Desperate Readers
Episodes
L. Napoleon and Mephistopheles: The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week Niko and Tatiana discuss the ultimate Russian writer Alexander Pushkin. They read the novella "The Queen of Spades" and talk about certainty...
XLIX. The Most Righteous and Appalling: Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week welcomes back to the pod Heinrich von Kleist and perhaps his most famous novella, "Michael Kohlhaas"! Niko and Tatiana discuss justice, cert...
XLVIII. The Ways of White Folks: Passing by Langston Hughes
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week Niko and Tatiana return to the Harlem Renaissance and discuss Langston Hughes's short story "Passing" from the collection The Ways of White ...
XLVII. The Misfit and the Grandmother: A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Niko and Tatiana discuss Flannery O'Connor's iconic short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" with special guest Sophie.
XLVI. Touching Grass Is Not Enough: When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Spooky Season has come and gone but we're still talking about witches on the podcast. Niko and Tatiana read When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà...
XLV. Waves of Violence: Barn Burning by William Faulkner
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to the pod, William Faulkner! This week, Tatiana and Niko read the short story "Barn Burning," originally published in Harper's Magazine ...
XLIV. El llano en llamas: The Burning Plain by Juan Rulfo
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A underrated classic praised by Nobel winners. Niko and Tatiana read two short stories, "The Burning Plain" and "Tell Them Not to Kill Me!", from Juan...
XLIII. Not a Podcast: Not a River by Selva Almada
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On to the Booker International Shortlist! This week Niko and Tatiana read Not a River by Selva Almada, translated from the Spanish by Annie McDermott....
XLII. Liars and Mothers: The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're back!! Niko and Tatiana read the 2024 Booker International Longlist and Strega-Prize winning The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone. We ta...
XLI. What Women Most Desire: The Wife of Bath's Tale by Geoffery Chaucer
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On the last episode of our pilgrimage, we meet one of the most colorful characters in Chaucer's tale: The Wife of Bath. Niko and Tatiana discuss exper...
XL. RIP Chaucer, You Would've Loved the Godfather: The Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The pilgrimage continues! Niko and Tatiana dive into some of the most famous stories from the Canterbury Tales: the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale...
XXXIX. Whan that Aprill: The Canterbury Tales (Opening Prologue and the Knight's Tale) by Geoffery Chaucer
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
...with his shoures soote, Niko and Tatiana celebrate spring by starting the Canterbury Tales by Geoffery Chaucer. They focus on the General Prologue ...
XXXVIII. Is-slottet: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Nordic trilogy wraps up with The Ice Palace by Norwegian novelist Tarjei Vesaas, which recounts the strange relationship between two girls, Siss a...
XXXVII. I Was Taking a Drive: A Shining by Jon Fosse
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The overdue Nordic winter trilogy continues: Tatiana and Niko read 2023 Nobel Prize Laureate Jon Fosse's most recent translated work, A Shining, about...
XXXVI. Bro!: Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We're Back! After a long winter (and winter break), Niko and Tatiana read the classic Old English epic Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney. They disc...
XXXV. Ethics and Aesthetics: Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In preparation for the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie, Niko and Tatiana read Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. They discuss Bella Baxter's story, ethics and a...
XXXIV. Life Is Hard, but You Must Be Harder: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Niko and Tatiana read Woman at Point Zero by Egyptian feminist author and doctor Nawal El Saadawi, the "Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab worl...
XXXIII. How Did they ever Make a Podcast of Lolita: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A true American classic! Niko and Tatiana read Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and discuss eroticism, the English language, and America!
XXXII. It Gives Two Turns!: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Spooky season comes late to the pod as Niko and Tatiana invite special guest Alex to talk about Henry James's ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. The ...
XXXI. The Labyrinth of Inhumanity: The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For literature and literature lovers. Niko and Tatiana read The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt. T...
XXX. Rage (or What is Achilles’s Problem?): the Iliad by Homer
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What's Achilles's problem? Can we understand the classical mind? Tatiana and Niko read (arguably) the first book in the Western Canon, Homer's Iliad. ...
XXIX. Desperate and Visceral: Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the official first episode of Season Two! Niko and Tatiana go back to their roots and start with the book that gave the podcast its name: S...
Bonus: The House of Asterion by Jorges Luis Borges
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a special Bonus episode, Niko and Tatiana read the short story The House of Asterion by Jorges Luis Borges. Read the short story here: https://kl...
XXVIII. Aztec Eyes: Axolotl by Julio Cortázar.
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode wraps up the metamorphosis trilogy with a short story about weird little guys. Niko and Tatiana read Axolotl by Julio Cortázar, in which...
XXVII. Of Things Transformed: The Metamorphoses by Ovid
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
... I sing. The whole gang is here! Niko and Tatiana read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, touching on everyone: Zeus, Medusa, Julius Caesar, Juno, Apollo, Dia...
XXVI.The Meme-morphosis: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams… Niko and Tatiana are joined by special guest Zach McRae for Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamo...
XXV. The Duty of Gender: The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Niko and Tatiana read Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta. They discuss The Joys of Motherhood, gender expectations, children, and city living.
XXIV. Let’s Get Motherly: Medea by Euripides
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The number one best mom award goes to…! Niko and Tatiana revisit Euripides and read his most famous play, Medea. They discuss Medea’s motherhood, ...
XXIII. Murder to Murder: Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A book surrounded by scandal and mythos: Niko and Tatiana read Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem. The story follows an African tribe from precoloni...
XXII. The Phoenician Sailor and the Hyacinth Girl: The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
April is the cruelest month. Niko and Tatiana welcome special guest Bart Bolander to talk about The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. The three discuss Eliot’...
XXI. What Helps Us Remember: Potiki by Patricia Grace
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Niko and Tatiana read Potiki by Patricia Grace, one of the first published Māori writer, and discuss memory, the flavors of tragedy, and t...
XX. 1647, Santiago: The Earthquake in Chile by Heinrich von Kleist
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An incredible short story taking place in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Niko and Tatiana discuss the human spirit, the spectacle of life, and t...
XIX. Dreaming Freedom: Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the clock strikes midnight, Saleem is born with the partition of India. Niko and Tatiana discuss the flavors of magical realism, the spread of demo...
XVIII. Manuscripts Don’t Burn: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The devil comes to Moscow, and Pontius Pilate meets Jesus of Nazareth in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Tatiana and Niko discuss magica...
XVII. What’s your sign?: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
*MAJOR SPOILERS* in this episode on an award-winning Polish murder mystery. Niko and Tatiana discuss astrology, the ethics of hunting, and materialism...
XVI. Purity and Perversion: Sanctuary by William Faulkner
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sensational and violent, Sanctuary was written by William Faulkner to be a "pot boiler" and make money; it ended up being the novel that brought him c...
XV. Will There Be Another Spring?: The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A little-known novel in the Anglophone world, The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout reveals the quite rebellion of a bookseller living under a fun...
XIV. A Love Caught in the Fire of Revolution: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Get in your final winter reads—the podcast is covering Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. For this 20th century epic, Niko and Tatiana discuss histo...
XIII. On the Horizon: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wrapping up the mini Valentine’s day series, Niko and Tatiana read about Janie and her three husbands in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale ...
XII. Let’s Get… Platonic?: Symposium by Plato
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The second installment in the Valentine’s day series. Tatiana and Niko discuss their first text of philosophy with Plato’s Symposium. We go throug...
XI. Violent Delights and Violent Ends: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Niko and Tatiana start their Valentine series with a classic by the bard. We discuss young love, warring families, and the colorful host of characters...
X. Fire and Madness: Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Niko and Tatiana discuss beauty, delusions, violence, and heritage in Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima, based on the real life burning o...
IX. Ooh, It Gets Dark!: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Heathcliff, it’s me! Niko and Tatiana talk about Emily Brontë’s gothic, melodramatic novel and discuss ghosts, winds, and whether Wuthering Heigh...
VIII. How to Navigate the Sea: Persuasion by Jane Austen
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this week’s episode, we settle into the English seaside. Niko and Tatiana discuss sailors, longing gazes, character, and courtship in Jane Austen...
VII. Subversive Voyeurism: The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Niko and Tatiana welcome their first guest, Sophia, to discuss 20th century French literature. While tackling Le ravissment de Lol V. Stein (The Ravis...
VI. Go West, Irish Man: The Dead by James Joyce
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Niko and Tatiana read the last story in James Joyce’s Dubliners. They discuss food, Irish heritage, and long lost loves in “The Dead.” "The Dead...
V. Make Your Marriage Bed and Lie in it: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A classic why-dunnit. Niko and Tatiana talk about honor, the significance of marriage, Angela and Bayardo, and the death of Santiago Nasar in this sho...
IV. Let’s Get Bacchic: The Bacchae by Euripides
27 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Niko and Tatiana share a glass of wine to honor the god Dionysus while discussing ceremonial violence, bodily ecstasy, and the divine ...
III: Duties and Resemblances: Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
According to the Yoruba tradition in Nigeria, the King’s Horseman, Elesin, must die by ritual suicide 30 days after the king’s death. Conflict ari...
II: Heritage (or Raising the Bar): the Odyssey by Homer
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is no one talking about the Odyssey by Homer? We discuss translation, violence, and the possibility of homecoming in the story that started story-...
I. Seaweed and the Abyss: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The podcast starts strong with the novel that opened the twenty-first century, 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Niko and Tatiana introduce themselves and disc...