John Boyne, Esther Freud, Louise Kennedy and the Irish voice
Is there such thing as an Irish voice in fiction?
Jan 07, 2024•54 min
The Book Show
Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.
Episodes
Fakes and Frauds 03 | Fabrication and lies in Marlo Morgan's Mutant Message Down Under
Cannibalism, telepathy and celibacy are just some of the false claims about Australian Aboriginal people that Marlo Morgan made in her 1990s new age hit, Mutant Message Down Under, and this episode of Fakes and Frauds exposes the lies.
Jan 02, 2024•34 min
Ian McEwan's most personal novel, plus Booker winner Paul Lynch
Booker winner Ian McEwan explores his 1960s childhood in his latest novel and reigning Booker winner Paul Lynch on his unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland.
Dec 31, 2023•54 min
Fakes and Frauds 02 | Fact or fiction in Norma Khouri's Forbidden Love
Find out how to catch a con-artist in this episode of Fakes and Frauds that delves into the fake memoir Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri 20 years after the book was first published.
Dec 26, 2023•37 min
Pulitzer Prize winners Barbara Kingsolver and Hernán Diaz
The two winners of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction are both about money but at opposite ends of the spectrum — Barbara Kingsolver's is about poverty while Hernán Diaz's is about astronomical wealth.
Dec 24, 2023•54 min
Fakes and Frauds 01 | Plagiarism scandal in The Dogs by John Hughes
Fakes and Frauds is a new series that unpacks famous Australian literary scandals. The first and most recent controversy was the discovery of plagiarism in the work of award winning Australian writer John Hughes. Find out how the plagiarism was uncovered and why it matters.
Dec 19, 2023•32 min
Ego and creativity with Anna Funder and Paul Jennings
Australian writers Anna Funder and Paul Jennings on what it takes to be a writer.
Dec 17, 2023•54 min
Naomi Alderman and Charlotte Wood on bunkers, billionaires and nuns
Naomi Alderman takes on tech giants and survivalists in a novel that imagines the end of the world, and an atheist joins a monastery in Charlotte Wood's meditative new book.
Dec 10, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Amanda Lohrey, Matthew Reilly and Katherine Brabon on the sacred, swimming and Einstein
Miles Franklin winner Amanda Lohrey asks where we find community in our secular world, Matthew Reilly's latest adventure and the restorative power of the pool with Katherine Brabon.
Dec 03, 2023•54 min
Pod extra with the Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch
Paul Lynch is the 2023 Booker Prize winner for his novel Prophet Song. Prophet Song (Bloomsbury) is an unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland where a populist government has taken control and becoming increasingly authoritarian. Activists are being disappeared and the main character Eilish Stack is trying to keep her family together. Paul Lynch spoke to the Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange about the writer's responsibility to truth and how to craft a novel that resembles myth....
Nov 27, 2023•19 min
Richard Flanagan on the atomic bomb, HG Wells and a kiss
Booker winner Richard Flanagan on why writing his latest book Question 7 "felt like a strange dream". Also, the artist's muse in fiction and how a mistake led to Laura Jean McKay's latest book.
Nov 26, 2023•54 min
Tony Birch and Christos Tsiolkas on love, shame and dangerous dinner-parties
Two very different writers explore the dynamics of family and violence: Tony Birch in a 1960s working class, Catholic family and Christos Tsiolkas in middle-aged gay relationships.
Nov 19, 2023•54 min
Booker Prize shortlist — mythical, profound and lyrical
In the lead up to the 2023 Booker Prize award, we dive into the six shortlisted novels and meet the authors.
Nov 12, 2023•54 min
"We don't come from nowhere" — Melissa Lucashenko on her historical novel Edenglassie
Brisbane is in the spotlight with Melissa Lucashenko exploring the early days of the colony in time for the city's bicentenary and debut novelist Melanie Saward's story of a troubled teen with an attraction to fire.
Nov 05, 2023•54 min
Haunting fiction with Shehan Karunatilaka, Steve Toltz and many more
Things are getting spooky on The Book Show, as we explore ghostly fiction. Booker winner Shehan Karunatilaka and Australian Steve Toltz will imagine the afterlife with their beyond-the-grave novels. Jennifer Mills, SJ Norman and Kevin Jared Hosein will tell you about the ghosts haunting their books, and Josh Kemp and Michelle Johnston will take you to the ghost towns that inspired their fiction.
Oct 29, 2023•54 min
Between two worlds with Jesmyn Ward, Graham Akhurst and Anna McGahan
Three authors on the spirits and spirituality at the heart of their novels - award winning US author Jesmyn Ward's lyrical novel about slavery, Indigenous author Graham Akhurt's terrifying dog man in his debut novel, and Anna McGahan on her former membership of a Pentecostal church that informs her Vogel Literary Award winning book.
Oct 22, 2023•54 min
"It began with a crime" — Cassandra Clare's latest fantasy fiction
Bestselling fantasy author Cassandra Clare draws on her Jewish background in her first novel for adults, Kareem Abdulrahman on translating Kurdish Iraqi author Bachtyar Ali and Mirandi Riwoe's jasmine drenched historical novel.
Oct 15, 2023•54 min
Trent Dalton on homelessness, hope and the tyrannosaurus waltz
Trent Dalton's foray into Brisbane's underworld in his third novel, Leah Kaminsky's story of dolls and exile and Peter Polities on mothers and sons.
Oct 08, 2023•54 min
Jeanette Winterson on avatars and the afterlife, plus Kate Mildenhall
Two writers imagine how technology will shape our future: Jeanette Winterson talks about how AI will give new meaning to ghost stories and Australian writer Kate Mildenhall imagines an algorithm to save the world.
Oct 01, 2023•54 min
Sebastian Faulks and what makes us human
Sebastian Faulks on what makes us human, Emily Perkins takes on female rage and Jane Harrison digs into Australian history to bring us The Visitors.
Sep 25, 2023•54 min
Booker Prize winner: Margaret Atwood
It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Margaret Atwood who won the prize for a second time in 2019, sharing the prize with Bernardine Evaristo for her novel The Testaments, a sequel to her popular The Handmaid's Tale.
Sep 18, 2023•26 min
Booker Prize winner: Damon Galgut
It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's South African writer Damon Galgut who won the prize in 2021 for The Promise, a novel which explores recent South African history through the changing fortunes of a white family.
Sep 18, 2023•26 min
Booker Prize winner: Shehan Karunatilaka
It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka who won the prize in 2022 for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, set during the Sri Lankan civil war with a ghost for a narrator.
Sep 18, 2023•25 min
Booker Prize winner: George Saunders
It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's American short story writer, essayist and novelist George Saunders who won in 2017 for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, set in the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln's son is buried.
Sep 18, 2023•18 min
Booker Prize winner: Douglas Stuart
It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Scottish author Douglas Stuart who won in 2020 for his devastating novel Shuggie Bain, set in the poverty stricken housing estates of 1980s Glasgow.
Sep 18, 2023•16 min
Booker Prize winner: Bernardine Evaristo
It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Bernardine Evaristo who shared the prize with Margaret Atwood in 2019 for her novel Girl, Woman, Other.
Sep 18, 2023•23 min
Feel good fiction with Anita Heiss, Marlon James, Monica Ali and more
Literary fiction is good at the hard stuff – grief, pain and conflict - but what about the books that make you feel good? Authors Joan Silber, Toni Jordan and Andy Weir bring joy to The Book Show for ABC Arts Week, talking about the radical act of writing optimistic fiction. You'll also hear from Richard Ford, Douglas Stuart, Jennifer Down, Anita Heiss, Marlon James and Monica Ali.
Sep 18, 2023•54 min
Zadie Smith on Jamaica, delusion and Dickens
Two historical novels with colonialism as their backdrop: one by the famous UK writer Zadie Smith and the other a debut novel by Fijian Australian author, Nilima Rao. And Molly Schmidt shares the story that was bubbling inside her since she was a teenager.
Sep 11, 2023•54 min
"We love the people we damage" — Anne Enright
Former Booker Prize winner Anne Enright says she's drawn to life's contradictions and in her latest The Wren, The Wren she explores the complicated, messy relationships at the heart of one family. Also, Marija Peričić on one man's love of a dead woman, and Laura Elizabeth Woollett's changing relationship with her hometown, Perth.
Sep 04, 2023•54 min
Coming of age with Chris Womersley, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Zeynab Gamieldien
Chris Womersley exposes the dark side of suburbia in his sixth novel Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Maxine Beneba Clarke shares the joy of poetry for young readers and Zeynab Gamieldien explores the lives of members of a university Muslim Students' Association in her debut novel.
Aug 28, 2023•54 min
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