication in January, Iranian-Jamaican  Brooklynite Mateo Askaripour’s Black Buck became an instant New York Times bestseller. Described as “a crackling, satirical début novel”, and informed by the author’s own experiences in the tech world, the book has been compared to The Great Gatsby (NPR) and comes with the endorsement of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead, who called it “a high-wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy”. We spoke to Askaripour about sales, craft, liberation and writing for a Black readership.