Cassie McCullough

Rob, you mentioned Under the Mountain, but what have you read more recently?

Oh.

Now tell me about that, this book, The Girl in the Mirror, because I was sent a copy of this book when I put it in the pile of things that I didn't have to read but I was interested in reading.

And my dad saw it and he's never been more insistent, like because I give him books all the time, you know, to read.

Have you read it yet?

Have you read it yet?

And I don't know what I think.

I want you to read it and I just haven't had time to read it.

So what's got his goat?

I mean, can you tell it without revealing the plot?

Susannah Clarke's debut novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, was published in 2004 and it became an international bestseller.

It's an alternative history set in England during the Napoleonic Wars with feuding magicians and discourses on the theory of magic inside it.

It was published in more than 30 countries and it sold millions of copies.

It was made into a TV series

And maybe because of that, it's taken 16 years for Susanna Clarke's next novel to appear.

So, yeah, fever pitch expectations on the poor girl.

Yeah, I was just going to say, they're a little bit like Escher's, aren't they?

This is The Bookshelf on Radio National and also via the ABC Listen app and wherever you get your excellent podcasts.

I'm Cassie McCullough here with Kate Evans, novelist C.S.

Pacat and crime writer R.W.R.