Peter Mountford, author of 'A Young Man's Guide To Late Capitalism'. Photo: Jennifer Mountford.

In the current climate of economic tension and procedural irregularity, it’s remarkable that more writers haven’t set their novels against the backdrop of the financial crisis. After all, the Great Depression also produced some Great Literature – particularly John Steinbeck’s enduring portrayal of the era.

To date our new depression has yet to find its creative voice, but with his debut novel, A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism, Peter Mountford has staked a convincing claim. Following the trials of Gabriel de Boya -  a recent graduate who is sent to Bolivia by an unscrupulous hedge fund to gather information – A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism manages to be thrilling, hilarious, true to life, and undeniably of its time. The Bolivian setting also brings to mind Graham Greene and the political thrillers of John le Carre, as Gabriel stumbles through one of the most volatile periods in Bolivia’s history: the election of Evo Morales.

The fact that Peter Mountford also manages to weave a love story into the mix is testament to his writing ability, and the strength of his vision. For some A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism will be a strong indictment of our unscrupulous financial institutions – for others it will present itself as a passionate South American love story. The one thing everyone will agree on is that it stays in your thoughts far beyond its final pages.

We spoke to Peter Mountford shortly after the release of A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism, and asked him a few questions about his travels, his influences, and his current home in Seattle.

Dan Coxon: I know you’ve traveled a lot, and it shows in your writing. Did you consciously want to set your first novel overseas? Why Bolivia in particular?

Peter Mountford: Because I’ve traveled a lot, most of my writing concerns people living in or visiting foreign countries. It’s not a conscious thing, but I suppose I think that when you’re away from your comfort-zone, your home, you have a slightly heightened perception of things, and it casts your own culture, your circumstances, in a radically new light, so it can be quite an awakening. I like having that psychological space as a kind of foundation for a story. That change in perception is all the more true if the place is extremely different, like Bolivia, rather than, say, England.

Bolivia’s also the poorest country in South America, and it’s a bit intense, you know, a bit too hardcore for most people. Not a big tourist destination. So I liked that. And it’s gorgeous. And, finally, and maybe most importantly, Bolivia’s history is a near perfect example for the overall experience of countries that were colonized and brutalized by the Europeans. Their history is heartbreaking. It’s also occasionally bizarre beyond belief—they lost their coastline in a war with Chile over bat guano, which Bolivia wanted to tax (it contains a useful ingredient in gunpowder). There are countless other utterly surreal milestones. But beneath it all there’s a harrowing history of Northern-hemisphere-dwelling people, mostly Spanish—although the US certainly did its part during the Cold War, in particular—siphoning natural resources from the land without properly compensating the Bolivian people. In Bolivia it’s called “El Saqueo”—the sacking.

DC: That combination of travel and politics reminds me a lot of Graham Greene. Was he an influence on your work? Which writers have influenced you?

PM: Yes, Graham Greene absolutely was a huge influence. In many ways, I more or less aspire to write like he did—both the so-called diversions and the weirder stuff. He was obsessed with God, seemed incapable of not writing about God. I think I’m similarly obsessed with money, how it operates in our planet and in our minds, I just find it endlessly fascinating. Other writers include Deborah Eisenberg, Milan Kundera, J.M. Coetzee. Nabakov. And scores of others, of course. The list could go on for days. I’m re-reading Jess Walter’s The Financial Lives of Poets now, and he’s incredible.

DC: The financial aspect of the book seems very topical right now. Was this a topic that you specifically wanted to address, or one that sprang out of your characters and story?

PM: I set out hoping to write a book about someone who worked on the inside of the financial community. That was the seed. I had Bolivia and I had that. It was early 2007, mind you, prior to the financial crisis. At the time, I’d recently published a story, which I had really enjoyed writing, about a guy who worked for a hedge fund and was on assignment in Ecuador. It felt very fresh to me. Even though it was before the financial crisis, it seemed strange to me that no one else was writing about this material in a way that seemed basically realistic and character-driven.

DC: Gabriel is an interesting protagonist: part tragic hero, part selfish opportunist, part comic figure. How did your debut come to have such an unusual leading man?

PM: Well, I’m reluctant to admit that I based Gabriel slightly on myself—or a version of me from my mid-twenties—since he can be quite an asshole. I drew on other people, too. Some of his backstory is lifted from an ex-girlfriend of mine, namely the whole thing about his grandfather being killed by Pinochet and his mother becoming a kind of political refugee in the Soviet Union. That was all lifted pretty directly from her life.

DC: Having said that you’ve traveled a lot, you’re currently based here in Seattle. Why the Northwest? How have you found the Seattle scene?

PM: I came to Seattle for the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Washington. And, as you mentioned, before that I traveled endlessly. I was 28 years old, this was in 2004, and I’d never owned furniture, never had a house plant, or a pet. But I just adored Seattle for a lot of reasons and so I stayed. I met my wife here. We bought a house. Now I have a cat, I have house plants. We even have a baby. It’s a proper grownup life.

The literary scene in Seattle is amazing. Between organizations like the Hugo House, 836 Seattle, Seattle Arts and Lectures—and then there’s funding for writers from 4Culture, Artist Trust, and the City of Seattle. Incredible independent bookstores, of course, and one of the coolest libraries in the country. For someone who likes writing, it’s heaven. Moreover, there are just heaps of superb writers, so if you’re the kind of writer who likes to hang out with other writers and talk shop—which I am—it’s the best.

DC: What can we expect to see from you next?

PM: I recently finished a draft of my second novel, which I’m now calling The Dismal Science, and which tells the story of a minor character from A Young Man’s Guide… he’s this middle-aged Italian guy named Vincenzo D’Orsi. Vincenzo starts off the book as a vice president at the World Bank, but he then torpedoes his career very publicly, causing a giant scandal. Afterward, he has to try to rebuild his life, but he’s a very impulsive and weirdly self- destructive person. It’s very much about the fragile nature of identity, how easily it can fall apart. And then I’m writing a book, a bit more of a thriller, which is set in Sri Lanka at the peak of their civil war.

A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism is available now from all good bookstores, and from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt website, priced $15.95.

Peter Mountford will be reading from his book and signing copies at Elliott Bay Books, Seattle, on Saturday May 7, 2011, at 5:00pm. Check with the store for further details. He will also be appearing at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park on May 27, 2011, at 6:30pm.