Sex parties, corruption and dark dark deeds in not-quite-Nigeria, in Akwaeke Emezi’s Little Rot; aspiration, real estate and misguided philanthropists in New York, in Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement, and ordinary people living extraordinary lives, and all those untold stories, in Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything. GUESTS Gretchen Shirm, critic and writer whose books include the short story collection Having Cried Wolf and the novels Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room. Stephen Long, Senior F...
Sep 13, 2024•55 min
A peripatetic hotel, a paddle steamer of dreams and a dastardly law firm, in Jock Serong’s Cherrywood; one of the 20th century’s top 10 all-star ‘leading’ murderers, and what it might mean to be close to him, in Malcolm Knox’s The First Friend; and spies, caves, lies and Neanderthals in Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake. BOOKS Malcolm Knox, The First Friend, Allen & Unwin Jock Serong, Cherrywood, Fourth Estate Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, Jonathan Cape GUESTS Roanna Gonsalves, creative writin...
Sep 06, 2024•54 min
An overview of the books of the year so far, what’s coming up for the rest of the year, and the 'to be read' book pile of regret as Kate and Cassie confess all with bookseller Jon Page and literary interviewer and editor of The Monthly Michael Williams. BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIEPercival Everett, JamesCeridwen Dovey, Only the AstronautsIain Ryan, The StripGabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeFrancis Spufford, Cahokia JazzElizabeth Strout, Tell M...
Aug 30, 2024•55 min
Stories of Northern Soul, pigs trotters in performance art and politics in the subtropical 1950s come to life in three new works of fiction including Vortex, the new novel from 88 year old Rodney Hall, twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award; Woo Woo, by another Australian writer, Ella Baxter; and Rare Singles, the latest from English writer and journalist Benjamin Myers. BOOKS Rodney Hall, Vortex, PicadorElla Baxter, Woo Woo, Allen & UnwinBenjamin Myers, Rare Singles, Bloomsbury GUESTS Gre...
Aug 23, 2024•54 min
Kate and Cassie read Rita Bullwinkle's Headshot, a luminous debut that follows eight teenage girl boxers in Reno, Nevada. Crime writer Michael Robotham discusses Chris Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark – a story with a one-eyed boy, missing children, and a character who may or may not be an hallucination, and a nod to True Crime and Australia’s dark history in Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13, with critic Beejay Silcox. BOOKS Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot, DB Originals Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13, ...
Aug 16, 2024•54 min
What does the 2024 Miles Franklin shortlist tell us about our shared imagination? Bernadette Brennan and Geordie Williamson join Kate and Cassie to examine the winner, Alexis Wright's epic novel Praiseworthy, and all the finalists for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize. BOOKS WINNER: Alexis Wright, Praiseworthy (Giramondo) REST OF SHORTLIST: Hossein Asgari, Only Sound Remains (Puncher & Wattmann)Jen Craig, Wall (Puncher & Wattmann)André Dao, Anam (Hamish Hamilton)Gregory Day, Th...
Aug 09, 2024•55 min
Bruce Isaacs on weird fiction novelist China Mievelle's The Book of Elsewhere, a genre-bending epic written in collaboration with Hollywood star Keanu Reeves. Plus, guest critic Ailsa Piper on The Echoes by Miles Franklin winning author Evie Wyld...set between London and rural Australia it's part love story, part ghost story, and Kate and Cassie discuss Choice by Booker-shortlisted author Neel Mukherjee, a bleak, powerful and viciously funny novel about a publisher at war with his industry and h...
Aug 02, 2024•54 min
Award-winning U.S. author Willy Vlautin's The Horse is his poignant new novel about the life of a lonely country musician in Nevada and his chance encounter with a half blind horse. Plus, bookseller David Gaunt reviews Ammar Kalia's A Person Is a Prayer, one family's story of migration from Kenya and India to the UK; and Wellington based critic and curator Claire Mabey looks at Laurence Fearnley's At The Grand Glacier Hotel, which follows a stormy family holiday set on New Zealand's South Island...
Jul 26, 2024•54 min
Kate Evans and Jonathan Green with guests Pip Williams and Sarah Bailey read Dylin Hardcastle's A Language of Limbs, Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword, Valeria Usala's A Woman in Sardinia and Jean-Baptiste del Amo's The Son of Man. Australian fiction, novels in translation, secrets and violence, cities and regions, queer love and emotional truths, and a hint of fantasy. BOOKS Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs, Picador Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword, Del Ray Valeria Usala, A Woman in Sardinia (...
Jul 19, 2024•54 min
Money, kidnapping, reality TV, politics, corruption, families, love, and betrayal in all three books on this edition of The Bookshelf. Kate Evans and Jonathan Green, with guests Farz Edraki and Johan Gabrielsson, read Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise, Porochistaa Khakpour's Tehrangeles and Patrick Holland's Oblivion. Awfully rich, richly awful. BOOKS Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Long Island Compromise, Wildfire Porochistaa Khakpour, Tehrangeles: A Novel, Ultimo Press Patrick Holland, Obl...
Jul 12, 2024•54 min
The band is back together! Join Cassie and Kate as they head to an island off North America in Julia Phillips’ Bear, plus two Australian novels – Jessie Tu’s The Honeyeater and Finegan Kruckemeyer’s The End and Everything Before It. BOOKS Julia Phillips, Bear, Scribe Jessie Tu, The Honeyeater, Allen & Unwin Finegan Kruckemeyer, The End and Everything Before It, Text GUESTS Tom Wright, theatre writer and literary adaptor; Artistic Associate at Belvoir Theatre Nicole Abadee, books writer for t...
Jul 05, 2024•54 min
Kate Evans is joined by guest host Richard Aedy to discuss Catherine McKinnon's To Sing of War, a novel of love, war and friendship. Plus, two debut novels... Big Time by Jordan Prosser, set in a not-too-distant future Australia where pop music is propaganda, and Evenings and Weekends by Oisin McKenna, set during a heatwave in London as tensions and secrets come to a head over one life-changing weekend.BOOKS Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War, Fourth Estate Jordan Prosser, Big Time, UQP Oisín Mc...
Jun 28, 2024•54 min
Kate Evans returns with guest reviewers to discuss Bruce Pascoe’s Imperial Harvest, an epic of brutality and imperialism; along with Jenny Ackland’s Hurdy Gurdy, a circus saga set in a near-future Australia; and Miranda July’s All Fours, which looks at one woman's quest for a very unique kind of freedom. BOOKS Bruce Pascoe, Imperial Harvest, Melbourne Books Jenny Ackland, Hurdy Gurdy, Allen & Unwin Miranda July, All Fours, Canongate GUESTS Beejay Silcox, writer, critic and literary judge. Ar...
Jun 21, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Kate discuss Jenny Erpenbecks' Kairos (winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize) with critic Declan Fry - originally broadcast August 2023 when the book was first published; and interviews with writers A K Blakemore (The Glutton), Daniel Mason (North Woods) and Gretchen Shirm (The Crying Room) by Kate Evans. BOOKS Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann, Granta A K Blakemore, The Glutton, Granta Daniel Mason, North Woods, John Murray Gretchen Shirm,...
Jun 17, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Tom Wright read The Parade by Rachel Cusk, her first since 2018’s Kudos, the final part of the acclaimed Outline trilogy. Once again, Cusk questions the very nature of truth. James Ley joins to discuss Ceridwen Dovey’s new collection of short stories, Only the Astronauts, which takes us off-planet and into the “lives” of the objects that humans have sent into space. Gretchen Shirm reviews Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti, constructed of sentences culled from 10 years of her journal...
Jun 07, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Jonathan Green review The Ministry of Time by debut British-Cambodian novelist Kaliane Bradley, a heads up, it's brilliant. Michael Brissenden reviews Crooked Seeds by South African writer Karen Jennings, a crime mystery set in Cape Town. Nicole Abadee looks at The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry, a story that takes us to 1891 and a grim winter in a small mining town of immigrant Irish workers in the Rocky Mountains. BOOKS The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley (Hachette) Crooked Seeds,...
May 31, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Claire Nichols team up on stage at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival to grill some huge literary stars on their reading lives: Irish Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, U.S. bestseller Celeste Ng, and Australia’s Christos Tsoilkas. GUESTS Paul Lynch, internationally acclaimed, prize-winning author of five novels including the 2023 Booker Prize Winner Prophet Song Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hea...
May 24, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Jonathan Green review Safe Haven by 2023 Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran, Table For Two by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman In Moscow), and Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan of Crazy Rich Asians fame. BOOKS Safe Haven, Shankari Chandran (Ultimo Press) Lies and Weddings, Kevin Kwan (Penguin) Table for Two, Amor Towles (Penguin) GUESTS Jennifer Wong, Chinese-Australian writer and comedian. She’s the presenter of Chopsticks or Fork?, a six-part AACTA-nominated ABC series on Chine...
May 17, 2024•54 min
Cassie and guest host Tom Wright discuss Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History, about a family torn apart by war, geography, politics and religion, over the course of three generations. Plus, guests Claire Mabey and Shannon Burns review new fiction from Sarah Perry and Alan Murrin. BOOKS This Strange Eventful History, Claire Messud (Hachette) Enlightenment, Sarah Perry (Penguin) The Coast Road, Alan Murrin (Bloomsbury) GUESTS Shannon Burns, writer, critic, and member of The JM Coetzee Ce...
May 10, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Cassie and Jonathan Green discuss Colm Tóibín's eagerly awaited new novel Long Island. Star reviewers Madeleine Gray and Benjamin Law discuss buzzy new fiction from Siang Lu (Ghost Cities), and Rachel Khong (Real Americans). BOOKS Long Island, Colm Toibin (Pan Macmillan) Ghost Cities, Siang Lu (UQP) Real Americans, Rachel Khong (Penguin) GUESTS Benjamin Law, writer, columnist, screenwriter. His work includes The Family Law and Wellmania Madeleine Gray, arts writer, critic and PhD candidate in En...
May 03, 2024•1 hr
Cassie and Jonathan Green look at Until August, the lost novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and guest reviewers Hannah Kent and Roanna Gonsalves discuss powerful new fiction out of Iceland and the UK.
Apr 26, 2024•59 min
Cassie and guest host Beejay Silcox read new work by One Day sensation David Nicholls.
Apr 19, 2024•54 min
Cassie, Tom Wright and guests look at The End of the Morning, the never-before-published novel by the Australian writer Charmian Clift, who died in 1969. Plus, The Alternatives by Ireland’s Caoilinn Hughes, and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, about the consequences of colonisation and the forced assimilation of Native Americans, which is already generating high praise. BOOKS The End of the Morning, Charmian Clift (New South) Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange (Penguin Random House) The Alternatives,...
Apr 12, 2024•54 min
Michaela Kalowski and Cassie look at The Work by Bri Lee, plus new novels from Call Me By Your Name author Andre Aciman, and a work of speculative fiction by Mykaela Saunders.
Apr 05, 2024•54 min
Cassie and guest host Tom Wright take a look at the exceptional new novel from award-winning Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan, plus, a genre bending mystery from Stuart Turton and a clever new thriller set in Edinburgh.
Mar 28, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Jonathan read Orange Prize winner Téa Obreht’s The Morningside, a dystopian coming-of-age story, plus, a Japanese bestseller and a new post-war literary crime series.
Mar 22, 2024•54 min
Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, alienation and a talking fox in this edition of The Bookshelf.
Mar 15, 2024•54 min
Cassie and Jonathan Green review three new Australian novels with guest star Claire Nichols and novelist Graham Akhurst.
Mar 08, 2024•54 min
Cassie and co-host Tom Wright review two new Australian novels, and from across the ‘Dutch',
Mar 01, 2024•54 min
Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green review a literary project edited by Margaret Atwood, and new work by Gail Jones and Jennifer Croft.
Feb 23, 2024•54 min
