The Shakespeare and Company Interview

Shakespeare and Company•www.shakespeareandcompany.com

Discover your next favourite book, or take a deep dive into the mind of an author you love, with The Shakespeare and Company Interview podcast.

Long-form interviews with internationally acclaimed authors, recorded from our bookshop in the heart of Paris. Hosted by S&Co Literary Director, Adam Biles.

Discover all our upcoming events here.

If you enjoy these conversations, you can order The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews here.

Past guests include: Ottessa Moshfegh, Ian McEwan, Ali Smith, Har Kunzru, Rachel Kushner, Katie Kitamura, Elif Shafak, Claire-Louiose Bennett, Leïla Simoni, Ian Dunt, David Runciman, Richard Powers, Eimear McBride, Armando Iannucci, Lauren Grodd, Lauren Elkin, Recebcca Solnit, John Berger, Hollie McNish, Michael Pedersen, Rob Doyle, Philippe Sands, George Saunders, Edouard Louis, Rachel Cusk, Preti Taneja, Alejandro Zambra, DBC Pierre, Meg Mason, Sandra Newman, David Simon, Joshua Cohen, Geoff Dyer, David Wallce-Wells, Emul Saint-John Mandel, Mohsin Hamid, Tess Gunty, A.M. Homes, John Higgs, Miriam Toews, Kamila Shamsie, Annie Ernaux, William Boyd, David Keenan, Jonathan Coe, Coco Mellors, Tom Mustill, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Churchwell, Katy Hessel, Don Paterson, Elizabeth McCracken, Meena Kandasamy, Aleksandar Hemon, Catherine Lacey, Xiaolu Guo, M. John Harrison, Dolly Adderton, Hernan Diaz, Kathryn Scanlan, Ben Lerner, Isabel Waidner, Nick Laird, Adam Thirlwell, Mark O'Connell, Marie Darrieussecq, Jo Ann Beard, C Pam Zhang, Naomi Klein...and many, many more.

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Episodes

Katharina Volckmer on The Appointment

Buckle up! This week we welcome Katharina Volckmer discussing her wild, taboo-busting debut novel The Appointment, a transgressive, spiky, astonishingly light-footed, and very, very funny monologue about sex, nationhood, shame . . . and often all three combined.Buy The Appointment here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781913097325/the-appointmentBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https:/.friendsofshak...

Nov 18, 2021•55 min

Armando Iannucci on Pandemonium

This week Adam Biles is joined by comedy-legend Armando Iannucci to discuss Pandemonium, his riotously funny, but also deeply affecting mock-epic about the mistakes made and palms-greased during the British government’s handling of the pandemic.Buy Pandemonium here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781408715086/pandemonium-some-verses-on-the-current-predicamentBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https:/...

Nov 10, 2021•37 min

Eimear McBride on Something Out of Place: Women and Disgust

This week our guest is the brilliant Eimear McBride, discussing her first book of non-fiction Something Out of Place. Beginning with the sentiment of disgust with which, McBride argues, society regards and treats women, it develops into a blistering and astute polemic against the patriarchal framework that oppresses, coerces, sculpts controls and all too often ends the lives of half the world’s population.Buy Something Out of Place here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781788162869/somethin...

Nov 04, 2021•58 min

Richard Powers on Bewilderment

Our guest this week is Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers, discussing Bewilderment, his moving and visionary, Booker-shortlisted novel about a bereaved father and his neurodiverse son, their hunt for life on planets—both real and imaginary—and their attempts to convince others that life on our own planet is worth saving.Buy Bewilderment here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781785152634/bewilderment-shortlisted-for-the-booker-prize-2021Browse our online store here: https://shakespeareandc...

Oct 27, 2021•1 hr 2 min

BONUS PODCAST* Poetry from Archipelago Books

This special podcast is a collaboration with our friends at Archipelago books, showcasing three of their wonderful poetry titles: Acrobat by Nabaneeta Dev Sen, translated by Nandana Dev Sen; Allegri by Giuseppe Ungaretti, translated by Geoffrey Brock; And Until the Lions by Karthika Naïr.Buy Acrobat by Nabaneeta Dev Sen, translated by Nandana Dev Sen here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781939810809/acrobatBuy Allegri by Giuseppe Ungaretti, translated by Geoffrey Brock here: https://shakes...

Oct 23, 2021•38 min

David Runciman on Confronting Leviathan

This week Adam Biles is joined by David Runciman, Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the presenter of the hugely popular Talking Politics podcast. David's new book Confronting Leviathan is a compelling and accessible introduction to some of the most important and radical thinkers (Wolstonecraft, Constant, De Tocqueville, Marx and Engels, Hayek, MacKinnon, Fukuyama and more…) whose ideas have shaped our understanding of the modern state.Buy Confronting Leviathan here: https://shake...

Oct 20, 2021•1 hr 8 min

Anuk Arudpragasam on A Passage North

This week we’re joined Anuk Arudpragasm to discuss A Passage North, his Booker-shortlisted story of age and youth, loss and survival in Sri Lanka.Buy A Passage North here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781783786947/a-passage-northBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https:/.friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*It begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother”s former car...

Oct 13, 2021•54 min

Ian Dunt on How to Be a Liberal

This week Ian Dunt joined Adam Biles to discuss How to Be a Liberal, his immensely readable history of, and rallying cry for, “the single most radical political programme in the history of humankind.”Buy How to Be a Liberal here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781912454457/how-to-be-a-liberal-the-story-of-freedom-and-the-fight-for-its-survivalBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https:/.friendsofshakes...

Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 2 min

Leïla Slimani on The Country of Others

This week we’re joined by the brilliant Leïla Slimani to discuss The Country of Others, her immensely readable, deeply moving, Steinbeckian family drama set against the grand sweep of Moroccan and French history.Buy The Country of Others here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9780571361625/the-country-of-othersBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https:/.friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Alsace, 1944. Ma...

Sep 29, 2021•58 min

Tom McCarthy on The Making of Incarnation

This week, we welcome the twice Booker-shortlisted author Tom McCarthy here to discuss The Making of Incarnation, a novel that asks some of the most pressing but also most confounding questions of our age. How much will we ever be able to understand the forces that drive the universe, and how much meaning should we ascribe to them? Will the drive for efficiency inevitably strip away our humanity? What are we left with that is particular, peculiar and that belongs to us once our lives are fed int...

Sep 22, 2021•1 hr

Claire-Louise Bennett on Checkout 19

This week, we welcome one of the most innovative and fearless writers at work today, Claire-Louise Bennett, here to discuss CHECKOUT 19 a novel that explores class, freedom, adolescence, transcendence, sexual politics and artistic synthesis.Buy Checkout 19 here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781787333550/checkout-19Browse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com **Clair...

Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 14 min

David Keenan on Monument Maker

Join us as we take a plunge into the wild mind of David Keenan and his latest novel, the hallucinatory masterpiece Monument Maker.“In a dizzying gyroscopic vortex of inner archeology, David Keenan sifts through spiraling past lives to unearth his provocative vision of the future. A colossus of imagination” LENNY KAYEBuy Monument Maker here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781474617093/monument-makerBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreB...

Sep 08, 2021•54 min

Elif Shafak on The Island of Missing Trees

For our first podcast of la rentrée we were delighted to be joined by Elif Shafak, with us to discuss her mesmerising new novel The Island of Missing Trees, a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, memory and amnesia, human-induced destruction of nature, and, finally, renewal.Buy The Island of Missing Trees. here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9780241434994/the-island-of-missing-trees-the-top-10-sunday-times-bestsellerBrowse our online store here: https://shakespear...

Sep 01, 2021•53 min

Pola Oloixarac and John Freeman, in conversation

As the S&Co podcast takes its summer break for a few weeks, we leave you with this fascinating and funny conversation between Pola Oloixarac and John Freeman, recorded on the bookshop terrace on 19th July. Many thanks to John, Pola and the NYU Creative Writing Program for making this very special evening possible.*Buy Pola Oloixarac’s books here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/search?q=Pola+Oloixarac&type=booksBuy John Freeman’s There's a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Cr...

Aug 12, 2021•58 min

Katie Kitamura on Intimacies

In the second episode from our first in-store event in 18 months, Katie Kitamura discusses her deeply affecting, Barack Obama-approved, fourth novel Intimacies with S&Co Literary Director, Adam Biles.Buy Intimacies here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781787332003/intimacies-a-barack-obama-summer-2021-reading-pickBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Katie ...

Aug 05, 2021•37 min

Jakuta Alikavazovic on Night As It Falls

For our first in-store event for more than eighteen months we were joined by two of our favourite novelists, Jakuta Alikavazovic and Katie Kitamura.In this first episode from that evening Jakuta Alikavazovic discusses her extraordinary, crepuscular novel Night As It Falls with S&Co Literary Director, Adam Biles.Buy Night As It Falls here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9780571342266/night-as-it-fallsBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/books...

Jul 28, 2021•38 min

Laurent Binet on Civilisations

This week we were joined by Laurent Binet, discussing Civilisations, his hugely entertaining counterfactual novel in which Atahualpa leads an army of two hundred Incas to Europe . . . Buy Civilisations here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781787302297/civilisationsBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Laurent Binet lives and works in France. His first novel, HH...

Jul 21, 2021•56 min

Eliot Higgins on We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People

Today, Adam was joined by Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, a collective of self-taught internet sleuths who have solved some of the biggest crimes of our time, from the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 over the Ukraine to the sourcing of weapons in the Syrian Civil War and the identification of the Salisbury poisoners.Buy We Are Bellingcat here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781526615732/we-are-bellingcat-an-intelligence-agency-for-the-peopleBrowse our online store here: https://shakesp...

Jul 14, 2021•1 hr

Pragya Agarwal on (M)otherhood

Joining Adam Biles this week is behavioural and data scientist Dr Pragya Agarwal discussing (M)otherhood her meticulously researched, searingly honest investigation into motherhood and fertility.Buy (M)otherhood here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781838853167/motherhoodBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Dr Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural and data scientist...

Jul 07, 2021•58 min

Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan on Francis Bacon: Revelations

This week we’re joined by Pulitzer-prizewinners Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan to discuss Francis Bacon: Revelations, their biography of one of the most radical, shocking and slippery artists of the 20th century.Buy Francis Bacon Revelations here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9780007298419/francis-bacon-revelationsBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*The biogr...

Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 10 min

Jennifer Lucy Allan on The Foghorn's Lament: The Disappearing Music of the Coast

This week we were joined by Jennifer Lucy Allan, author of one of the most peculiar and moving non-fiction books of the year. The Foghorn’s Lament is one woman’s quest to uncover and understand the booming, lonely machine that soundtracks the oceans.Buy The Foghorn’s Lament here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781474615037/the-foghorns-lamentBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakesp...

Jun 23, 2021•58 min

Hari Kunzru on Red Pill

We were delighted to welcome back Hari Kunzru to discuss his recent novel Red Pill, a journey into the moral darkness of our times, and one of the most exciting and provocative books of the past year.Buy Red Pill here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/I/9781471194474/red-pillBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Born in London, Hari Kunzru is the author of the novel...

Jun 16, 2021•1 hr

Rob Doyle and Rachel Kushner in conversation

We were joined by two of the most radical and exciting voices in anglophone literature, Rob Doyle and Rachel Kushner, for a discussion of art, class, truth and how much of a ‘sick puppy’ Georges Bataille really was.Buy Rob Doyle’s Threshold here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781526607089/thresholdBuy Rachel Kushner’s The Hard Crowd here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781787333109/the-hard-crowdBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/books...

Jun 10, 2021•1 hr 4 min

Niven Govinden & Musa Okwonga in conversation

This week we are joined by Niven Govinden and Musa Okwonga. On the face of it, their new novels—"Diary of a Film" and "In the End it was All About Love"—couldn’t seem more different, and yet they dialogue in many interesting ways. In conversation with Adam Biles, they talk art, love, cities, sexuality, belonging and food.Buy Diary of a Film here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780349700717/diary-of-a-filmBuy In the End it Was All About Love here: http://roughtradebooks.com/books/in-the-end...

May 27, 2021•1 hr 3 min

Ece Temelkuran on Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now

This week Adam Biles was joined by Ece Temelkuran to discuss her thrilling new book “Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now” a unique and bold manifesto for how all of us can rise to the political and social challenges the world faces.Buy TOGETHER here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780008393816/togetherBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Ece Temelkuran is on...

May 13, 2021•53 min

Rosa Rankin-Gee on Dreamland

We were thrilled to be joined by Rosa Rankin-Gee to discuss her striking second novel Dreamland, a postcard from a near-future (don’t say post-apocalyptic!) Britain that’s may be closer than we think. Hosted by Adam BilesBuy DREAMLAND here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781471193811/dreamlandBrowse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstoreBecome a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com*Rosa Rankin-Gee lives between R...

May 06, 2021•49 min

Jenni Fagan and Salena Godden in conversation with Adam Biles

We’re back! Welcome to the relaunched S&Co podcast. For the first episode after a long hiatus, we were thrilled to be joined (remotely!) by Jenni Fagan and Salena Godden to discuss their formally inventive and thematically bold new novels LUCKENBOOTH and MRS DEATH MISSES DEATH. Hosted by Adam Biles.Buy LUCKENBOOTH here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780434023318/luckenboothBuy MRS DEATH MISSES DEATH here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781838851194/mrs-death-misses-deathBrowse o...

Apr 29, 2021•58 min

An extract from Pond, read by Claire-Louise Bennett

For this episode, we’re thrilled to be collaborating with the brilliant Fitzcarraldo Editions to bring you an exclusive extract from the audiobook of their modern classic Pond, performed by its author Claire-Louise Bennett.You can buy the audiobook from the publisher’s website www.fitzcarraldoeditions.com, and of course you can buy a physical copy of Pond from our online store, www.shakespeareandcompany.com where you can also find all manner of new and rare books, gifts, and tote bags, which we ...

Sep 17, 2020•36 min

Renga through a Lockdown with Marilyn Hacker and Karthika Naïr

We were delighted to welcome Karthika Naïr and Marilyn Hacker back to the bookshop. During lockdown, Marilyn and Karthika began writing Renga — a collaborative form of Japanese poetry — to each other, building up a beautiful and compelling body of work that engages with both the micro and the macro of this unprecedented moment. This meeting was the first time that these close friends had been in the same room as each other for several months, and their readings ring with the sorrow of separation...

Aug 04, 2020•22 min

Lindsey Tramuta on The New Parisienne

We were delighted to be joined by Lindsey Tramuta to discuss her second book The New Parisienne—her fascinating follow-up to The New Paris—in which she explores the women and ideas shaping the French capital. We have a limited number of signed copies of The New Parisienne available in our online store: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/s/9781419742811/the-new-parisienne-the-women-ideas-shaping-paris Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Jul 17, 2020•1 hr 8 min

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