The Book Show
286 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsIn-depth conversations with the best fiction writers from Australia and around the world.
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Episodes
Anita Heiss, Tony Birch and SJ Norman grapple with the past
July 04, 2022 00:05 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBFor 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.
'They're about real things' — Madeline Miller on the popularity of Greek myths
June 27, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBAmerican 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.
'I got obsessed with horses' — Geraldine Brooks on her novel Horse
June 20, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBPulitzer 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...
Meg Mason's surprise success with Sorrow and Bliss
June 13, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBMeg 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.
'I wish I’d had more resolution of character' — Booker winner Damon Galgut on privilege and power
June 06, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MBBooker-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.
Lessons in life, mortality and love from Julian Barnes
May 30, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBBritish 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".
Moon colonies and the 'Mandelverse' with Emily St John Mandel
May 23, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MBCanadian 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. ...
Family troubles with Steve Toltz, Audrey Magee and Toni Jordan
May 16, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MBHere 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.
Queer stories with Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr
May 09, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MBBooker 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.
Mum’s the word with Dawn French, Douglas Stuart, Anne Enright, Alice Pung and more
May 02, 2022 00:05 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MBWe 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 and Jonathan Franzen relive the 1970s
April 25, 2022 00:05 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBJennifer 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 and Michelle Johnston unearth the past
April 18, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBHannah 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.
Jennifer Egan's Goon Squad follow-up
April 11, 2022 00:05 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MBPulitzer-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.
Kári Gíslason gives new life to an old Icelandic saga
April 04, 2022 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBThe 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. ...
Mythology and Marlon James — Moon Witch, Spider King
March 27, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBFor 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.
Recovery and 'ridey men' — Marian Keyes and Again, Rachel
March 20, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MB'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 targets John Wilkes Booth, America's first presidential assassin
March 13, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBKaren 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’s joy of reading
March 06, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBCraig 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 writes about her mother, Markus Zusak gets your fanmail
February 27, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIsabel 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.
Immigrant stories of the Big Apple with Gary Shteyngart and Xochitl Gonzalez
February 20, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBOur 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.
Love and literature with Hannah Kent, Roddy Doyle, Elif Shafak and more
February 13, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBFrom 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
February 06, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBJason 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.
Secrets and lies in Monica Ali's Love Marriage
January 30, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBAlmost 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.
Hanya Yanagihara moves on from A Little Life
January 23, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIn 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.
Masterclass with George Saunders and Tsitsi Dangarembga
January 16, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBTwo masters of the form, George Saunders and Tsisti Dangarembga, share lessons from their extensive writing careers.
Life at the extremes — Pat Barker, Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Ella Baxter
January 09, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBThe 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 on Klara and the Sun
January 02, 2022 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBNobel 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.
Darkness and light with Patricia Lockwood, Jessie Tu and Ethan Hawke
December 26, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MB"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.
From Karachi to Kamchatka — literary travel with Roddy Doyle, Arundhati Roy, Elizabeth Strout and more
December 19, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBInternational travel has been off the cards for many in the last two years, this literary world tour might be the next best thing.
And the winner is: the book prize winners of 2021
December 12, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 74.2 MBKate 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.
'People were already forgetting' — Jodi Picoult confronts the pandemic
December 05, 2021 23:05 - 53 minutes - 74 MBUnlike 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.
How Val McDermid's time as a newspaper journalist inspired a new crime series
November 28, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBScottish 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
Creative lives of a Booker, Stella and Nobel winner — Bernardine Evaristo, Charlotte Wood and Abdulrazak Gurnah
November 21, 2021 23:05 - 53 minutes - 74.1 MB"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.
Christos Tsiolkas on beauty and art
November 14, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MB"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.
The beautiful and sacred with Christos Tsiolkas
November 14, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MB"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.
Hannah Kent and Susanna Clarke on love and loneliness
November 07, 2021 23:05 - 52 minutes - 72.8 MBAuthor 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....
Pod extra with Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut
November 04, 2021 05:15 - 12 minutes - 17 MBBooker Prize winner Damon Galgut on his award winning novel The Promise.
Literary powerhouses Richard Powers and Michelle de Kretser on their latest novels
October 31, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 74.2 MB"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, an...
Amor Towles takes a road trip on The Lincoln Highway
October 24, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MB"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 coll...
Families, trees, and buried secrets with Liane Moriarty and Elif Shafak
October 17, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBLiane 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.
‘It became brutal’ —John Boyne responds to a twitter storm in Echo Chamber
October 10, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIn 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.
Faith and family with Jonathan Franzen on Crossroads
October 03, 2021 23:05 - 54 minutes - 74.3 MB“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. ...
Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr visits Cloud Cuckoo Land
September 27, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIn 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.
'It's absolutely magical' — Akala on reading as a superpower
September 20, 2021 00:05 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBBritish 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.
Pulitzer prize winner Colson Whitehead's crime caper, Harlem Shuffle
September 13, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MB"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. ...
'I could've got into trouble' — Actor Bryan Brown's crime fiction
September 06, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.6 MBActor 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.
'It all starts with a fight' — Pat Barker gives voice to the women of Ancient Greece
August 30, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBBooker 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.
'I just wanted to rescue them' — Kate Grenville unravels her family history
August 16, 2021 00:05 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBKate 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.
Identity, belonging, home and immigration are themes in Hafsa Zayyan's life and fiction
August 09, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBThe 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.
Rahul Raina's satire about fame, fraud and Indian TV
August 02, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MB'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.