Writer on the road

David Guterson is not quite sure how many copies have been sold to date of his first novel, Snow Falling on Cedars. "Three to four million," he offers, with more than a shade of self-deprecation in his voice. "I think there are translations in about 26 languages so far." He looks both surprised and uncomfortable with this fact.

Snow Falling on Cedars, which was published in 1995, did indeed sell by the truckload. It's the story of a second-generation American-Japanese fisherman accused of murder, set in north-western America. Lyrical and atmospheric, it's a love story as well as a tale of suspense and, like that other novel with cold white stuff in the title, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, has also been made into a film.

The film, which will be released this autumn, stars Ethan Hawke and Sam Shepherd. It also features - briefly - David Guterson's entire family and most of his neighbours. He lives on an island called Bainbridge, a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle, where he grew up. Bainbridge inspired the setting for Snow Falling on Cedars, and some of the film was shot there on location.

"Until 20 years ago Bainbridge was rural, full of strawberry farms. There's 20,000 people living there now, but when we moved there 15 years ago there were still only about seven or eight thousand people."

Guterson has just published his second novel, East of the Mountains. This one focuses on Dr Ben Givens, a widower dying of colonic cancer, who sets out on a journey east from Seattle. He intends it to be his last journey; to fake his death along the way. But the journey turns out to be far more of an inward one than one measured in miles.

"I've been living in Bainbridge for 15 years, but I'm from Seattle," he explains. "So the new book is set in the other area of the American landscape I'm most familiar with. And I know that my next novel - which I don't know anything about yet, except that I'm definitely going to write one - will be set in Washington."

Guterson has just finished a week-long reading tour of Britain, ending at the festival in Hay-on-Wye. Travelling with his wife and six-year-old daughter, they're all in Ireland for the first time. "I told my publishers I wanted Ireland to be my last stop," he says. Why? "Because it's green and magical and romantic, isn't it? And we're going to rent a car and drive west."

The whole time he was writing the first novel, he was also working as a teacher in Bainbridge. Sometime after the success of that novel became evident, he gave up teaching for full-time writing. "Like Roddy Doyle," this reporter says. Guterson looks blank. "Roddy who?" he inquires politely.

His favourite writer, whom he hasn't yet met, is E. Annie Proulx. He whistles his admiration for her. "Every sentence she writes is interesting," he says. "The only other writer for me who'd come near that would be Cormac MacCarthy. But there's something in his sensibility that puts me off."

Although now very well off, Guterson prefers a modest lifestyle. He marked the success of Snow Falling on Cedars with two new cars: "new cars that work," he stresses. "The old ones drove me mad, they were always breaking down. But the new cars aren't flash; they just work properly."

Work is a word that recurs several times in the conversation. "I've been away about 10 days now," he says, "and already I want to get back to an orderly life. I'm happiest when I'm working, and the days have a routine." His first novel took years. The second took five. By that reckoning, expect David Guterson's third novel about 2 1/2 years from now.

East of the Mountains by David Guterson is published by Bloomsbury at £16.99 in UK