We're thoroughly enjoying G.W. Dahlquist's ongoing serialisation, and were lucky enough to have a little online chat with Penguin's Samantha Binnie about the project. (Warning – potential plot points revealed, but nothing major. Honest.)

WMT: So, what was the inspiration behind sending out a book in weekly instalments?

SB: Lots of us here at Penguin read this book in manuscript form at the same time, and we'd egg each other on to get to the same point, so we could finally talk about when X fell into the well, or when Y confessed to Z that he pushed X in the first place. So we were all really struck with those water-cooler moments that TV can bring in (especially Lost, of which I'm a baffled but hooked fan) and wondered how we could give readers in the public that same feeling: Is Chang really good at heart? What's the Contessa up to? And so it struck us, like a lovely blow to the head - they want cliff hangers? Let's give 'em cliff hangers. And so the instalments were born.

WMT: Who's behind the look of the covers?

SB: The design for these instalments was done by a young designer called John Gray, in collaboration with our Art Director, John Hamilton.

WMT: Presumably the book's going to be published in a single edition too?

SB: Yup, the entire book will be published as a hardback in January, with an amazing acetate dustjacket.