A mother escapes a controlling husband. But that is just the beginning. Nesting, the debut novel from award-winning Irish writer Roisin O'Donnell takes us to the next step, finding a safe home. Also, English Ghanaian author Maame Blue, who now lives in Melbourne, on the struggles of uncovering memories in her novel The Rest of You , and in Love Unedited Australian author Caro Llewellyn explores a passionate romance between an editor and a writer....
Mar 30, 2025•54 min
Award-winning Moroccan American author Laila Lalami imagines a world where the most intimate aspects of life are mined for data in her speculative fiction, The Dream Hotel . Australian Chinese writer Steve MinOn goes on a generational discovery tour with a corpse in his debut novel First Name Second Name . And Madeleine Ryan's The Knowing reflects on the anxieties of modern life and ambition....
Mar 23, 2025•54 min
A story of finding family, Bernhard Schlink's latest novel The Granddaughter , examines the lingering impact of a divided Germany and the rise of the far right. Italian author and translator Vincenzo Latronico chronicles an expat couple living in Berlin and their search for authenticity in an age of social media in his novella Perfection . Also, Diana Reid's Signs of Damage, is a gripping psychological study of memory, trauma, and blurred morals, set in idyllic locations in Europe....
Mar 16, 2025•55 min
American writer Rachel Kushner joins Claire Nichols on the stage at Adelaide Writers Week for a conversation about the Booker-shortlisted Creation Lake , her latest philosophical and darkly funny novel involving French eco-activists, a bold and ruthless infiltrator, and a cave-dwelling idealist. Recorded at Adelaide Writers Week 2025....
Mar 09, 2025•55 min
In his latest book Twist , New York-based Irish writer Colum McCann dives into the digital age, travelling deep under the ocean into a tangled world of ruptured fibrous connections, its human cost, and repair. And Robert Lukins' Somebody Down There Likes Me takes an acerbic look at the downfall of a rich Connecticut family. Also, Jane Yang tells a story of female empowerment in her historical novel Lotus Shoes , which includes the ancient Chinese practice of binding the feet of young girls....
Mar 02, 2025•56 min
Penobscot writer Morgan Talty's Fire Exit is a story of family bonds that go beyond bloodlines. Charles is a white man who must not only confront his past but decide whether to reveal his identity to the daughter he watches from across the river that borders the Native American Reservation of the Penobscot people. A compassionate account of family, love, and connections, it also explores the complications that may arise from truth-telling....
Feb 23, 2025•18 min
In this final episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors reflect on their defining books, Markus Zusak reminisces about the literary phenomenon that is The Book Thief . The story of Liesel, a feisty German girl who finds power in stealing books in a world where words and ideas can both save and destroy lives is full of unforgettable characters and magic moments. Markus Zusak reflects on the family stories about life in Austria and Germany during WW 11 told around the kitchen table and h...
Feb 22, 2025•37 min
The Yolnu people of the Northern Territory had a fruitful trading relationship with the Makassar people from Indonesia long before Australia was colonised. Yolnu people would even visit Makassar, some never returned. In A Piece of Red Cloth , Arnhem Land writer Leonie Norrington, who has collaborated with three elders from the region, including Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, evokes some of the stories told about the relationships formed and cultural exchanges. But there are tensions. Some Yolnu p...
Feb 16, 2025•21 min
In this episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors reminisce about the book that defined their career, Roddy Doyle reflects on the times and difficulties of publishing The Commitments. A comic novel about a group of Irish youth who form a soul band, it's a brash and honest portrayal of working-class Dublin. It was rejected by numerous publishers, but Roddy persisted by self publishing. The Commitments became a hit, was made into a successful film and stage play. It also formed a trilogy...
Feb 15, 2025•34 min
Eowyn Ivey is best known for her magical debut novel, The Snow Child , a book set in her home state of Alaska. Her new book, Black Woods Blue Sky is also set in the beautiful and rugged wilds of Alaska, with magic and an unusual love story at its core, featuring a single mother finding tenderness in the unexpected. But does this love come at a cost?...
Feb 09, 2025•21 min
For journalist and writer Nikki Gemmell her Biggest Book was a huge commercial success, but it had a sensational effect on her life and work. The Bride Stripped Bare delves into the secret life of a married woman, her frustrations, longings and sexual fantasies with graphic details of her encounters. The woman in her 30s has mysteriously disappeared and her body never found. Like her unnamed character, Nikki Gemmell wanted to embrace what she saw as the subversive freedom of anonymity, when it w...
Feb 08, 2025•34 min
Claire speaks to Juhea Kim about her latest novel which centres around an elite Russian ballet dancer returning to the stage after a serious injury. The City of Night Birds is a meditation on the purity and pain of artistic expression but also investigates its purpose in a fractured world.
Feb 02, 2025•21 min
In this episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors ponder their breakthrough novels, Emma Donaghue recalls her 2010 novel Room . Inspired by the famous Fritzl case, it's about a boy and his mother held captive in a small room, the only world the child, Jack, has ever known. The book was shortlisted for the Booker and in 2015 the film version was released. That adaptation was also written by Emma Donoghue, and it won an Oscar for Brie Larson, who played Jack's mother, Ma. But these accol...
Feb 01, 2025•35 min
David Baldacci is the bestselling writer of heroes like Mickey Gibson and Aloysius Archer. He's written 50 books for adults as well as novels for younger readers. Some of his stories have been made into blockbuster movies or TV series. His latest, To Die For , features undercover agent Travis Devine as he faces his biggest challenge yet, protecting a 12 year old girl. At just over 75 pages, Sara Haddad's The Sunbird , a parable about a Palestinian woman in her 80s haunted by an attack on her hom...
Jan 26, 2025•21 min
There's an extra element to this second episode of My Biggest Book, where some of the world's biggest authors reminisce about their all-time biggest books. Hanif Kureishi's comedic novel The Buddha of Suburbia , about a father and a mixed race teenager growing up in the suburbs of 1970's South London won awards and was adapted to a successful TV series. Following the devastating accident that left him a tetraplegic and in a wheelchair, Hanif Kureishi now has a very different perspective. In a co...
Jan 25, 2025•33 min
Look in any library or book shop at any time of year and there's bound to be a newly released Alexander McCall Smith novel on the shelf. Most known for his No 1 Ladies' Detectives Agency Series, the 44 Scotland Series, and even books for children, he also writes standalone novels. Hear how he uses the seasons to write up to five books a year, including one of the latest, The Winds from Further West , Polygon....
Jan 19, 2025•16 min
What is it like to write a book that changes your life? Some of the world’s biggest authors reminisce about their all-time biggest books – the novels that changed their lives. In the first of this breakthrough series Audrey Niffenegger reflects on her debut novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife . The 2003 book, about time-travelling librarian Henry and his artist wife Clare, was an instant bestseller. It’s been adapted to the screen twice, as a film in 2009 and a TV series in 2022....
Jan 18, 2025•37 min
Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan explains why finishing his latest novel Caledonian Road was like "landing 65 planes on the tarmac" and award-winning author Evie Wyld on her new book The Echoes, and why there are so many sharks in her fiction. Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's latest book Caledonian Road (Faber and Faber) is a big in length and Dickensian scope. It's an exploration of life in London — a world of intellectuals and elites, Russian oligarchs and human traffickers, rappers, DJs, wellne...
Jan 12, 2025•54 min
At Adelaide Writers' Week, Booker Prize-winner Anne Enright speaks about the contradictions at the heart of families. Anne joined Claire Nichols in front of a live audience to talk about her latest book The Wren, The Wre n. It's about a straight-laced mum, her-free-spirit daughter and the poet father who left them in the lurch. Anne also shared insights about her other books including Actress, The Gathering (Booker Prize winner 2007) and Making Babies. And she offered her theory on why Irish poe...
Jan 05, 2025•54 min
From Sydney Writers' Festival, American author Celeste Ng shares how her latest novel Our Missing Hearts explores one of her deepest fears. Celeste Ng is known for her dark realist novels, Everything I Never Told You, and Little Fires Everywhere (which was adapted to the screen in 2020). Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian, near-future America, where anti-Asian sentiment has peaked, books are disappearing from the shelves, and children are being taken away from their families. It's a chilli...
Dec 29, 2024•54 min
Tim Winton explains his urgency for writing about climate change in his new novel Juice, Kaliane Bradley on her bestseller The Ministry of Time which has attracted Barack Obama's attention and Siang Lu's ambitious and complicated novel Ghost Cities. Tim Winton shares the anger and frustration that compelled him to write his latest novel Juice. It's set in a future north-Australia where resources are scarce and people are scarred by the sun and spend months living underground to escape the heat. ...
Dec 22, 2024•54 min
At Adelaide Writers' Week, Melissa Lucashenko explains how understanding that "all history is fiction" allowed her to write her historic novel Edenglassie. Melissa Lucashenko is known for creating unforgettable, feisty modern women in her fiction. There's Kerry Salter from her Miles Franklin winning novel Too Much Lip and Jo Breen, from her earlier acclaimed novel, Mullumbimby. But with her new book, Melissa has stepped into a new world. Edenglassie is about Brisbane before it was Brisbane in th...
Dec 15, 2024•54 min
Irish writer Niall Williams's latest novel Time of the Child celebrates the miracles of everyday life. Also, meet Nick Harkaway the son of David Cornwall AKA John le Carre, who is continuing his father's legacy in fictional espionage with Karla's Choice. Irish writer Niall Williams is the the author of the bestselling novels This is Happiness and the History of Rain and his latest is already a bestseller too and returns to his favourite fictional setting, the parish of Faha. Time of the Child is...
Dec 08, 2024•54 min
British writer Will Self reveals the extent of his "mother-worship" in his writing which has culminated in his latest novel, Elaine. The book was inspired by his mother's own diaries. Actor and comedian Steph Tisdell has added "novelist" to her resume with her young adult novel, The Skin I'm In, and Kylie Mirmohamadi's novel Diving, Falling is about a grieving woman of a 'certain age' whose life is about to get messy. What would you do if you found your mother's diaries under her bed? British wr...
Dec 01, 2024•54 min
Comic book legend, Alan Moore has renounced comics for novels and his new book The Great When uncovers a secret, fictional London. Rosalie Ham returns with a prequel to her bestselling novel The Dressmaker, and why Tigest Girma wrote a black vampire novel. British author Alan Moore has created iconic comics including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He has since distanced himself from comics, however, and today puts his creative energy into being a ...
Nov 24, 2024•54 min
Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle returns to the character Paula Spencer who first appeared in his fiction in the 1990s, we visit author of The Wedding Forecast Nina Kenwood in her seaside childhood home and Michelle de Kretser pushes the boundaries of fiction in Theory and Practice. Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist and Booker Prize winner (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha). His latest novel is the last in a trio of books that he began almost 30 years ago. In 1996 he published The Woman Who Walked into Doors...
Nov 17, 2024•54 min
This year's winner of the Booker Prize is British author Samantha Harvey for her fifth novel, Orbital. The Booker judges were unanimous in their decision. Orbital is set in the International Space Station and takes a bird's eye view of the earth as it orbits the world over a 24 hour period. The reader meets six astronauts and cosmonauts as they grapple with big questions of family, faith and grief, as well as mundane matters of domestic life in the space station. Samantha Harvey spoke to The Boo...
Nov 13, 2024•19 min
Australian crime writer Garry Disher has been writing for almost 50 years but has only recently been able to make a living and now he's published his 60th book, Sanctuary. Emily Maguire explores the medieval urban legend of a female pope in Rapture and in his novel, This Kingdom of Dust, David Dyer imagines what might've happened if the Apollo 11 mission didn't go to plan. Australian crime-writing legend, Garry Disher has just published his 60th book in a career that ranges over four decades and...
Nov 10, 2024•54 min
For the first time in a decade, an Australian writer, Charlotte Wood has made the Booker Prize shortlist with her novel Stone Yard Devotional. Hear from Charlotte and the other shortlisted writers, including Rachel Kushner and Percival Everett, and find out who we think will win. The Booker Prize is the most prestigious writing prize in the English speaking world and is open to books written in English, and published in England or Ireland in the last year. The winner takes home £50000 and expect...
Nov 03, 2024•54 min
A wild puma stalks through Robbie Arnott's haunting new novel, Dusk, Fiona McFarlane's homage to true crime podcasts in Highway 13 and Malcolm Knox raises the stakes in a Soviet era political thriller, The First Friend. Australian author Robbie Arnott has published four novels, and two of them — The Rain Heron and Limberlost — have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. His latest novel, Dusk , is a Western and it's about two siblings who are on the trail of a wild puma that's b...
Oct 27, 2024•54 min
