Beejay Silcox & Bernadette Brennan review: Doireann Ní Ghríofa/Chloe Wilson/Deborah Levy
episodePreviously titled “Said the Dead, The Thornbacks, and Deborah Levy’s latest” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What are the new book releases discussed in this episode?
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Morticians and dating apps with an uncanny edge. Asylums full of stories and casebooks saying no change, no change, no change. And finding a lost cat and a lost genius in Paris. New books and new stories here on ABC Radio National's The Bookshelf with me, Kate Evans. Cassie McCullough can't be with us this time, but we're looking forward to more reading adventures with her next week. A reminder, though, last week here on the Bookshelf, we launched this year's Radio National Top 100 Australian Books Countdown. Fiction, history, non-fiction, children's books from the 18th century until now. We'll bring you guides and discussions, reminders of books to think about and reread. That's the long game and some very tall book stacks.
How does the Sydney Writers Festival influence the guests' reading choices?
But right now, let's meet this week's guests. Scholar and literary judge Bernadette Brennan, whose books include biographies of Helen Garner and Gillian Mears, and critic and interviewer BJ Silcox, whose latest essay, Mirror, Mirror, A Stranger in the Looking Glass, is in the current edition of the journal The Griffith Review. Hello and hello. Hello and hello. Now, we were all at the Sydney Writers Festival last week and were all actually interviewing writers on stage. How was it for you, BJ? I am gloriously exhausted.
I barely have a voice left. I have been doing nothing but talking books for the most part of a week, which is just the most extraordinary privilege and pleasure.
I have had the best time. What about you, Bernadette? It was an amazing festival this year. I had a lovely time. It was just great to be surrounded by so many fantastic writers from around the world. And it's always a great social event as well to catch up with everybody. So I'm very buoyed, but like BJ, I'm also very exhausted, but pleasantly so. And I have a new list of, or a large new pile of books to read, which is always exciting.
Well, it's time to name names. I mean, what was a writer or book that you discovered or listened to there that has sort of energised you, Bernadette?
Well, the session that was a standout for me was when Claire Wright interviewed Luke Kemp and Amitav Ghosh. And I've got both of those books that they were talking about at that point. Amitav was talking about his book, The Nutmeg Tree from four years ago, which I hadn't read. And Luke Kemp's book is called Goliath's Curse. And it was one of the most stimulating and exciting discussions I have heard in a
So Amitav Ghosh, the Indian writer, Cassie and I read his latest book, Ghost Eye. I also saw him on stage and he was interviewed by Michael Williams. And he was talking about his Ibis trilogy, which is historical work looking at the opium trade, which implicates the British Empire, the Dutch Empire, the East India Company. And it made me want to go and read that. his three books in that Ibis trilogy. So I immediately got hold of those and I'm really looking forward to getting it. But can you remind us who Luke Kemp is and what his writing is?
So Luke Kemp, I had never heard of Luke Kemp before, and maybe that's my ignorance. And he was introduced as a scholar from Cambridge and his topic was existential risk, which sounds sort of all very, you know, esoteric and and whatever, and his interest is in looking at history, deep, deep history from thousands of years ago to now, and looking at the collapse of civilizations, looking at what is the great risk to the human planet. And of course, we all know that climate change is one. He said for a long time, all they were working on there was nuclear weapons. But now it's robotic warfare and nuclear weapons, of course, and climate change. Interestingly, he's actually full of hope for the future.
So I'll leave it at that for people to discover in his book how he sees that hope. But he's also a realist and can tell us some of the issues that we really need to be spending a lot more time thinking about, including AI.
Oh, that really sounds extraordinary. BJ, what was it that really hit you at the Sydney Writers' Festival?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the new book releases discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:10
2
How does the Sydney Writers Festival influence the guests' reading choices?
1:10–4:51
3
What themes are explored in Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s 'Said the Dead'?
4:51–10:39
4
How does Chloe Wilson's 'The Thornbacks' blend humor and darkness?
10:39–16:57
5
What insights does Deborah Levy provide in 'My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein'?
16:57–22:00
6
How do the guests view the role of archives in storytelling?
22:00–27:48
7
What unique narrative techniques are used in the discussed novels?
27:48–31:56
8
What recommendations do the guests have for further reading?
31:56–54:06
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Bookshelf
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Top 100 Australian Books from Byron Writers Festival
Anjet Daanje's extraordinary The Stork and the Dromedary + Liane Moriarty returns with Big Little Truths
The Haunting Wild, a Trip to Mars and Dreaming of Escape in 1980's France
Miles Franklin winner Omar Musa + Booker-longlisted All Them Dogs and Téa Obreht's Sunrise