James Naughtie talks to Deborah Levy
Deborah Levy talks about her novel, Swimming Home.
Jul 02, 2017•27 min
Bookclub
Led by James Naughtie, a group of readers talk to acclaimed authors about their best-known novels
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Episodes
Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay with James Naughtie and a group of readers. The novel follows the story of the teenage Josef Kavalier, who makes a daring escape from the Germans in Prague in 1939, leaving his family behind. He travels across Europe and eventually arrives at his cousin Samuel Clayman's house in Brooklyn. There the pair discover a shared love of the burgeoning comic book world of Superheroes - Joe Kavalier is the artist, and Sam Clay, as he...
May 07, 2017•28 min
Sunjeev Sahota - The Year of the Runaways
Sunjeev Sahota discusses his novel The Year of the Runaways which was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. The Year of the Runaways follows the stories of three undocumented Indian men who share a house in Sheffield. Tochi has fled India after his family were killed in a Caste-related massacre; Avtar arrives on a student visa, but intending to work. Randeep, Avtar's friend and neighbour, is the beneficiary of a sham marriage. In a flat on the other side of town lives Randeep's visa-wife, t...
Apr 02, 2017•28 min
Jonathan Safran Foer - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer talks about his acclaimed novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Set in the aftermath of 9/11, it is the story of a young boy coming to terms with the tragedy of his father's death in the World Trade Centre. hen he find s an envelope with the word 'Black' written on it in his father's hand he sets out to find everyone in the city called Black, to see if he can pick up a clue. After finding a mysterious key in a left behind in his father's closet, in an envelope labelled ...
Mar 05, 2017•28 min
Kamila Shamsie on Burnt Shadows
James Naughtie and audience talk to Kamila Shamsie about her novel Burnt Shadows
Feb 07, 2017•27 min
Barbara Trapido - The Travelling Hornplayer
Novelist Barbara Trapido has been delighting readers over a forty year career. In The Travelling Hornplayer (1998) she spins a tale of betrayal, misunderstanding, coincidence and the passions of youth, all with her subversive and entertaining sense of humour. From its haunting start : "Early on in the morning of my interview, I woke up and saw my dead sister" to its grand finale at an Oxford College, The Travelling Hornplayer zips along with plot twists and character turns, shocking revelations ...
Feb 05, 2017•28 min
John Lanchester - Capital
John Lanchester talks to James Naughtie and a group of readers about his novel Capital, which was a major BBC TV drama in 2015. The residents of an affluent street in London are busy getting on with their lives when one day something strange happens. Every house in the street has an identical, mysterious postcard pushed through their letterboxes that simply states "'We Want What You Have.' At first, the residents of Pepys Road, who are from mixed racial and social backgrounds, dismiss the notes ...
Jan 01, 2017•28 min
Jay McInerney - Bright Lights, Big City
American writer Jay McInerney discusses his debut novel Bright Lights, Big City with James Naughtie and a group of readers. Bright Lights, Big City not only cemented Jay McInerney as a superstar among debut novelists, but came to define the culture of 80s New York in all its gritty yet glamorous glory. We follow the young unnamed narrator - he's 'You' throughout the book - during a whirlwind week in New York. He is bored with his job on a Manhattan magazine, wants to be a writer, and has been ab...
Dec 29, 2016•28 min
Bookclub - Helen Macdonald on H is for Hawk
James Naughtie discusses H is for Hawk with Helen Macdonald
Oct 02, 2016•28 min
Bookclub - Don DeLillo on Underworld
James Naughtie talks to Don DeLillo about his novel Underworld
Sep 04, 2016•28 min
Bookclub - Evie Wyld on After the Fire a Still, Small Voice
James Naughtie talks to Evie Wyld about After the Fire a Still, Small Voice
Aug 07, 2016•28 min
Bookclub - Maggie O'Farrell on The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
James Naughtie talks to Maggie O'Farrell about The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Jul 03, 2016•28 min
Bookclub - Tony Harrison's poem 'v'
James Naughtie and Tony Harrison discuss the poem 'v'
Jun 05, 2016•28 min
Bookclub with Javier Marias
James Naughtie talks to Javier Marias about The Infatuations
May 01, 2016•28 min
Bookclub with Elizabeth Strout - Olive Kitteridge
James Naughtie and audience talk to Elizabeth Strout about Olive Kitteridge
Apr 03, 2016•28 min
Bookclub with Michael Holroyd - A Strange Eventful History
James Naughtie and audience talk to Michael Holroyd about A Strange Eventful History
Mar 06, 2016•28 min
Bookclub with Kamila Shamsie on Burnt Shadows
James Naughtie and audience talk to Kamila Shamsie about Burnt Shadows
Feb 08, 2016•27 min
Bookclub with Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road to the Deep North
James Naughtie talks to Richard Flanagan about The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Jan 03, 2016•27 min
Bookclub with Colum McCann - TransAtlantic
James Naughtie talks to Colum McCann about TransAtlantic.
Dec 06, 2015•28 min
Bookclub with China Mieville - The City and the City
James Naughtie talks to China Mieville about The City and the City
Nov 01, 2015•27 min
Tessa Hadley on Married Love
James Naughtie talks to Tessa Hadley about Married Love
Oct 04, 2015•28 min
David Nicholls - One Day
David Nicholls talks to James Naughtie and a group of readers about his novel One Day
Sep 07, 2015•28 min
David Nicholls - One Day
David Nicholls talks to James Naughtie and a group of readers about his enormously successful novel One Day. The book has now sold over 5 million copies worldwide since its first publication in 2009. It's the will-they-won't they story of Dexter and Emma, who get together on their last day at Edinburgh University in the late 80s, and whom we meet in the novel every July 15th for the next twenty years. It is in turns moving, stylish and funny. David Nicholls discusses how cinema and tv and his wo...
Sep 06, 2015•28 min
Bookclub with A M Homes - May We Be Forgiven
A M Homes talks to James Naughtie about her book May We Be Forgiven
Aug 02, 2015•28 min
Bookclub with Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Jon McGregor discusses his novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
Jul 06, 2015•28 min
Henry Marsh - Do No Harm
With James Naughtie. Doctors work under the oath 'do no harm', but the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh says the decision whether to operate on a brain is rarely that simple. His account of his working life Do No Harm has caught the attention of readers all round the country since its publication a year ago and has this week Do No Harm won the South Bank Award for Literature, as well being shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson, Costa, and Wellcome book prizes this year. Henry discusses his memoir Do No Har...
Jun 07, 2015•28 min
Hisham Matar - In the Country of Men
James Naughtie and readers talk to Hisham Matar about his gripping debut novel In The Country Of Men. This international bestseller is set in Colonel Gaddafi's Libya of 1979, as the narrator Suleiman looks back on his childhood summer and tries to makes sense of the bewildering world around him. His best friend's father disappears and is next seen on state television at a public execution, a mysterious man sits outside the house all day, gives him sweets and asks for the names of his father's fr...
May 03, 2015•28 min
Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze
Adam Foulds discusses his Man Booker shortlisted novel The Quickening Maze with James Naughtie and a group of readers. Set in the 1840s, The Quickening Maze tells the story of the poet John Clare, and his incarceration at High Beach Asylum in London's Epping Forest. Run by the charismatic and reformist Dr Matthew Allen, its principles include occupational and talking therapies. Based on real life events, amongst the patients is Septimus Tennyson, brother to the young poet Alfred Tennyson. The Te...
Apr 05, 2015•28 min
Wilbur Smith - When the Lion Feeds
Wilbur Smith discusses his novel When the Lion Feeds with James Naughtie and a group of readers.
Mar 01, 2015•28 min
Judith Kerr - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
With James Naughtie. Judith Kerr discusses her novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. First published in 1971, she wrote it for her son in order to explain the story of her own family's flight from Nazi Germany. Her father was a drama critic and a distinguished writer whose books were burned by the Nazis. The family passed through Switzerland and France before arriving finally in England in 1936. Kerr found herself a fairly willing refugee, seeing her long travels as a great adventure. Her parents...
Feb 01, 2015•28 min
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