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.
American writer Sequoia Nagamatsu shares stories from his childhood growing up in Hawaii, his love of Star Trek, how environmentalism fuels his writing and how being Japanese American has shaped him. His debut novel is How High We Go in the Dark and he was a guest of the Perth Festival Writers Weekend.
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.
