Robert Forster & Geordie Williamson review: Elizabeth Strout/Daniel Kehlmann/Portia Elan
episodePreviously titled “Elizabeth Strout, Daniel Kehlmann and a Genre‑Bending Debut” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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Why do humans hold on to stuff, oddments we don't use and yet can't quite throw out? It's not just you and me. Australia's oldest library is crammed with stuff that isn't books. Terrible paintings, old menus, human hair. Is this history or hoarding? I'm Annabel Crabb. Come and have a rummage through the story of us told by our stuff. Search for the History or Hoarding podcast on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Not sure what to read next? Well, this is your weekly guide. What's new? What's interesting? What's reserved on your next library visit? Hello and welcome to ABC Radio National's The Bookshelf. I'm Kate Evans.
And I'm Cassie McCullough. And yes, this is where you might just find your next favourite book. And we've got some brilliant guests today. More on that in a moment, Kate. But I believe you've got...
Well, a confession. A confession, a correction, a moment of shame. A few weeks ago, we were talking here on the bookshelf and I was getting excited, as I often do, about the West Australian writer, Noongar man, Kim Scott, talking about his book, That Dead Man Dance. But did I say it was by Kim Scott? No, I said it was by Kim Williams, the ABC's chair. Well, that's one way to get a pay rise, Kate.
LAUGHTER
Did it work? Well, it's a terrific book, but Kim Williams might have been surprised to find that he was also the author of Benang. And I have another confession coming, but, you know, I'll save my shame on that one until later in the show, Cassie.
I love it. Okay. All right. We'll find out what that is a bit later on. But let's get to the books we're reading today. The latest from one of our favourites here at the bookshelf, actually, Elizabeth Strout, the creator of the much-loved Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. Each of those characters have their own series, but this new one is called The Things We Never Say.
Okay. And we'll be talking about that one soon. We also have a space opera game playing time travelling story that flicks from the 1980s centuries on into the future.
Okay. I'm intrigued already. And also a German novel in translation, which takes us back to sort of Weimar Germany and then into the darkness.
I'm so looking forward to hearing about that one. But why don't we meet this week's reviewers? Geordie Williamson is with us, critic, publisher and writer, and Robert Forster, singer-songwriter, founding member of the Go-Betweens, critic and memoirist, and now a novelist too. Hello to you both.
Hello. Lovely to be here. Me too.
Now, Robert, your novel is called Songwriters on the Run, a crime caper, an escape story, lots of noodling around on guitars in between. Take us into the story.
Well, it started with a song I wrote in 2009 called Songwriters on the Run. And normally with songs, when you write them, you know, they're three or four verses, and you never really revisit what you wrote, you know, in the lyric. And it just intrigued me that I wrote this three-verse song called Songwriters on the Run, and I just started to wonder why. why they were in jail, why were they on the run, where were they running to. And it just sort of consumed me over the next seven years. I was just, it was like a mind puzzle. And I was just sort of unpacking the song, which I've never done with one of my other songs. And then in 2016, I wanted to try and write a novel. And I tried a couple of ideas and then they all failed.
And then I, you know, 1,000 words and I just stopped. And then I was about to give up. And then I remembered the song. I had a story in my head and I started to write the book and it just took off. I wrote, you know, like 60,000 words fairly quickly. That was the plot in my head that I got from the song. That's fantastic.
Yeah.
So it opens in 1991, Drew and Mick in Rockhampton. All sorts of shenanigans happen. There's a hilariously implausible jailbreak. But, Robert, I want to ask you about a line in the book. They're often talking about... music, about singing, they're catching up with other singers and songwriters.
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