Author of The Tiger's Wife Téa Obreht reterns with Morningside, a dystopian fairy tale, and Stella Prize-shortlisted author Emily O'Grady on the rotten characters in her novel Feast. Téa Obreht won The Women's Prize for Fiction — then called the Orange Prize — for her debut novel, The Tiger's Wife and at the time she was the youngest ever winner of the award. It was a family saga, about doctors, death and the Balkan wars. She followed it up with a Western called Inland. With her new novel, Morni...
Apr 29, 2024•44 min
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie inspired riots in England and book burnings in India; death threats, murders and a fatwa; and ultimately, a devastating physical attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022. Banned Books is a new series that looks at what's driving book bans worldwide. This episode revisits how one book inspired so much hatred and violence.
Apr 27, 2024•24 min
Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan explains why finishing his latest novel Caledonian Road was like "landing 65 planes on the tarmac"; plus a teaser for the first in our Banned Books series, starting in America. Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's (Faber and Faber) latest book Caledonian Road is a big one 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, wellness assistants and those who se...
Apr 22, 2024•33 min
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was inspired by the black lives matter movement and explores police brutality — so why is it being taken off library shelves in the US? Banned Books is a new series that looks at what's driving book bans worldwide. The series begins in America where books about race and racism have become a lightning rod for censorship in public libraries and state schools Guests: Angie Thomas , author of The Hate U Give (original 2017 interview) Kasey Meehan , program director fo...
Apr 20, 2024•24 min
Booker-shortlisted author Sunjeev Sahota argues that class is more important than identity, Vanessa Chan draws on her grandmother's stories of Japanese occupied Malaya and Winnie Dunn channels her own experience of growing up Tongan in Western Sydney.
Apr 15, 2024•54 min
Known for his sumptuous novel Call Me By My Name, André Aciman's latest book also explores love and beauty in Italy. Plus, Indian author Anjali Joseph on the allure of Assam, India, which is known for its unique cultural heritage.
Apr 08, 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.
Mar 31, 2024•54 min
Award winning Australian journalist Louise Milligan on her debut crime novel inspired by police and PTSD and Pulitzer Prize winning Jane Smiley on why she wants her books to be banned and her latest novel A Dangerous Business.
Mar 24, 2024•54 min
Bestselling American author Jonathan Lethem explains why he returned to Brooklyn in his fiction after 20 years.
Mar 17, 2024•54 min
At Adelaide Writers' Week, Booker-winner Anne Enright speaks about the contradictions at the heart of families.
Mar 10, 2024•54 min
RF Kuang speaks about her bestseller Yellowface and Nam Le, Australian author of The Boat, explains why his latest is a book of poetry.
Mar 03, 2024•54 min
Award-winning literary translator Jennifer Croft imagines what happens when translators get together in a primeval forest, Imbi Neeme's exploration of misophonia and Mykaela Saunders' love-hate relationship with Mad Max.
Feb 25, 2024•54 min
Jasper Fforde's sequel to Shades of Grey, Amy Brown introduces us to Miles Franklin's sister and Leo Vardiashvili's missing persons quest through the forests of Georgia.
Feb 18, 2024•54 min
Bestselling American author Kristin Hannah digs into the little known stories of US nurses during the Vietnam War, Jodi McAlister's comic take on The Bachelor and Sharlene Allsopp reckons with Australia's history.
Feb 11, 2024•54 min
Pulitzer Prize winning Libyan author Hisham Matar on friendship in political exile and British author Ela Lee on the power of friendship at times of personal crisis.
Feb 04, 2024•54 min
Kiley Reid's follow up to Such a Fun Age in a campus novel that she says isn't a campus novel, Rachael Johns' love story about a woman called Bridget Jones and Iain Ryan's hardboiled take on Gold Coast corruption in the 1980s.
Jan 28, 2024•54 min
Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham's latest novel Day explores a bromance, Madeleine Gray on writing a funny "sad girl novel" and Jessica Zhan Mei Yu on Sylvia Plath and up-ending the coming of age story.
Jan 21, 2024•54 min
My Own Sweet Time was a memoir said to be written by Wanda Koolmatrie, a member of the Aboriginal stolen generations. But it was a hoax and this episode of Fakes and Frauds explores the long lasting impacts of the hoax particularly on Aboriginal Australian writers.
Jan 16, 2024
Pip Williams' follow up to her bestselling novel The Dictionary of Lost Words, Josh Kemp on how bushwalking helps his writing and the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner, Shankari Chandran.
Jan 14, 2024•54 min
The Helen Demidenko scandal tore the Australian literary community apart in the 1990s. This episode of Fakes and Frauds charts the rise and downfall of Helen Demidenko and the impacts on the book world.
Jan 08, 2024•41 min
Is there such thing as an Irish voice in fiction?
Jan 07, 2024•54 min
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
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
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
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 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
Australian writers Anna Funder and Paul Jennings on what it takes to be a writer.
Dec 17, 2023•54 min
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
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
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
