The Book Show: Recent Episodes
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Two historical novels with colonialism as their backdrop: one by the famous UK writer Zadie Smith and the other a debut novel by Fijian Australian author, Nilima Rao. And Molly Schmidt shares the story that was bubbling inside her since she was a teenager.
Former Booker Prize winner Anne Enright says she's drawn to life's contradictions and in her latest The Wren, The Wren she explores the complicated, messy relationships at the heart of one family. Also, Marija Peričić on one man's love of a dead woman, and Laura Elizabeth Woollett's changing relationship with her hometown, Perth.
Chris Womersley exposes the dark side of suburbia in his sixth novel Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Maxine Beneba Clarke shares the joy of poetry for young readers and Zeynab Gamieldien explores the lives of members of a university Muslim Students' Association in her debut novel.
Australian author Kate Grenville reflects on her lifetime of writing and how accepting failure Kate Grenville reflects on a lifetime of writing and how accepting failure has been key to her success, and Caribbean author Kevin Jared Hosein on his devastating novel Hungry Ghosts.
Since 2016 Jane Harper has published five bestselling crime novels including The Dry and The Lost Man. Her latest novel Exiles sees a return of financial crimes investigator Aaron Falk but Jane says it will be the last time he has a starring role in her books. So what's next for Jane Harper?
American author Ann Patchett believes contentment is a radical idea in today's busy world and in her latest novel Tom Lake reflects on the joy of stillness. Also when Tracy Sorensen's novel about cancer, The Vitals, was published Tracy was given the terrible news that her own cancer has re-emerged. She is now undergoing chemotherapy while spruiking her book.
Stories of redemption and healing: Canadian author Patrick deWitt's latest novel The Librarianist is about a lonely, former librarian. Claire takes a walk in Perth bushland with WA author Josh Kemp to discuss his dark and feral novel and Indigenous poet Ali Cobby Eckermann on the healing power of nature.
Shankari Chandran has won this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award for her third novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, a Trojan horse of a novel that lures you in with the promise of a cosy read but is also about racism and trauma.
Anna Funder's fourth book Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life interrogates why George Orwell's wife, Eileen Blair has been written out of his biography. Also debut author Kerry Taylor and her sensitive portrayal of a North Queensland jockey who lived his life as a man while carrying a secret about his identity until his death in 1975.
American author Richard Ford says, "I write for the audience today" and not for immortality. Now 79, and with Be Mine, his fifth Frank Bascombe novel, Ford also shares his ideas about death and dying and why he's not scared. Also, New Zealand author Stephanie Johnson on her novel Kind featuring villainous and duplicitous characters.
Tracey Lien watched Judge Judy as a child and Nina Wan learnt English at 10 when she migrated from China to Australia. Now they have both published entertaining and moving debut novels: All That's Left Unsaid and The Albatross.
Indigenous writer, lawyer and filmmaker Larissa Behrendt speaks to writers Anita Heiss and Ellen van Neerven about the past and the future of First Nations writing in Australia.
Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order). The shortlist was announced on 20 June; the winner will be announced on 25 July.
A double bill of Booker Prize winners with reigning champion Shehan Karunatilaka and previous winner Damon Galgut.
American author Lisa See's Lady Tan's Circle of Women set during the Chinese Ming dynasty, Robert Gott's comedy of manners, Saman Shad's contribution to the rom-com and a tour of Mark Brandi's writing space.
Bestselling Australian author Kate Morton's personal story of home and her latest novel Homecoming, Stephanie Bishop's psycho thriller The Anniversary and Zoya Patel's story of a migrant family torn apart by a romantic relationship which took inspiration from her own, difficult experience.
Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver and British author Max Porter turn their attention to lost boys failed by society.
My Own Sweet Time was a memoir said to be written by Wanda Koolmatrie, a member of the Aboriginal stolen generation. But it was a hoax and this final episode of Fakes and Frauds explores its long lasting impacts. Plus, American author Don Winslow explains why he's stepping away from writing fiction.
Richard Powers, Hannah Kent, Elif Shafak and Michael Christie all use trees in their fiction to touch on themes of roots and connections, growth and rebirth, the family tree. But as our climate changes, is the way novelists use trees also changing to make the natural world the star of the story?
The latest episode in our Fakes and Frauds series is about the biggest recent book scandal of all, the Helen Demidenko affair. Also Shirley Le discusses her debut Funny Ethnics.
Cannibalism, telepathy and celibacy are just some of the false claims Marlo Morgan made in her 1990s new age hit, Mutant Message Down Under, meet the Indigenous activists who campaigned against the book in the latest episode of Fakes and Frauds. And Eleanor Catton on her Macbeth inspired satire, Birnam Wood.
Find out how to catch a con-artist in this episode of Fakes and Frauds that delves into the fake memoir of Norma Khouri. And American author Curtis Sittenfeld on the Saturday Night Live inspiration for her latest novel, Romantic Comedy.
Find out how to catch a plagiarist in the first of our series Fakes and Frauds - the book scandals that rocked Australia. And Australian prize winning author, Alexis Wright on her new novel Praiseworthy, an epic Aboriginal fable.
Australian authors Chloe Hooper, Alice Pung and Larissa Behrendt reveal the complex and complicated mums in their lives and on the page.
British Booker winner Julian Barnes's latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, is about a life-changing teacher and he tells the audience at the Sydney Writers Festival that "you become a writer by not being the child of a writer".
The smell of books and Italian cooking are celebrated in the latest novels by bestselling Australian authors Pip Williams and Dominic Smith. Pip Williams' follow up to The Dictionary of Lost Words revisits Oxford as the setting for her wartime drama, The Bookbinder of Jericho. And Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto explores the people who choose to stay in crumbling Italian ghost towns.
Indian author Anindita Ghose on life after Vogue, her friendship with Jonathan Franzen, and the joy of killing the patriarch on page one.
Irish writers John Boyne, Esther Freud and Louise Kennedy share stories of the pub, the role of the church and whether there's such a thing as an Irish voice.
Literary titan, Margaret Atwood on the death of her beloved husband, the influence of George Orwell and the pleasures of ageing. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood. Also, another Canadian writer Jessica Johns on her debut, Bad Cree.
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Bestselling British author Samantha Shannon celebrates women, love and desire in her latest fantasy novel, A Day of Fallen Night, Cate Kennedy takes a deep dive into the short story and Ronnie Scott on why he persisted with his second novel Shirley.
For Sydney WorldPride, we celebrate queer writers telling queer stories – the funny, the heartbreaking and the spooky. We’ve searched The Book Show archive to bring you highlights from Andrew Sean Greer, Val McDermid, Alan Hollinghurst, Jennifer Mills, S.J Norman, S.L Lim and Holden Sheppard.
A trio of books by women about bodies, ballet, grief and working mothers. Meg Howrey on They're Going to Love You, Inga Simpson on Kath O'Connor's posthumous debut novel Inheritance, and Dinuka McKenzie on the physical pain of being a breastfeeding mother returning to the police force.
Indian writer Deepti Kapoor takes on corruption, wealth and poverty in India in her novel The Age of Vice, Michelle Johnston takes you deep in to the basement of the Perth hospital where she works and writes and American author Kevin Wilson's "book for prudish teens", Now is Not the Time to Panic.
Two very different crime fiction writers, Australian Indigenous author Julie Janson and Scottish writer Stuart MacBride imagine grisly scenarios in their books Madukka: The River Serpent and The Dead of Winter. Also Briony Stewart's re-imagining of Frente's 90s hit song Accidentally Kelly Street as a children's book.
Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Jennings have been very successful writers for 40 years and although they're very different writers - Bret Easton Ellis is best known for American Psycho and Paul Jennings for his children's books - they both discuss how they've navigated the benefits and pitfalls of fame.
It's been 40 years since Tim Winton published his first novel, An Open Swimmer. Today he is the beloved writer of 29 books, a four-time Miles Franklin winner (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and an incomparable observer of the Western Australian landscape. For the Big Weekend of Books, he joined The Book Show's Claire Nichols and a live audience at the ABC studios in Perth.
Marlon James' African Game of Thrones, Markus Zusak gets your fanmail and Meg Mason's surprise success with Sorrow and Bliss.
Booker winner Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr explore queer love and identity in their fiction.
Writers (and bookworms) Craig Silvey, Tony Birch, and Dervla McTiernan talk about their reading lives, in this special episode recorded at the Perth Festival Writers Weekend.
Ruth Ozeki, Shehan Karunatilaka and Jennifer Down share the backstory to their award winning books.
Australian novelist Heather Rose lost her brother in a tragic accident when she was just 12 years old. In her memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here, she shares how her grief and curiosity led her on a lifelong search for the extraordinary. Also, Wiradjuri activist-turned-author Yvonne Weldon on her love story Sixty-Seven Days and Thomas Keneally tackles a tricky subject in his historic novel Fanatic Heart.
City-saving superheroes, cheese-bingeing record store employees and a chemist turned TV chef with NK Jemisin, Katharine Pollock and Bonnie Garmus.
Booker winner George Saunders on his short story addiction, Inga Simpson on the great Australian cricket novel and pandemic fiction for kids.
Alex Miller and Patricia Cornwell talk about ageing and fiction and their novels A Brief Affair and Livid, and we explore the line between fact and fiction with historical novelists Jock Serong, Eleanor Limprecht and Sienna Brown.
Actor Joseph Paterson shines a spotlight on Black British history, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's Ottoman Empire saga and Australian Fiona McFarlane goes in search of a lost boy in 1883.
Actor Joseph Paterson shines a spotlight on Black British history, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's Ottoman Empire saga and Australian Fiona McFarlane goes in search of a lost boy in 1883.
Graham Norton, Diana Reid and Holly Throsby discuss why they enjoy writing about women in fiction. Graham Norton's fourth novel Forever Home is about a woman saying a slow goodbye to her partner (and wondering about a weird smell in the basement). Diana Reid's second novel Seeing Other People unapologetically explores the anxieties of young, educated women in Sydney and musician Holly Throsby's novel Clarke is partly inspired by the case of Lynette Dawson, who famously went missing from her family home in the 1980s.
Graham Norton, Diana Reid and Holly Throsby discuss why they enjoy writing about women in fiction. Graham Norton's fourth novel Forever Home is about a woman saying a slow goodbye to her partner (and wondering about a weird smell in the basement). Diana Reid's second novel Seeing Other People unapologetically explores the anxieties of young, educated women in Sydney and musician Holly Throsby's novel Clarke is partly inspired by the case of Lynette Dawson, who famously went missing from her family home in the 1980s.
Ian Rankin's detective John Rebus has been part of the literary world for 35 years and now his 24th Rebus novel has just landed, A Heart Full of Headstones. Discover the hard centre of Victoria Hannan's new novel Marshmallow and find out what an ear prostitute is with Singaporean writer Clarissa Goenawan's Watersong.
Barbara Kingsolver explains her connection to Charles Dickens and why her latest Demon Copperhead is set in Appalachia, USA. Sophie Cunningham's almost 20 year grapple with her latest book This Devastating Fever and apples, orchards and rabbits in Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott's third novel, Limberlost.
Shehan Karunatilaka is the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize for his book The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. He spoke to The Book Show about setting the novel during the Sri Lankan Civil War and the importance of bearing witness to its horrors.
Three literary superstars share the inspiration for their books and how to give a character a good ending: Holly Ringland, Elizabeth Strout and Jane Harper. They discuss their books The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, Oh William! and Exiles.
Former winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction Kamila Shamsie and Booker Prize-shortlisted author NoViolet Bulawayo reflect on the demise of dictators in their respective countries Pakistan and Zimbabwe and the impact this has had on their lives. Shamsie's new novel is Best of Friends, while Bulawayo has been shortlisted for her book Glory. Also, Australian author Chris Womersley revisits 90s haunts in inner city Melbourne for his gritty novel The Diplomat.
Finding joy in fiction with Pulitzer winner Andrew Sean Greer whose lovable character Arthur Less returns in Less is Lost and Craig Silvey's Runt, a book for children and adults young at heart. And the joy of being on the Booker Prize shortlist with Shehan Karunatilaka whose satire The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is set in 1989 during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Can a book predict the future? AM Homes' latest novel The Unfolding follows a group of Republicans who plot to take over the government, but Homes says it was written well before the January 6th Capitol riots. Meanwhile, the oldest-ever Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Alan Garner evokes an enigmatic and mysterious world in his book Treacle Walker, and Tracey Lien's impressive debut All That's Left Unsaid explores the death of star student in Cabramatta's Vietnamese community.
Shortlisted Booker author Percival Everett kicks off our Booker Prize coverage with a discussion of The Trees and former Booker winner Ian McEwan reveals that his latest novel, Lessons, is his most personal work and certainly his longest. Also, Jay Carmichael explains how he went beyond the archive for his second novel, Marlo, on gay relationships in 1950s Australia.
Maggie O'Farrell says her latest novel The Marriage Portrait came to her in "a lightning bolt moment". The book honours the short life of the 16th century Duchess Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, who was rumoured to be murdered by her husband. Also, Australian author Robert Drewe's resurrection of the sporting hero you've never heard of in Nimblefoot and Zaheda Ghani's debut Pomegranate and Fig, a book that's been in her mind since childhood.
American humourist Sloane Crosley explores the dating scene in New York City, but with a twist, in her novel Cult Classic. Also, Neela Janakiramanan takes a break from her hospital rounds to tell you about her Australian medical drama The Registrar and Siang Lu takes on kung fu, comedy, and the history of cinema in The Whitewash.
From growing up surrounded by homophobia in a small Tasmanian town to getting married in 2021, award winning comedian and now writer Hannah Gadsby shares what it is like to be queer, autistic and at the top of her game.
Author of Room, Emma Donoghue questions the zealotry of monks in her latest novel, Haven, set on an inhospitable island in 7th century Ireland (Star Wars fans will recognise this island too!). Also, Pirooz Jafari on his gentle novel, Forty Nights, about war and displacement, and Grace Chan imagines a future dominated by virtual reality in Every Version of You.
It's been 40 years since Tim Winton published his first novel, An Open Swimmer. Today he is the beloved writer of 29 books, a four-time Miles Franklin winner (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and an incomparable observer of the Western Australian landscape. For the Big Weekend of Books, he joined The Book Show's Claire Nichols and a live audience at the ABC studios in Perth.
Women's Prize for Fiction winner, Ruth Ozeki, is also a Zen Buddhist priest and explains how this practice shapes her writing. Also, British crime writer, Ann Cleeves sets her tenth Vera novel, The Rising Tide, on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne where Christianity first came to the UK.
Richard Powers, Hannah Kent, Elif Shafak and Michael Christie all use trees in their fiction to touch on themes of roots and connections, growth and rebirth, the family tree. But as our climate changes, is the way novelists use trees also changing to make the natural world the star of the story?
For ABC Arts Week, we celebrate literary events at your local bookstore with a couple of conversations with Irish Australian queens of crime: bestselling Irish born crime novelist, Dervla McTiernan discusses her move away from the Cormac Reilly series for her new standalone, The Murder Rule. Also, Aoife Clifford discusses her latest When We Fall and the ethics of true crime in fiction.
Bestselling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty, shares stories from her childhood and how growing up in a big family influenced the theme of sibling rivalry in her latest book, Apples Never Fall. This conversation was recorded at the Castlemaine Town Hall, Victoria, for a joint event between the Castlemaine State Festival and The Wheeler Centre.
Jessie Burton wasn't finished with the main characters in her bestselling debut novel The Miniaturist and returns to the 17th century Dutch setting for the sequel, The House of Fortune. Also, we visit Torres Strait Island writer and advocate for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Thomas Mayor, at his home in Darwin and Sulari Gentill explains the origins of her playful metafictional crime novel, The Woman in the Library.
Ahead of the announcement of the winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's most prestigious book prize, join the shortlisted authors Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Michelle De Kretser, Jennifer Down, Alice Pung and Michael Winkler to find out about their writing rituals, the importance of place in their fiction and how their novels speak to Australia now.
British author Benjamin Myers says he likes to be on the margins as a writer and his latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle, is about the crop circles that appeared in 1989 in the English countryside and explores the type of people who created them. Also Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell explain their genre-bending book, Mothertongues and Noongar author, Claire G Coleman's mysterious and unsettling book, Enclave, set in a walled Australian city.
For NAIDOC Week, three Aboriginal writers who are grappling with the past: Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, Tony Birch explores his family history in Dark as Last Night and SJ Norman's, Permafrost, a collection of haunted short stories.
American author Madeline Miller has found a new audience for her prize winning novel Circe on #BookTok and now she has a new offering based on Greek mythology called Galatea.
Also, Lauren Chater's real life inspiration for her third historical novel, The Winter Dress and Carrie Cox asks whether relationships are really meant to go the distance in her latest novel, So Many Beats of the Heart.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brookes says she "didn't grow up as a horse obsessed girl" but rather her interest in horses was a result of a midlife crisis which led her to the history of a famous American thoroughbred that was the inspiration for her latest novel, simply called Horse.
Also, John Purcell talks about his second official novel, The Lessons, and reveals his brief career writing erotica and Karen Manton explains the inspiration for her evocative novel, The Curlew's Eye, set in remote Northern Territory.
Meg Mason thought her second novel, Sorrow and Bliss wouldn't be published, it was and is now shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, which will be announced this week.
Also Australian writer Ennis Ćehić on his playful collection, Sadvertising, and American writer Leila Motley's debut novel, Nightcrawling, which she wrote at just 17.
Booker-winning writer Damon Galgut wasn’t always aware of his privilege, growing up as a white man in South Africa. Instead, he describes a ‘slow-shifting of consciousness’, that culminated in The Promise, a book he calls ‘my most South African novel'.
Also, The Rosie Project author, Graeme Simsion, gives a tour of his writing space and Hilde Hinton on her second novel, A Solitary Walk on the Moon.
British Booker winner Julian Barnes's latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, is about a life-changing teacher and he tells the audience at the Sydney Writers Festival that "you become a writer by not being the child of a writer".
Canadian author, Emily St John Mandel, says the pandemic changed her as a writer. Her latest, Sea of Tranquility, was written during lockdown in New York and while it's a standalone novel, also features links to her previous books, Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel.
Also, Goan-Anglo-Indian Australian writer Michelle Cahill's novel, Daisy and Woolf, is a literary homage and post-colonial critique of Virginia Woolf’s classic Mrs Dalloway.
Here Goes Nothing is the last in what Steve Toltz calls his trilogy of fear which began with A Fraction of the Whole. This latest book is narrated by a ghost who discovers there is an afterlife hierarchy and he is at the bottom.
Also, Irish writer Audrey Magee on her second novel The Colony which is colonisation in microcosm and Toni Jordan's sixth novel, Dinner with the Schnabels, billed as a family dramedy.
Booker winner Douglas Stuart's second novel, Young Mungo, is again set in gritty working class Glasgow, but also explores blossoming queer love. And, two debut novels also exploring queer identity with Indyana Schneider's 28 Questions and Omar Sakr's Son of Sin.
We meet some of the most remarkable mothers in recent fiction, with authors including Dawn French, Douglas Stuart, Anne Enright, Lisa Taddeo, Larissa Behrendt and Alice Pung.
These literary mums can be loving, neglectful and sometimes cruel – and they often reveal something about the author’s own relationship with their mother or children.
Other featured authors include George Haddad, Craig Sherborne, Lydia Kiesling and Kate Mildenhall.
We meet some of the most remarkable mothers in recent fiction, with authors including Dawn French, Douglas Stuart, Anne Enright, Lisa Taddeo, Larissa Behrendt and Alice Pung.
These literary mums can be loving, neglectful and sometimes cruel – and they often reveal something about the author’s own relationship with their mother or children.
Other featured authors include George Haddad, Craig Sherborne, Lydia Kiesling and Kate Mildenhall.
Jennifer Down doesn't turn away from uncomfortable truths in her Stella Prize shortlisted novel, Bodies of Light, about the systemic failures of the residential and foster care systems in the 70s and 80s. Also, we revisit our interview with Jonathan Franzen who talks about faith and family, which are two themes in his latest book, Crossroads.
Jennifer Down doesn't turn away from uncomfortable truths in her Stella Prize shortlisted novel, Bodies of Light, about the systemic failures of the residential and foster care systems in the 70s and 80s. Also, we revisit our interview with Jonathan Franzen who talks about faith and family, which are two themes in his latest book, Crossroads.
Hannah Kent reflects on her time as an exchange student in Iceland and how it allowed her to pursue writing, and Michelle Johnston tells Claire Nichols about her novel, Dustfall, for the international literary event called Literature Live Around the World which was hosted by the Bergen International Literary Festival in Norway.
Hannah Kent reflects on her time as an exchange student in Iceland and how it allowed her to pursue writing, and Michelle Johnston tells Claire Nichols about her novel, Dustfall, for the international literary event called Literature Live Around the World which was hosted by the Bergen International Literary Festival in Norway.
Pulitzer-prize winner, Jennifer Egan, is "interested in the ways technology interacts with our psychologies". Her new novel, The Candy House, plays with a deliciously dangerous idea: what if you could externalise your memory?
And two books set in small town Australia: Mandy Beaumont's The Furies and Yumna Kassab's provocatively titled Australiana.
Pulitzer-prize winner, Jennifer Egan, is "interested in the ways technology interacts with our psychologies". Her new novel, The Candy House, plays with a deliciously dangerous idea: what if you could externalise your memory?
And two books set in small town Australia: Mandy Beaumont's The Furies and Yumna Kassab's provocatively titled Australiana.
The Icelandic sagas have long been a source of fascination for Kári Gíslason and his latest novel, The Sorrow Stone, gives new life to an old Icelandic saga.
Also disability advocate and writer Liel Bridgford explores disability representation in fiction with Kay Kerr and Jessica Walton, and Robert Lukins on his second novel Loveland set in Nebraska about two women who've experienced controlling marriages and asks whether trauma is inherited.
The Icelandic sagas have long been a source of fascination for Kári Gíslason and his latest novel, The Sorrow Stone, gives new life to an old Icelandic saga.
Also disability advocate and writer Liel Bridgford explores disability representation in fiction with Kay Kerr and Jessica Walton, and Robert Lukins on his second novel Loveland set in Nebraska about two women who've experienced controlling marriages and asks whether trauma is inherited.
For his latest novel, Moon Witch, Spider King, Marlon James says "I was trying to connect with my own mythological history as a black man in an African diaspora, in a former British colony".
Also, friendship in fiction with Susan Johnson, Juhea Kim and Paige Clark, and Perth writer David Whish-Wilson's writing space.
'I have a full and beautiful life', says Irish writer Marian Keyes, 'The only thing I can't do is drink'. And the experience of addiction and recovery is something she's given to the main character in her book Again, Rachel, a sequel to Rachel's Holiday.
Also, Michael Trant writes a book on his tractor, Jane Caro explores coercive control in The Mother and Rhett Davis's debut novel, Hovering.
Karen Joy Fowler wades into American Civil War history and the story of John Wilkes Booth, the first presidential assassin, in her novel Booth.
Also, Kalkadoon author Megan Albany's comic novel about death and Lloyd Jones's latest allegorical novel, The Fish.
Craig Silvey, Tony Birch and Dervla McTiernan share their love of reading from the Perth Festival Writers Weekend. They share their formative childhood reads, favourite first lines and give some writing advice along the way.
Isabel Allende says her latest novel, Violeta, was inspired by her mother but also by Allende's own life. Also, readers who send fan mail and the writers who reply with Markus Zusak, Anita Heiss, John Marsden and Krissy Kneen, and disability in fiction with Joseph Elliott and Kit Kavanagh-Ryan.
Our Country Friends is a funny book set in upstate New York during the pandemic by US writer Gary Shteyngart and Xochitl Gonzalez looks at the city through a Puerto Rican lens in Olga Dies Dreaming.
From young love and forbidden romance to break-ups and long-term relationships: hear authors wax lyrical about love. Writers include David Nicholls, Amy Bloom, Tayari Jones, Howard Jacobson, Monica Ali, Curtis Sittenfeld, Anita Heiss, Vivian Pham, C.S Pacat and Daniel de Lorne.
Jason Mott's Hell of a Book lives up to its name: it has a snappy title, an eccentric narrator and a Nicolas Cage cameo.
Also, two authors who explore older Australian's experiences with Liz Byrski's At the End of the Day and Shankari Chandran's Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens.
Almost 20 years after Brick Lane, Monica Ali is still unpicking the ins and outs of relationships in her novel, Love Marriage.
Also, Skimming Stones by Maria Papas was directly inspired by her daughter's own illness and Jack Ellis challenges a myth about childhood in Home and Other Hiding Places.
In her new book To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara asks what would America be if its foundations were different. Also Katherine Collette's ode to Toastmasters in The Competition and Craig Sherborne's difficult mother in A Grass Hotel.
Two masters of the form, George Saunders and Tsisti Dangarembga, share lessons from their extensive writing careers.
The Booker-winning author Pat Barker's preoccupation with who's allowed to speak and who isn't continues in The Women of Troy, a sequel to The Silence of the Girls, her exploration of women in the Ancient Greek classics.
Also, New Animal author, Ella Baxter, on how her writing relates to her artistic practice, and the final in Michael Mohammed Ahmad's trilogy featuring his alter-ego, Bani Adam, with The Other Half of You.
Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro introduces us to his latest creation in Klara and the Sun, and we also take a look at how authors name their heroes and villains with six writers including Tony Birch, Tabitha Bird and Mirandi Riwoe.
"It's such a contradiction in life how much we learn from suffering," says actor and writer Ethan Hawke who tells The Book Show about his fourth novel A Bright Ray of Darkness. Darkness and light is a recurring theme in our other author interviews with American Patricia Lockwood and Australian Jessie Tu.
International travel has been off the cards for many in the last two years, this literary world tour might be the next best thing.
Kate Grenville, Craig Silvey, Susanna Clarke, Nardi Simpson, Damon Galgut, Christos Tsiolkas and more on their prize-winning books. Plus, former winners Colson Whitehead, Bernardine Evaristo and Anthony Doerr on the impact of winning a major prize.
Unlike many authors, Jodi Picoult decided to take on COVID-19 in Wish You Were Here, because Picoult says, "we need to remember everything we got wrong while we were learning what this disease is".
Also, the salvation of poetry in Brendan Cowell's Plum and The Kindness of Birds by Filipino Australian writer Merlinda Bobis.
Scottish crime writer Val McDermid's new book, 1979, is the beginning of a new series inspired by her own experience as a newspaper journalist in the 1970s and 80s. Also, to celebrate International Day of People With Disability we have some recommendations for speculative fiction novels that centre disabled characters, and
"I never sunk into complacency in any aspect of my life." Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo on her latest book, Manifesto, about her unconventional path to success.
Also, Stella Prize winner Charlotte Wood on cultivating a rich inner life in The Luminous Solution, and the 2021 Nobel Laureate for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, on how he became a writer.
"I can't separate the erotic and the sensual from the beautiful." Melbourne Prize for Literature winner, Christos Tsiolkas on his latest novel 7½ which explores what it means to be a writer and the role of beauty in fiction.
Also, Rebecca Starford and Steven Carroll on the real life characters that inspired their World War II novels, The Imitator and O.
Author of Burial Rites and The Good People, Hannah Kent says she wanted to look at human connection in her latest novel Devotion. It's another historical novel but is a love story about two girls whose love transcends rules, religion, and even crosses an ocean.
Also, the British author, Susanna Clarke, was the winner of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction for her novel Piranesi. She talks about writing the book while living with a chronic illness.
"Everyday could be a day of unthinkable richness if we just keep still, attend and be present to what the place that we live in wants to do." Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers talks about the power of wilderness to centre his characters in Bewilderment, his Booker Prize-shortlisted novel.
Also, two time winner of the Miles Franklin, Michelle de Kretser, on her new book, Scary Monsters which is a book in two parts, with two front covers, and is an exploration of the migrant experience.
"The journey is the oldest story known to humanity", says bestselling American author Amor Towles, whose third book is based on this archetypal narrative and takes a group of lost boys on an unpredictable road trip in The Lincoln Highway.
Also, Booker Prize shortlisted author Anuk Arudpragasam with A Passage North and Vietnamese American Monique Truong's exploration of Lafcadio Hearn, the 19th century Creole cookbook author and Japanese folktale collector, in The Sweetest Fruits.
Liane Moriarty's latest novel is Apples Never Fall and as another TV adaptation of her work wraps us, she is adamant she will never write books with a view to adaptation.
Also, British-Turkish Elif Shafak's inventive The Island of Missing Trees set in a divided Cyprus and Booker shortlisted author Damon Galgut's equally inventive, The Promise.
In 2019, John Boyne faced huge online backlash for a book he wrote about a trans teenager and he's channelled that experience in to his new comic novel, The Echo Chamber.
Also, Booker Prize shortlisted author Nadifa Mohamed on The Fortune Men and Emily Bitto’s Wild Abandon, about men, booze, tigers and America.
“I admit to regular fits of feeling simply I am not a good person,” says Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections, “and it’s a question that fiction is uniquely poised to engage with”. And it’s a question that is at the heart of his new novel Crossroads.
Also, Maggie Shipstead on her Booker Prize shortlisted novel Great Circle, and Robert Gott’s historical crime novel, The Orchard Murders, based on the Messiah of Nunawading.
In his latest book Cloud Cuckoo Land, Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr explores the human desire to create utopian worlds in places far from home.
CS Pacat on their latest fantasy adventure Dark Rise, and Patricia Lockwood on being shortlisted for this years' Booker Prize for No One Is Talking About This.
British rapper, poet and writer, Akala, equates reading and writing to a form of magic. He brings this passion to the page in his debut YA novel, The Dark Lady, about pickpocket Henry, set in the time of Shakespeare's London.
Also, The Overthinkers, a debut by a Sydney writing duo and Nick Earls on his heart surgery recovery as well as Empires, his most ambitious novel yet.
"My favourite memories as a kid, are watching Saturday afternoon movies," says two time Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead, "so I gave myself permission to do a heist book and started planning." Harlem Shuffle was the result.
Also, Marion Frith's timely debut Here In the After about an Australian soldier who served in Afghanistan and Charlotte McConaghy on Once There Were Wolves, about rewilding the Scottish highlands.
Actor Bryan Brown has published a debut collection of crime fuelled fiction in his 70s, it's called Sweet Jimmy.
Also, Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Paige Clark's metaphorical ghosts in She Is Haunted.
Booker winning, Pat Barker's preoccupation with who's allowed to speak and who isn't continues with The Women of Troy, the sequel to The Silence of the Girls, her exploration of women in the Ancient Greek classics.
Also, journalist Barry Divola on his music inspired road novel and Malla Nunn's Sugar Town Queens, set in post-Mandela South Africa.
Kevin Kwan is the man who introduced readers to the world of Singapore's ultra rich in his hit trilogy Crazy Rich Asians.
Claire Nichols speaks to him about growing up wealthy in Singapore, his move to the US as a teen and the inspiration for his latest book Sex and Vanity.
Kate Grenville's interest in women hemmed in by history comes to the fore in her new audiobook about her grandmother, Always Greener.
Also, Lisa Emanuel's debut novel The Covered Wife is about a Sydney woman drawn into a religious cult, and Tony Birch gives poet and editor Evelyn Araluen some writing advice.
The Asian expulsion from Uganda with Idi Amin's rise to power in 1972 is the focus of London based author Hafsa Zayyan's debut novel We Are All Birds of Uganda which deals with many themes the author has lived with all her life.
Also, John Byron's crime fiction debut, The Tribute, inspired by the Fabrica, a famous medieval anatomy text, and The Airways, a queer ghost story by Jennifer Mills.
'Your self worth as an Indian child is totally connected with how well you do in these all encompassing exams'. Rahul Raina's satire about fame, fraud and the All India exam system in How to Kidnap the Rich.
Also Mark Brandi on his love of dogs, family and why he wears earmuffs to write and Katherine Brabon's exploration of the Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori in The Shut Ins.
Esther Freud's mother had babies at a time when many unwed mothers in the UK and Ireland had their children taken away. Freud says, 'When I thought about the situation of my mother, it struck me how alone and dangerous her situation was'. In I Couldn't Love You More, she imagines if her mother had been forced into one or Ireland's notorious mother and baby homes.
Also David Allan-Petale on writing his first book, Locust Summer, on the road, and Jamie Marina Lau's second novel, Gunk Baby, about a young woman about to open a Chinese ear cleaning business.
US author Rumaan Alam’s Leave The World Behind is a timely novel about isolation, fear, class and racism.
Also, the 20-something women who are starring in coming of age novels and Rawah Arja's Punchbowl Boys High drama The F Team.
Amanda Lohrey has been announced as the 2021 winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for The Labyrinth. Amanda tells Claire Nichols that her aim was to write a narrative that felt like a meditative walk into and out of a labyrinth.
Ahead of the Miles Franklin Award announcement, we preview the shortlist and find overlapping themes of migration, violence, fractured families and climate change.
Aravind Adiga, Amanda Lohrey, Andrew Pippos, Daniel Davis Wood, Madeleine Watts and Robbie Arnott also reflect on what their novels say about Australia today.
Indigenous author Larissa Behrendt questioned whether to include a First Nations lawyer in her latest novel, but she says it felt more authentic given it's a world she knows intimately. Her novel, After Story, explores grief, family and literary travel.
Also, Kim Scott on the legacies of history that have inspired his works and Alice Pung's first novel for adults, One Hundred Days, is about a pregnant teenager and her controlling mother.
Emma Jane Unsworth examines 21st century women in all their conflicted, messy glory in this in-depth interview about her books including Adults and Animals.
You've heard of Nordic Noir but what about Scandi Blanc? Bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith has taken the noir out Swedish crime fiction in his latest series starring the warm-hearted detective Ulf Varg.
Also, writer Jessie Tu on her preoccupation with loneliness and a big sweeping narrative about a fictional female pilot who goes missing in the act with US author Maggie Shipstead.
Australian writer Jessie Tu says the question of female likeability should no longer exist and it's an idea she explores in her fiction. In this in-depth conversation, she also discusses child prodigies, music, racism and even Sex and the City.
Andy Weir is most famous for The Martian, the science-heavy Mars survival story that was made in to a hit film starring Matt Damon, and now he's back now with a new book, Project Hail Mary.
Journalist Jacqueline Maley on motherhood and ethics in her debut and the final in Michael Mohammed Ahmad's trilogy featuring his alter-ego, Bani Adam.
Lisa Taddeo attracted worldwide attention with her 2019 non-fiction book, Three Women, which explored the depths of three real women's sexual desires. Now Lisa has taken that insight into the female experience, and put it in to a novel called Animal.
We also take a look at how authors name their heroes and villains, and visit Perth-based children's author Shirley Marr at her favourite writing location.
The privilege of writing about the loss of a child: Women's Prize shortlisted author Patricia Lockwood on No One Is Talking About This which is laugh-out-loud funny in the first half, and is cry-out-loud devastating in the second half.
And Sincerely, Ethel Malley in which Stephen Orr resuscitates the great Australian literary hoax of Ern Malley but with a twist: he reimagines a life for Ern's made-up sister, a woman called Ethel.
Indian American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, has made her name writing fiction in English, but in recent years she has been writing in Italian including her latest, Whereabouts, which she also translated into English.
Also, Ella Baxter on how her writing relates to her artistic practice making death shrouds and philosopher Hugh Breakey on his philosophical romance The Beautiful Fall.
Oscar winner, Shaun Tan, tells of his appreciation of seemingly ordinary objects, like a bar of soap, and how he applies mindfulness to his practice as a writer and painter.
Nikki Gemmell wants to challenge herself as a writer so her latest is a colonial gothic horror called The Ripping Tree, written over seven years while raising four children.
Meanwhile, Emily Maguire tackles hoarding, consent and climate change in Love Objects, a novel that also celebrates the intense love people can feel for children that are not their own. And Martin McKenzie-Murray explains the inspiration for The Speechwriter, a satire set in the near future featuring rogue, sentient PlayStations.
Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany fictionalised account of the Egyptian revolution, Rebecca Lim gives writing advice to Huda Hayek and Madeleine Ryan's neurodiverse character.
Unforgettable school girls with Booker shortlisted author Tsitsi Dangarembga's story of pre-independence Zimbabwe, and another from modern day Australia with Emily Spurr.
Evie Wyld's The Bass Rock has won the 2021 Stella Prize for Australian women's writing.
Meet all six of the Stella Prize shortlisted writers whose books speak to Australia right in this moment.
Booker winner George Saunders shares writing tips from the Russian masters, Debra Oswald's ethical conundrum in The Family Doctor and Pakana man, Adam Thompson's, debut collection Born Into This.
Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor speaks about her novel Hurricane Season which was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, Lucy Jago's 17th century scandal and Christy Collins's debut.
Ethan Hawke's fourth novel A Bright Ray of Darkness is about an actor as his world implodes, Tabitha Bird on embracing the magical and Kavita Bedford's coming of age Sydney novel.
Pip Williams's debut novel The Dictionary of Lost Words has been named the Book of the Year for the 2021 Indie Book Awards.
Maria Dahvana Headley has dusted off Beowulf with a new translation and author of The Cry, Helen Fitzgerald, has a new thriller centred around a boarding school.
Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen on his latest novel The Committed, we ask what it takes to write crime fiction and Chloe Wilson's powerful collection of short stories.
The author discusses her latest book The Vanishing Half, the complexities of race relations in America, her writing process and making the cover of Time Magazine.
From artificial intelligence to man's best friend; exploring relationships with beings we may never understand but love nevertheless.
Max Porter joins Claire to talk about his new book The Death of Francis Bacon and why there is a "certain ecstasy" in thinking about the human body as meat.
A historical look at black, queer love; a deep dive into the genre of Royal fiction and a crime novel set in the seedy streets of 1980s Sydney.
A taste of African chick lit, authors confess their love for Dungeons and Dragons and a book that reads like a movie script.
How do you take stories of injustice and rage centred around Black Lives Matter and put them on the page for children?
Two novelists, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, talk about the same period of Australia's colonial history.
Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan speaks about the very personal story behind his coming-of-age novel Mayflies, set in Thatcher's Britain to a background of New Order and The Smiths.
The 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo belongs to the Muscogee Creek Nation and is also a musician and playwright.
Meet Celeste Ng author of Little Fires Everywhere, Mammut, the talking fossil, and hear from Pip Williams about her popular debut novel.
Helen Garner on writing in her diary in this troubled year and authors reflect on the impacts of coronavirus on the future of fiction.
In the year that international travel was cancelled, this literary world tour might be the next best thing.
Rumaan Alam's literary thriller, Rawah Arja's Punchbowl Boys High drama and young women star in debut coming of age novels.
What makes someone a mother? Dawn French and Kate Mildenhall explore this question, and we have a writer's hotline with Luke Horton and James Bradley.
A special in-depth interview with Christos Tsiolkas that digs deep into his origins as a writer.
The redemptive power of art with Sofie Laguna, Booker shortlisted author Douglas Stuart and how Ken Follett learnt to write bestsellers.
Three writers who've all had successful non-literary careers on their pivot to fiction with Indigenous singer songwriter Nardi Simpson, Booker shortlisted author Avni Doshi and TV presenter Richard Osman.
Neil Gaiman on blogging and wearing black, Booker shortlisted author Diane Cook and Malcolm Knox on changing Australian beach culture.
Matt Haig on the challenges of writing about mental illness, Booker shortlisted author Tsitsi Dangarembga and Elizabeth Tan's quirky short stories.
In this pod extra, meet novelist Kevin Kwan, the man who introduced readers to the world of Singapore's ultra rich in his hit trilogy Crazy Rich Asians.
Just weeks away from the American election, three American writers on religion, a search for identity, racial injustice and the comfort of science.
Trent Dalton explains the concept of sky whispering, Booker shortlisted author Maaza Mengiste and Cressida Cowell's charmed childhood summers on a Viking island.
The true story behind Craig Silvey's novel Honeybee, a novel inspired by Picnic at Hanging Rock and Laura Elvery's homage to women scientists.
Nick Hornby on the Brexit vote and writing diversity, Jane Harper's take on crime writing success and Campbell Whyte's massive graphic novel project.
Andrew O'Hagan's latest novel Mayflies, debut author Imbi Neeme and Erin Hortle's octopus encounter.
Caoilinn Hughes' deep dive into the 2008 Irish financial crisis and Jock Serong's investigation of a 19th century shipwreck.
John Boyne's novel that spans 2000 years, a debut novel about growing up Guyanese in Australia and Jing-Jing Lee on her novel about the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
Elizabeth Strout on Olive Kitteridge, the writer's room of fantasy author Juliet Mariller and Frances Cha's book about young women of Seoul.
American screenwriter Charlie Kaufman pivots to the novel and Australian Jessie Tu's bold debut.
Lawrence Wright on his novel The End of October about a pandemic that starts in Asia and sweeps the world in 2020.
Anne Enright's novel about the theatre, authors on writing the difficult second novel and Tommy Wieringa's obsession with small villages.
Irish novelist Roddy Doyle on Love, Vogel winner KM Kruimink has a writer’s hotline and Les Misérables inspired fantasy fiction.
Two novelists, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, talk about the same period of Australia's colonial history.
David Mitchell celebrates the power of music in Utopia Avenue, Jane Austen inspired fiction and Tara June Winch, winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Award.
Emily St John Mandel on The Glass Hotel and pandemics in fiction, a preview of the Miles Franklin shortlist and Ronnie Scott on his debut The Adversary.
Richard Ford's love of the Irish, Wai Chim and Melanie Cheng have a writers' hotline session and Jacqueline Woodson's growing list of awards.
Three books that explore the world through the eyes of minorities and outsiders: Angie Cruz on Dominicana, After Australia anthology and C Pam Zhang's alternative version of the American West.
Meet Celeste Ng author of Little Fires Everywhere and Mammut, the talking fossil, and hear from prominent Australian authors on the future after Corona virus.
Bernardine Evaristo on her Booker winning novel, John Burnside shares the power of poetry and Lauren Chater's Gulliver's Wife.
Mitch Albom on writing a serialised novel, Munanjali author Ellen van Neerven has a hotline with Yankunytjatjara poet Ali Cobby Eckermann and Canadian author Zalika Reid-Benta's debut novel.
Curtis Sittenfeld on Hillary Clinton in Rodham, father and daughter writers Peter and Anna Goldsworthy, Mirandi Riwoe's novel set on the Queensland goldfields.
Max Barry's latest novel, a science fiction thriller called Providence, Covid 19 impacts on the book industry and Booker International shortlisted Australian author Shokoofeh Azar.
Candace Bushnell's Rules for Being a Girl, Carmen Maria Machado's inventive memoir, Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winning novel and Danielle Binks asks for writing advice from Sally Rippin.
James Bradley and Donna Mazza on resurrecting Neanderthals in fiction, prolific American crime writer David Baldacci, and Vivian Pham's debut at 19.
Hugo Award winning novelist NK Jemisin on her prescient novel The City We Became, Angela Savage on being an ethical writer, and thoughts on the distracted reader.
Omani writer, Jokha Alharthi's record breaking career, fantasy author Lian Hearn's retirement and the longest running book club in Australia.
Booker winner Howard Jacobson's latest, Pulitzer finalist Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers and Tony Birch's The White Girl.
A look a the Stella prize shortlist, Sebastian Barry's follow up to Days Without End and The Dictionary of Lost Words, a moving debut.
Award winning American author Ann Patchett on wicked stepmothers, Intan Paramaditha's choose your own adventure, and can machines read?
Feel like you've just stepped out of a dystopian novel? We ask writers around the world how they're faring and can reading contagion lit help in times like these?
Award winning memoirist and pianist Anna Goldworthy's foray into fiction, twice Booker shortlisted novelist Chigozie Obioma, and Charlotte Wood gives writing advice.
The 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo belongs to the Muscogee Creek Nation and is also a musician and playwright.
Hilary Mantel's very long and lauded trilogy of Thomas Cromwell, next to the very slender Eimear McBride novel which pushes the boundaries of form and style.
Authors Julia Phillips, H.M. Naqvi and Pitchaya Sudbanthad take us to Bangkok, Karachi and the Russian Far East.
Three generations of women face the threat of violent and predatory men in Miles Franklin winner Evie Wyld’s new novel, The Bass Rock.
Australian author Karen Brooks on being called a witch, Rodney Hall's favourite dictionary and Jamaican writer Curdella Forbes' creole infused fiction.
Isabel Allende asks where she belongs, writers respond to the bushfire crisis and finding Anne Bronte 200 years after her birth.
The two British authors have used elements of Shakespeare's tale in their latest novel. Christos Tsiolkas has chosen a different source: St Paul.
She brings her history as a struggling young writer in the big city to her latest novel Memories of the Future.
Writers Jasper Fforde, Karen Thompson Walker and Krissy Kneen explore the connection between dreams and fiction in a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.
Authors Balli Kaur Jaswal, Markus Zusak and Amy Sackville compare notes on the writing process.
A rough and raw account of three teenage boys' struggle with their sexuality and the pervasive homophobia in their regional town.
William Faulkner thought so. Katherine Colette, Robert Lukins, and Jock Serong face Wayne Macauley, Melanie Cheng, and Angela Savage to decide.
Peter Goldsworthy remembers his friend Clive James, and Paul Kelly discusses (and sings) his anthology of his favourite poems.
The writer, critic, and broadcaster spoke in 2015 about his illness and how his writing was flourishing.
When crime fiction is about more than murder: LA author Michael Connelly, and Australian crime writers Sulari Gentill and Robert Gott on their tour in the US.
After losing her family home in the Black Saturday bushfires, Alice Bishop was compelled to write about the many ways people were impacted by the event.
Plus, Christos joins The Pillars' author Peter Polites on sexuality and class, and Garth Nix's Angel Mage.
Plus, Charlotte joins Debra Adelaide to talk about the writing process, and Favel Parrett on There Was Still Love.
Plus, love and science in the Nazi era with Heather Morris (The Tattooist of Auschwitz) and Leah Kaminsky (The Hollow Bones) in conversation at Queenscliffe Literary Festival.
Joey Bui's short story collection features a diverse range of experiences with displacement and exile.
In this podcast special, Sarah speaks to The Bookshelf's Kate Evans about this year's Booker shortlist.
Plus, Indonesian poet Norman Erikson Pasaribu and translator Tiffany Tsao, and bestselling "tragic romance" author Paullina Simons.
Plus, Lynley Dodd on Hairy Maclary, and how does the film adaptation of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch hold up to the novel?
Plus, Max Porter's dark woodland spirit tells a story of England's present and past in Lanny.
Writers Jasper Fforde, Karen Thompson Walker and Krissy Kneen explore the connection between dreams and fiction in a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.
Plus: Claire G Coleman explores the Stolen Generations through intergalactic warfare, and Joanne Ramos fictionalises surrogacy in her native Philippines.
Plus, Sisonke Msimang and Rebecca Carroll discuss extracts of Toni Morrison's writing, and Lucy Treloar's second novel Wolfe Island.
Plus, Jane Sullivan revisits her childhood favourites in Storytime, and Tishani Doshi on her poetry and latest novel Small Days and Nights.
In The Electric Hotel, Dominic Smith resurrects the history of silent film and delves into the passion of the early innovators.
Plus David Nicholls' latest romance Sweet Sorrow and what happens when we read with Belinda Jack.
Plus meet the six Australian authors shortlisted for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award and Slaughterhouse Five turns 50.
Gregory Day's nominated novel explores the writer's ongoing fascination with Victoria's Great Ocean Road.
Art historian Noah Glass has been found dead — floating in the pool of his Sydney apartment complex.
As a lover of literary fiction, Bani Adam is unique in the sea of hyper masculinity at his school, Punchbowl Boys High, Western Sydney.
The Miles Franklin-shortlisted novel started its life as a project about 'Aboriginal hillbillies'.
A murder in a small town is investigated by a determined 11 year-old girl, her uncle, and his boyfriend.
Plus, Lydia Kiesling, and a rummage through the ACU's historical children's book collection.
Plus, Armando Lucas Correa on WW2 novel The Daughter's Tale, and Erin Gough and Omar Sakr on queer YA anthology Kindred.
Plus, The Letters of Sylvia Plath and a history of silliness — from Aristophanes to Roald Dahl.
LA Quartet author James Ellroy teaches Claire the right way to say his new book title This Storm, Andrea Goldsmith on her latest novel Invented Lives, and Trent Dalton on the phenomenal success of Boy Swallows Universe.
American author Siri Hustvedt on blending fiction and memoir in her latest novel Memories of the Future, Argentinean author Mariana Dimópolus and her translator Alice Whitmore, and Australian author Chris Womersley on his first short fiction collection A Lovely and Terrible Thing.
T.C. Boyle on Outside Looking In, Australian author Rohan Wilson looks to the future, and author/illustrator Matt Cosgrove and Australian Library and Information Association CEO Sue McKerracher on the importance of reading aloud to children.
Man Booker award-winning author Ian McEwan on his latest novel Machines Like Me, Australian writer and doctor Melanie Cheng on Room for a Stranger, and Alicia Sometimes and Thomas Caldwell are back to give their take on another book to film adaptation: The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe by Romain Puértolas.
The bestselling Australian author discusses the third book in the Rosie series, The Rosie Result, at Sydney Writers' Festival.
Conjoined twins, Sea and Serene, are content with their life until a stranger comes into their world and disrupts all they know.
Rebecca Makkai's novel The Great Believers about AIDS, The Natural Way of Things is the University of Canberra's 2019 Book of the Year and Wayne Macauley's novel about Simpson and his donkey.
British author Andrew Miller on his historical novel Now We Shall Be Entirely Free and debut Australian author Carrie Cox on Afternoons With Harvey Beam.
English author Joanne Harris on her fourth Chocolat book, Australian writer Jackie French on how she writes for children, teens and adults, and Vicki Laveau-Harvie, the 2019 Stella prize winner for her memoir The Erratics.
Australian author Melina Marchetta's novel The Place on Dalhousie, Stella Prize wrap, Saul Bellow biography with Zachary Leader and the short story vending machine.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied takes a dives in to YA fiction, US bestseller author Karen Joy Fowler on the benefits of writers' retreats and Australian writer Mark Brandi on his new novel, The Rip.
Rosella Postorino's At the Wolf's Table, inspired by Hitler's food tasters, Peggy Frew's novel about a lost girl called Islands, and writers' routines with Madeleine Dore and Marieke Hardy.
Melissa Lucashenko's Stella-shortlisted novel started its life as a project about 'Aboriginal hillbillies'.
Jamie Marina Lau started writing her debut novel when she was 19, by the time she was 21, it was published.
Little Gods features 12 year old Olive who thinks of herself as clever, brave and sure and is constantly unsatisfied by the explanations of adults.
Enza Gandolfo's Stella-shortlisted novel was inspired by the real-life West Gate Bridge disaster, which killed 35 people in 1970s Melbourne.
The Stella judges say Tumarkin's book "pushes the boundaries of non-fiction so far out that they will never recover".
Stella prize winning author Carrie Tiffany on her latest Exploded View, Gerald Murnane on the release of A Season on Earth in full and the book to film adaptation of The Big Sleep.
Guests of Adelaide Writers' Week on their latest books: Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif speaks to Claire Nichols at the festival about his novel Red Birds and Esi Edugyan on her 2018 Booker shortlisted novel Washington Black.
Booker winner Ben Okri talks about his latest book The Freedom Artist at Adelaide Writers Week and we explore the writer's room of Perth based Irish writer Dervla McTiernan.
Authors Balli Kaur Jaswal, Markus Zusak and Amy Sackville compare notes on the writing process.
Set on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, this debut novel alternates between contemporary and historical narratives.
Award winning British crime writer Lynda La Plante on Widow's Revenge, The Bikes of Wrath documentary about retracing the Joad's trip across America in The Grapes of Wrath, and Australian writer Debra Adelaide's collection of short stories Zebra.
American author Kristen Roupenian's book of short stories including the New Yorker story, Cat Woman, that went viral, Puberty Blues author Gabrielle Carey on Australian young adult writer Ivan Southall and debut novelists Bram Presser and Katherine Collette share their juvenilia.
Remembering Miles Franklin author Andrew McGahan, bestselling YA author Angie Thomas on her new novel The Come Up and the origins of Harper Lee's famous character Atticus Finch.
An all Australian show with Liane Moriarty's Nine Perfect Strangers, Maxine Beneba Clarke's latest picture book and Melissa Lucashenko's woman on a motorbike.
Man Booker winner George Saunders talks about his short story Fox 8, fellow New Yorker writer Susan Orlean on the importance of libraries and Claire Nichols visits the home of Australian author Alice Nelson.
A look at toxic masculinity from two different writers, Tim Winton and Michael Mohammed Ahmad, inside the writing room of Miles Franklin winner Josephine Wilson, a history of the blurb and an ode to grammar with cabaret performer Louisa Fitzhardinge.
In an old fashioned debate, six Australian authors battle out the proposition 'write what you know': Mark Brandi, Claire Coleman, Bram Presser, Jane Rawson, Graeme Simsion and Michelle Aung Thin.
Booker winner Michael Ondaatje on his latest novel Warlight, Kate Atkinson's recurring fascination with World War II in Transcription and former politician Stanley Johnson on his "what if" novel Kompromat, on the entanglement of Russian, British and American politics.
Man Booker winner Arundhati Roy on The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Christopher de Hamel introduces some remarkable manuscripts, comedian Kirsty Webeck gives a breakdown of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and US librarian Annie Spence on her break up and love letters to books.
Two times Miles Franklin winner talks about his latest novel, A Stolen Season, about the morality of the Iraq War.
Amy Bloom reimagines the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, Tayari Jones and An American Marriage and umbrellas in fiction with Marion Rankine.
Scottish author William Boyd on his latest novel Love is Blind — an homage to Anton Chekhov, the apostrophe wars with Tiger Webb and Louisa Fitzhardinge, bookseller Elias Greig on his funny encounters with customers, and six year old school children chose their favourite reads.
Louisa Collins was hanged in 1888 for murdering her husband...she was tried for killing the other one too. Janet Lee gets inside her head in her debut novel.
An all-Australian show: Kristina Olsson talks about Shell, her novel about the Sydney Opera House, Steve Hawke invites us in to the garage where he writes, and children's author Graeme Base explains his latest picture book, Bumblebunnies.
Bestselling author Lee Child on why he keeps returning to Jack Reacher in his fiction, mother and daughter Kirsty and Ruby Murray on being writers and related, and Toni Jordan's fifth novel The Fragments.
Pink Mountain on Locust Island is the first time Jamie Marina Lau has written a story featuring a character like her, with a Cantonese background.
Indian writers Shobhaa De and Balli Kaur Jaswal talk about sex, repression, love and literature from the Jaipur Literature Festival, Adelaide.
Markus Zusak on his new novel Bridge of Clay, Gary Shteyngart's novel about America called Lake Success and dip into the bad diaries of writers Jenny Ackland and William McInnes.
UK author Kate Atkinson on her novel Transcription, Tara Moss speaks with authors Melissa Lucashenko and John Purcell about crafting character, we examine the importance of shoes in fairy tales and try out some World War One slang.
An examination of race in the playground with award winning Australian writer Maxine Beneba Clarke, Tara Moss with Kathryn Fox and Krissy Kneen in the craft of writing series and celebrity Irish comedian Graham Norton on his second novel, A Keeper.
Pulitzer prize winning author Andrew Sean Greer on his novel Less, Arts News, bestselling novelist Tara Moss speaks to Australian writers for our new The Craft of Writing series and Claire Nichols visits Natasha Lester in her home to see her writers room.
Australian writers Hannah Kent and Zana Fraillon have spoken out against the detention of children on the island of Nauru, Arts News, David Malouf and his latest collection of poetry An Open Book, crime novelists Emma Viskic and Chris Hammer on growth of rural crime fiction.
Award winning French author Marie Darrieussecq on her latest novel Our Life in the Forest, Arts News, sisters Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell on writing and family, and writer-director Shirley Barrett's latest novel The Bus on Thursday, a case of life imitating art.
Australian author Rosalie Ham on her latest novel The Year of the Farmer, Arts News, the US tour that made Oscar Wilde, and in the writer's room of debut Perth author, Carrie Cox.
Man Booker winning author Pat Barker on her retelling of Homer's Illiad The Silence of the Girls, stories and memoir by writers from marginalised backgrounds and we review the book to film adaptation of Ladies in Black by Bruce Beresford.
Bestselling Australian author Liane Moriarty on her latest novel Nine Perfect Strangers, we celebrate spring as the season of renewal with US poet David Mason, how to get involved with Australian Reading Hour, and creative couples Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Kristin Headlam.
Celebrating 100 years of The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay with his granddaughter Helen Glad and children's book illustrator Julie Vivas, a visit to Australian author Robert Drewe's home in Fremantle, WA and meet US author Veronica Roth whose YA Divergent series was a bestseller.
The legacy of Australian godfather of crime, Peter Corris, who's died at 76, the the role of writers' festivals in Australia and bestselling British author Matt Haig on how writing saved his life, from the Bendigo Writers' Festival.
A double dose of the windy moors in our Comedians v Classics series with Australian comedians Louisa Fitzhardinge and Kirsty Webeck taking on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
The 2018 Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser talks about her winning novel The Life to Come, Irvine Welsh on his Trainspotting characters Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud who appear again in his latest novel Dead Men's Trousers, and the Queen of Teen, Juno Dawson discusses Clean her book about Lexi Volkov on her journey to being drug free.
We're celebrating Children's Book Week, as Eddie Ayres talks about his first foray into children's books with Sonam and the Silence, and Perth primary school children share their favourite books. Also, a preview of the Miles Franklin shortlist and US literary artist Yona Harvey on becoming one of the first three African American women to write for Marvel comics.
US writer Meg Wolitzer on her novel The Female Persuasion, Arts News, Vale VS Naipaul, journalists turned novelists Megan Goldin and Ben Doherty on throwing away facts for fiction, Australian Booktubers Piera Forde and Jeann Wong on talking to readers via YouTube.
"There are things more miraculous than love." This is the first line of Robert Lukins' debut novel The Everlasting Sunday, set during the Big Freeze in 1960s England.
Australian author of children's and young adult fiction, Emily Rodda, on her latest novel His Name Was Walter, the latest in book news, two novels that explore the near future in neuroscience and biology with Angela Meyer and Margaret Morgan and we ask the question why study creative writing with Samantha Forge and Beejay Silcox.
It's the 200th anniversary of Emily Bronte's birth, so we're embracing the windy moors of Yorkshire for this special episode dedicated to all things Emily Bronte.
Ryan O'Neill explains why he wrote 99 different versions of Henry Lawson's short story The Drover's Wife. Also, poets Charmaine Papertalk Green and John Kinsella explore colonisation, mining and family history in their new book, and we take a tour of an exhibition of gothic literature in Melbourne.
Booker winner Michael Ondaatje on Warlight, Shaun Tan tackles office life in his book Cicada, book news and the story time for adults with author Jane Rawson.
Melissa Lucashenko's novel Too Much Lip, a glimpse into the writing room of AJ Betts, Read Along Dads is a reading program for fathers in prison and the problematic literary hero, Roald Dahl.
Man Booker winner Arundhati Roy on The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Christopher de Hamel introduces some remarkable manuscripts, comedian Emily Tresidder gives a breakdown of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and US librarian Annie Spence on her break up and love letters to books.
How an exploration of grief led Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott to create a strange novel featuring a chorus of voices, including a water rat.
US author Amy Bloom on her latest novel White Houses. Plus US cognitive scientist Vera Tobin on the science of plot and why we like surprises in fiction, book news, and Louisa Fitzhardinge performs a song from her Melbourne Cabaret Festival show Comma Sutra.
Fantasy author Raymond E Feist returns with the beginning of a new saga King of Ashes, sisters Rozanna and Kate Lilley discuss the legacy of their mother Dorothy Hewett's bohemian lifestyle, we eavesdrop on the final green room session with Australian author Nick Earls who talks to Toni Jordan and US author Alexis Okewow on how she became a writer.
Holly Ringland learnt to read when she was three so perhaps it's no surprise she's now written a novel. In our debut writers podcast series Holly tells us about The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.
Historian turned novelist Peter Cochrane on his book The The Making of Martin Sparrow, Nick Earls in the Green Room with fellow Brisbanite John Birmingham, Australian author Suneeta Peres da Costa's second novel Saudade which is set in Angola and Australian author Maryam Azam's debut poetry collection The Hijab Files.
The first in our special series on Australian debut writers beginning with Tracy Sorensen's The Lucky Galah.
In an old fashioned debate, six Australian authors battle out the proposition 'write what you know': Mark Brandi, Claire Coleman, Bram Presser, Jane Rawson, Graeme Simsion and Michelle Aung Thin.
Booker winner Howard Jacobson reflects on the writing of US author Philip Roth who died last week, we ask should video games be taught in English class and in our Green Room series Australian author Nick Earls chats with writer and Wiradjuri woman Anita Heiss.
Have you read Cormac McCarthy's The Road or The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde? Just in case you haven't, two comedians give you the main plot points so you can fake it in polite conversation.
An American Marriage by US writer Tayari Jones, has won a highly influential fan, with Oprah Winfrey adding it to her Book Club list for 2018, the first in our new Green Room series in which Australian author Nick Earls speaks to writers about life on the road, a look at Eleanor Limprecht's research for her novel The Passengers and US linguist on the contribution of Tom Wolfe to our lexicon.
Jane Harper discusses her enviable transition from journalist to bestselling novelist. Also, Emily Maguire on how we can relate to problematic literary heroes like Graham Greene, and Paul Lynch on the "Joycean epiphany" that inspired him to become a novelist.
In this bonus podcast, two comedians help you fake it with a couple of classics you might not have read (but think you should know about): Frankenstein and Charlotte's Web.
The #metoo movement continues to resonate through the world of literature, with developments at the Sydney Writers' Festival and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Also, young adult author Jesse Andrews on his novel Munmun, Jenny Zhang's collection of short stories Sour Heart, and the film adaptation of Tim Winton's Breath.
Rodney Hall is one of Australian's most important - and unsung - writers. He takes Claire Nichols in to his writing room. Plus, Sally Seltmann and Peggy Frew on making the transition from music to writing, creative couple Tim Flannery and Kate Holden, and Jennifer Mills on her climate-change themed novel, Dyschronia.
Circe, from Homer's Odyssey, is thought to be the first witch in Western literature. In Madeline Miller's new novel, the sorceress takes centre stage. Also, picture books about World War One and the winner of the Vogel's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript.
Alexis Wright discusses her writing career and her Stella-prize winning novel Tracker. Also, Gail Jones on her new novel The Death of Noah Glass, male romance writers, and what kids are reading.
We explore the vocations of 20th century writers Dorothy Hewett, Ruth Park, Gwen Harwood and Christina Stead. And while we're celebrating women writers, let's check in with the shortlisted authors for the Stella Prize. Also, writing American crime fiction in the antipodes, and the unsung art of indexing.
What if Russia orchestrated the Brexit vote? That's the question at the heart of Stanley Johnson's satiric, and sometimes prescient novel, Kompromat. Also, literary meals with Kate Young, what it takes to become a book critic, and the winners of the Aurealis Awards for speculative fiction.
Alan Hollinghurst talks about his latest novel, The Sparsholt Affair. Also, Gail Honeyman on her hit debut novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, a musical response to Murray Bail's classic Eucalyptus and a celebration of umbrellas in fiction.
Tim Winton talks about place, masculinity, and his new novel, The Shepherd's Hut. Also, authors Alison Lester and Jane Godwin discuss how they worked with sick kids to create their latest book, and Stefan Merrill Block on his novel Oliver Loving.
The legacy of crime writer Peter Temple and the award-winning author of The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees talks about politics, feminism, the environment and her writing process.