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
Going big with James Ellroy, Andrea Goldsmith and Trent Dalton
June 03, 2019 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBLA 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.
Siri Hustvedt on why there's no such thing as pure memoir, the art of translation, Chris Womersley
May 27, 2019 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBAmerican 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 fictionalises tripping with Timothy Leary, Rohan Wilson's Daughter of Bad Times, Alpacas with Maracas at National Simultaneous Storytime
May 20, 2019 00:05 - 54 minutes - 74.2 MBT.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.
Ian McEwan's alternative vision of 1982, Melanie Cheng's Room for a Stranger, and Book to Film: The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
May 13, 2019 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBMan 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 Book Show Special: Graeme Simsion at SWF
May 06, 2019 00:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBThe bestselling Australian author discusses the third book in the Rosie series, The Rosie Result, at Sydney Writers' Festival.
Debut writers series: Fusion by Kate Richards
May 02, 2019 03:45 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBConjoined 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 about AIDS, University of Canberra Book of the Year and Wayne Macauley's latest satire
April 29, 2019 00:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBRebecca 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.
Conversations with Andrew Miller and Carrie Cox at Perth Writers' Week
April 22, 2019 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBBritish author Andrew Miller on his historical novel Now We Shall Be Entirely Free and debut Australian author Carrie Cox on Afternoons With Harvey Beam.
Joanne Harris on Chocolat, unstoppable writer Jackie French and Vicki Laveau-Harvie, 2019 Stella prize winner
April 15, 2019 00:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBEnglish 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.
Melina Marchetta's updated Saving Francesca, Stella Prize wrap, Saul Bellow biography and short story snacks
April 08, 2019 00:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBAustralian 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's first novel, Karen Joy Fowler on writers' retreats and Mark Brandi's new novel
March 31, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBYassmin 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.
Italian author Rosella Postorino, Australian author Peggy Frew and writers' routines with Madeleine Dore and Marieke Hardy
March 24, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.8 MBRosella 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.
Stella prize shortlist: The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
March 20, 2019 17:30 - 11 minutes - 10.2 MBThis memoir about the author's dysfunctional family
Stella Prize shortlist: Melissa Lucashenko's Too Much Lip
March 20, 2019 17:15 - 10 minutes - 9.8 MBMelissa Lucashenko's Stella-shortlisted novel started its life as a project about 'Aboriginal hillbillies'.
Stella prize shortlist: Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau
March 20, 2019 17:10 - 10 minutes - 9.41 MBJamie Marina Lau started writing her debut novel when she was 19, by the time she was 21, it was published.
Stella prize shortlist: Jenny Ackland's Little Gods
March 20, 2019 17:00 - 10 minutes - 9.67 MBLittle Gods features 12 year old Olive who thinks of herself as clever, brave and sure and is constantly unsatisfied by the explanations of adults.
Stella Prize shortlist: Enza Gandolfo's The Bridge
March 20, 2019 17:00 - 10 minutes - 9.61 MBEnza Gandolfo's Stella-shortlisted novel was inspired by the real-life West Gate Bridge disaster, which killed 35 people in 1970s Melbourne.
Stella Prize shortlist: Maria Tumarkin's Axiomatic
March 20, 2019 17:00 - 11 minutes - 10.1 MBThe Stella judges say Tumarkin's book "pushes the boundaries of non-fiction so far out that they will never recover".
Australian writers Carrie Tiffany and Gerald Murnane, and celebrating 80 years of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep
March 17, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBStella 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.
Adelaide Writers' Week — Mohammed Hanif and Esi Edugyan
March 10, 2019 23:05 - 54 minutes - 50 MBGuests 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 from Adelaide Writers Week and Irish crime writer Dervla McTiernan
March 03, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBBooker 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.
Finding the first line with Perth Festival Writers Week guests Balli Kaur Jaswal, Markus Zusak and Amy Sackville
February 24, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBAuthors Balli Kaur Jaswal, Markus Zusak and Amy Sackville compare notes on the writing process.
Debut writes series: Molly Murn's Heart of the Grass Tree
February 21, 2019 04:30 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBSet on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, this debut novel alternates between contemporary and historical narratives.
British crime writer Lynda La Plante, 80th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath, Australian author Debra Adelaide
February 17, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBAward 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.
Kristen Roupenian's viral Cat Woman story, Gabrielle Carey on Ivan Southall, and the juvenilia of Bram Presser and Katherine Collette
February 10, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBAmerican 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.
Vale Andrew McGahan, Angie Thomas and biography of Atticus Finch — Update
February 03, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.6 MBRemembering 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.
Liane Moriarty, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Melissa Lucashenko
January 27, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBAn 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.
US writers George Saunders and Susan Orlean and Australian author Alice Nelson
January 20, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBMan 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.
RN Summer: Tim Winton, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Josephine Wilson, history of the blurb and an ode to grammar
January 14, 2019 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBA 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.
RN Summer: Write What You Know debate
January 07, 2019 23:00 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBIn 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.
RN Summer: Spies, war and subterfuge with Michael Ondaatje, Kate Atkinson and Stanley Johnson
December 31, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBBooker 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.
RN Summer: Man Booker winner Arundhati Roy, Christopher de Hamel and illuminated manuscripts, and a librarian's letters to books
December 24, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 50.2 MBMan 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.
Rodney Hall at the Bendigo Writers Festival
December 19, 2018 02:15 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBTwo times Miles Franklin winner talks about his latest novel, A Stolen Season, about the morality of the Iraq War.
RN Summer: Amy Bloom, Tayari Jones and umbrellas in fiction
December 17, 2018 23:00 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBAmy Bloom reimagines the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, Tayari Jones and An American Marriage and umbrellas in fiction with Marion Rankine.
William Boyd, the apostrophe wars, bookseller Elias Greig and kids' reads
December 10, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBScottish 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.
Debut writers series: The Killing of Louisa by Janet Lee
December 07, 2018 02:15 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBLouisa 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.
Kristina Olsson, Steve Hawke and Graeme Base
December 03, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 50 MBAn 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.
Lee Child on Jack Reacher, mother and daughter Kirsty and Ruby Murray and Toni Jordan's The Fragments
November 26, 2018 23:05 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBBestselling 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.
Debut writers series: Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau
November 23, 2018 02:15 - 17 minutes - 15.6 MBPink 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 from the Jaipur Literature Festival, Adelaide
November 19, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIndian writers Shobhaa De and Balli Kaur Jaswal talk about sex, repression, love and literature from the Jaipur Literature Festival, Adelaide.
Markus Zusak, Gary Shteyngart and the diaries of Jenny Ackland and William McInnes
November 12, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBMarkus 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.
Kate Atkinson, Tara Moss with Melissa Lucashenko and John Purcell, Shoes in Fairy tales and World War One lingo
November 05, 2018 23:00 - 54 minutes - 49.8 MBUK 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.
Maxine Beneba Clarke, Tara Moss with Kathryn Fox and Krissy Kneen and Graham Norton
October 29, 2018 23:00 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBAn 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.
Debut writers series: Katherine Collette's The Helpline
October 26, 2018 03:15 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBUplit is a new genre of joyful fiction and The Helpline is definitely an example.
Andrew Sean Greer, Arts News, Tara Moss writing series, and Perth author Natasha Lester
October 22, 2018 23:00 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBPulitzer 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.
Writers as activists Hannah Kent and Zana Fraillon, Arts News, David Malouf, crime novelists Emma Viskic and Chris Hammer.
October 15, 2018 23:00 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBAustralian 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.
French author Marie Darrieussecq, Arts News, sisters Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell on writing and writer-director Shirley Barrett's latest novel.
October 08, 2018 23:00 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBAward 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.
Rosalie Ham on The Year of the Farmer, Oscar Wilde's secret, and in the writer's room of Carrie Cox
October 02, 2018 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBAustralian 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.
UK author Pat Barker, writing from the margins and book to film adaptation Ladies in Black
September 25, 2018 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBMan 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.
Liane Moriarty on Nine Perfect Strangers, spring and renewal with poet David Mason, Australian Reading Hour and creative couples Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Kristin Headlam
September 18, 2018 00:00 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBBestselling 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.