(It’s part of a surreptitious scheme to collect genetic material for a side project with Rosie, who is trying to identify her real father.) But Don’s cocktail knowledge, while extremely impressive, is not ‘magic’.

In one of the best scenes in the book, Don appears almost heroic when he manages to remember, and mix, a massive number of cocktails at a function. But it also makes for depth of character, since Simsion makes Don work for his skills. The contrast between Don’s competency in some areas and his ineptitude in others makes for classic comedy. Don’s first date with Rosie is thwarted, for example, by his showing up to a fancy restaurant in a Gore-Tex jacket and then, under stress, proceeding to ‘disarm’ the bouncers with his aikido moves. Simsion was clear that he did not want Don to be the kind of character who ‘helped grow because they met him, which you see in a film like Rain Man.’ Being inside Don’s head (essentially an unreliable narrator) makes for good humour, as the reader can interpret certain social cues, or subtleties of language, that Don misses. ‘I made a very conscious decision that this would be in first person,’ Simsion says, ‘Don is highly functioning enough that we can relate to him.’ Simsion did research into Asperger’s syndrome for The Rosie Project, mainly through first-person accounts of people with Asperger’s, or those living with them. He eventually found a partner, but Simsion says, ‘for a guy who was fit, intelligent, wealthy’, it was a struggle.

Simsion’s friend, too, has had a tough time socially in his life. He’s got an opinion on everything.’ Simsion’s friend also has a particular way of speaking, which the author channelled when he began writing Don: ‘He uses computer words, like “this meal has a fault”, or “I’ll initialise my eating procedure”‘. ‘I’ve known this guy for over 30 years-we go jogging together-and he can be hard work at times. ‘It started off inspired by a friend of mine’, Simsion explains. Social interaction, however, is not so straightforward for Don and although he never acknowledges it, the reader firmly suspects that he exhibits characteristics of Asperger’s syndrome. Don is fit, successful, and possesses a variety of impressive skills. Don Tillman is a professor of genetics at the University of Melbourne, undertaking a self-assigned ‘Wife Project’, a 16-page questionnaire designed to help him find a life partner. ‘Wherever Don goes, chaos will follow’, says the author, Graeme Simsion. The main character in the novel, The Rosie Project, has difficulty understanding social cues.

This feature interview was first published in The Big Issue no.

Author of the rosie project