The Bookshelf
Episodes
A new fiction title from bestselling author Bruce Pascoe
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Evans returns with guest reviewers to discuss Bruce Pascoe’s Imperial Harvest, an epic of brutality and imperialism; along with Jenny Ackland’...
Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Kate discuss Jenny Erpenbecks' Kairos (winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize) with critic Declan Fry - originally broadcast August...
In Parade Rachel Cusk blurs reality and fiction
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Tom Wright read The Parade by Rachel Cusk, her first since 2018’s Kudos, the final part of the acclaimed Outline trilogy. Once again, Cu...
Kaliane Bradley's extraordinary time travel love story
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Jonathan Green review The Ministry of Time by debut British-Cambodian novelist Kaliane Bradley, a heads up, it's brilliant.Michael Briss...
Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch joins an all-star panel from SWF
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Claire Nichols team up on stage at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival to grill some huge literary stars on their reading lives: Irish Bo...
A new novel from Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Jonathan Green review Safe Haven by 2023 Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran, Table For Two by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman...
Claire Messud's epic family odyssey
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and guest host Tom Wright discuss Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History, about a family torn apart by war, geography, politics and rel...
Colm Tóibín's long awaited sequel to Brooklyn
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Jonathan Green discuss Colm Tóibín's eagerly awaited new novel Long Island. Star reviewers Madeleine Gray and Benjamin Law discuss buzz...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's lost novel
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Jonathan Green look at Until August, the lost novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and guest reviewers Hannah Kent and Roanna Gonsalves disc...
One Day author David Nicholls is back
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and guest host Beejay Silcox read new work by One Day sensation David Nicholls.
A never before published novel from Charmian Clift
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie, Tom Wright and guests look at The End of the Morning, the never-before-published novel by the Australian writer Charmian Clift, who died in 1...
Bri Lee's The Work explores art, ambition, privilege and power
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Michaela Kalowski and Cassie look at The Work by Bri Lee, plus new novels from Call Me By Your Name author Andre Aciman, and a work of speculative fi...
Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonian Road is "majestic"
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and guest host Tom Wright take a look at the exceptional new novel from award-winning Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan, plus, a genre bending my...
Téa Obreht, Asako Yuzuki, Steven Carroll: dystopia, butter, murder
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Jonathan read Orange Prize winner Téa Obreht’s The Morningside, a dystopian coming-of-age story, plus, a Japanese bestseller and a new ...
Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, a talking fox, art and alienation
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, alienation and a talking fox in this edition of The Bookshelf.
Three new Australian novels! Iain Ryan, Amy Brown, Sharlene Allsopp
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Jonathan Green review three new Australian novels with guest star Claire Nichols and novelist Graham Akhurst.
A Trans-Tasman edition: Myfanwy Jones, Anna Smaill and Sulari Gentill
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and co-host Tom Wright review two new Australian novels, and from across the ‘Dutch',
Meditations on writing: Gail Jones, Jennifer Croft and a new anthology edited by Margaret Atwood
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green review a literary project edited by Margaret Atwood, and new work by Gail Jones and Jennifer Croft.
Dreams and nightmares: Leo Vardiashvili, Teju Cole, Matthew Blake
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and guest host (and playwright) Tom Wright review three new works of fiction.
Mysteries and meta-physical thrillers: Kemper Donovan, Mike McCormack and Alex Michaelides
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mysteries and twists galore in new work by Kemper Donovan and best-selling British-Cypriot author Alex Michaelides; and award-winning Irish novelist ...
New fiction from Francis Spufford, Hisham Matar and Kiley Reid
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie McCullagh and Michaela Kalowski review new novels including Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz, Hisham Matar's My Friends and Kiley Reid's Come a...
We're back for 2024 featuring new novels from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Bookshelf is back for 2024 reviewing the latest from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem.
Summer Reads: history remade, futures reimagined
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reclaiming and retelling Australian history, where time is both stilled and circular, in Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie; and commenting on the past...
Summer Reads: True Crime, historical injustice, NZ satire and God's Teeth
12 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Bookshelf is a program for dedicated readers and those who wished they read more.
Summer Reads: from Aphra Behn to Max Porter
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Restoration political satire, Mediaeval rumour, eco-terrorism in New Zealand and a young man with a mixtape full of angst. Reading Max Porter's Shy, ...
Summer reading: heists, horses, Harlem, Ireland, rage
29 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Looking for books to rock you back on your heels? You've come to the right place. Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, Colson Whitehead's...
Summer Reads: Impossible creatures, an Indian thriller and love in a cherry orchard
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Best books from the year, and some new interviews too. Kate and Cassie read Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice with guest cr...
Romance, crime, adventure: Summer reading recommendations
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Melanie Saward joins Kate for a genre-filled reading recommendation discussion of romance, the pseudonymous crime fiction of Australian author George...
Best Books of 2023: What to read now, next and over Summer
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate, Cassie and three reading guests (critic Beejay Silcox, Books Editor Jason Steger and kids' author Tristan Bancks) on the books they've loved, t...
Bad Art Mother: Canberra Writers Festival Book Club pod extra
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Evans onstage for the Bookshelf and Canberra Writers Festival with CWF Artistic Director and critic Beejay Silcox, and novelist Edwina Preston, ...
The Book Club: Thrillers
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Are you a crime fiction thriller fan? Those stories that get your heart racing and keep you awake all night? Even if you only dip into the genre once...
Reading the end of the world: Naomi Alderman, Michael Cunningham, Nicholas Jose, Katherine Brabon
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Nicholas Jose's The Idealist, Michael Cunningham's Day, Naomi Alderman's The Future and Katherine Brabon's Body Friend with gues...
Lucy Treloar, Tony Birch, Paul Auster, A K Blakemore: Books to chew on
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Lucy Treloar’s Days of Innocence and Wonder, Paul Auster’s Baumgartner, Tony Birch’s Women and Children and A K Blakemore’...
Memory, history, ghosts and parrots: Richard Flanagan, Sigrid Nunez, Jayne Anne Phillips
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Richard Flanagan's Question 7, Jayne Anne Phillips' Night Watch and Sigrid Nunez's The Vulnerables with guests novelist Eleanor ...
The Book Club: Historical Fiction with Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend and Zadie Smith's The Fraud
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A monthly Book Club edition looking at works by two major literary names that add to the growing body of work attempting to address the past.
New novels from Christos Tsiolkas, Amanda Lohrey, David Diop and Siân Hughes
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Christos Tsiolkas' The In-Between, Siân Hughes' Pearl, Amanda Lohrey's The Conversion and David Diop's Beyond the Door of No Re...
Jellyfish, beauty, betrayal and Camelot: new fiction
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Victoria Gosling's Bliss and Blunder, Sophie Keetch's Morgan is my Name, Joel Deane's Judas Boys and Mona Awad's Rouge with nove...
Melissa Lucashenko, Charlotte Wood and Bryan Washington: powerful new fiction
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie, Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional and Bryan Washington's Family Meal with guests Meredith...
Three major new works - Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Three major new works to delve into in this episode, by Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller.
The Book Club - Short Stories
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this edition of The Book Club we look at the art, and the science, of the short story with three brand new and intriguing Australian collections.
Lauren Groff, Daniel Mason and Anna Kate Blair: fables, trees, history and art
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds, Daniel Mason's North Woods and Anna Kate Blair's The Modern with writer Maggie Mackellar (Graft...
Novels by Anne Enright, Paul Lynch and Emma Donoghue: love, pain, politics and Ireland
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading yet more extraordinary fiction from Irish novelists (OK Emma Donoghue actually now lives in Canada, but she's originally Irish): Kate and Cas...
Bringing the Past to Life: with Geraldine Brooks, Pip Williams and Sally Colin-James
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Evans discusses historical fiction onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival with Geraldine Brooks (Horse, Year of Wonders, March), Pip Williams (T...
The Book Club: Frank Moorhouse Retrospective
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A year on from the death of Frank Moorhouse, we examine the work of this much-loved yet troubled writer with his biographer Catharine Lumby and c...
New fiction from Chris Womersley, Jenny Erpenbeck and Tan Twan Eng: Australia, Germany, Malaysia
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Chris Womersley's Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Tan Twan Eng's The House of Doors with critic Declan ...
New fiction from Peter Polites, Angela O'Keeffe and Guy Guneratne
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh read Peter Polites' God Forgets About the Poor, Angela O'Keeffe's The Sitter and Guy Guneratne's Mister Mister with p...
New books by Ann Patchett, Naoise Dolan and Hwang Sok-yong: “Good marriages are never as interesting as bad affairs”
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cassie and Kate read Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, Naoise Dolan's The Happy Couple and Hwang Sok-yong's Mater 2-10 with actor Angourie Rice and novelist J...
The Book Club - Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate, Cassie and guests examine all six finalists for the 2023 miles Franklin Literary Award.
Crooked Harlem, corrupt Wellington, bereaved London: books by Colson Whitehead, Emily Perkins and Elizabeth McCracken
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and Emily Perkins' Lioness with poet Miles Merri...
A crying room, a road trip and blazing fury: Gretchen Shirm, Richard Ford and Claire Kilroy
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Evans and Jonathan Green read Gretchen Shirm's The Crying Room, Richard Ford's Be Mine and Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor with historian Peter M...
Fiction: The State of the Art
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Evans onstage with writers Colson Whitehead, Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan and Tracey Lien at the recent Sydney Writers Festival, on the stat...
Wifedom, hoarded memories and political road rage: New books by Anna Funder, Jen Craig and Priya Guns
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Aboriginal, Chinese-Malaysian and Muslim writer and academic Eugenia Flynn co-hosts the Bookshelf this week with Kate Evans, reading Anna Funder's Wi...
The Book Club: The Greek Myths
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is it about the Greek myths that make them so adaptable, reusable, ever popular – and up for all manner of rewrites?
Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist 2023: pod extra interview special
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order)....
Gay saunas, dog walking and an extravagant lie: new fiction from R F Kuang, Dennis Altman and Briohny Doyle
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stealing a manuscript, walking your grief along coastal edges and underhand behaviour at an international AIDS conference: Kate and Cassie read Denni...
Strangers and Saints: Katherena Vermette and Benjamin Myers
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A story of wandering pilgrims, woman brewers, stonemasons and eels – in the North of England from the 7th century until now; and Métis-Michif wome...
Politicians, ghosts and sad girls: books by Lorrie Moore, Robert Gott and Pip Finkemeyer
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Naked politicians, roadtrips with the dead, and funny-sad girls in Berlin: Kate and Cassie read Robert Gott's Naked Ambition, Lorrie Moore's I am Hom...
The Book Club - Romantic Comedy
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Step aboard this Book Club edition of The Bookshelf which is hopelessly devoted to the genre of Romantic Comedy.
From the Sydney Writers Festival with Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie recorded this edition of The Bookshelf onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival on Friday 26 May 2023 with writers Shehan Karunatilaka...
Grifters, pilgrims and scribes: new fiction from Emma Cline, Benjamin Myers and Robyn Cadwallader
19 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Benjamin Myers' Cuddy, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the Rose and Emma Cline's The Guest with mediaeval historian Clare Monag...
History, identity, doppelgangers: new fiction from Deborah Levy, André Dao and Catherine Lacey
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, André Dao's Anam and Catherine Lacey's Biography of X with guests writer and curator Sheila Ngọc ...
Poetry, jumpers, islands: new fiction from John Kinsella, Justin Cronin, Jente Posthuma
05 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie read John Kinsella’s Cell Night: A Verse Novel, Jente Posthuma’s What I’d Rather Not Think About and Justin Cronin’s The Ferr...
The Book Club: Salman Rushdie
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Salman Rushdie was attacked in Chautauqua, New York in August last year, Victory City, his latest novel, was already finished. Some say it's no...
New books by Max Porter, Han Kang and Yan Lianke
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Max Porter's Shy, Han Kang's Greek Lessons and Yan Lianke's Heart Sutra with writers (and writers-in-translation, both) Linda Jaivin and Enni...
A bookbinder, Andy Warhol's typist and the cleverest woman in the world
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Pip Williams' The Bookbinder of Jericho, Juan Gómez-Jurado's Red Queen and Nicole Flattery's Nothing Special with writers Ashley Kalagian Bl...
Dystopia, satire, gladiators and gardeners: new fiction from Eleanor Catton and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Savage explorations of the present, using different literary forms, in two new novels. Kate and Cassie are joined by guests film academic Bruce Isaac...
The Book Club - weather in fiction with Hannah Kent and Robbie Arnott
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A journey through the myriad of ways weather presents itself in fiction for this monthly edition of The Book Club.
Mermaids, man overboard and more: new fiction from Julia Langbein and Stephanie Bishop
24 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Julia Langbein's comedic take on Hollywood's ruthless screen industry in American Mermaid, and Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary, a watery m...
Sleuths, silence, secrets: new fiction from Rebecca Makkai, Carole Hailey and Sebastian Barry
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading award-winning novelist Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You, along with The Silence Project by Carole Hailey. Plus, an interview wi...
Freedom, family and an all-consuming love: new fiction from Anindita Ghose, Vigdis Hjorth and Alice Nelson
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Anindita Ghose's bestseller The Illuminated and Is Mother Dead by Norwegian author Vigdis Hjorth with guest reviewers Maria Takolander and ...
Podcast extra: Infidelity and compassion: changing morality in 19th century fiction
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Novels about infidelity can be cautionary tales but also reveal changing attitudes
The Book Club: Infidelity
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a more enduring theme in literature? From the ancient greats to bestseller romances, it's been the subject of both untold anguish and fascin...
Raucous aunts, warriors and dragons, Queer Nigeria and more: new fiction
24 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A Sydney WorldPride edition of the Bookshelf, as Kate and Cassie are joined by guests George Haddad and C S Pacat to read Samantha Shannon's A Day of...
Trinidad, Antarctica and a corporate city-state in not-quite Korea: three new novels for you
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Kevin Jared Hosein's Hungry Ghosts, set in 1940s Trinidad (and we hear from the author too); Tom Rob Smith's Cold People, in a reshaped Antar...
From Barbados in the 1830s to the Melbourne present via the Scottish imaginary: three new books
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Poet Maxine Beneba Clarke and novelist Michael Winkler join Kate and Cassie as they read Ronnie Scott's Shirley, Eleanor Shearer's River Sing Me Home...
From frontier western to a wandering ghost: new fiction
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unquiet ghosts, disconcerting babies, a shattered bust of a despot and a frontier Western: reading Stefan Hertmans' The Ascent, Ben Hobson's The Deat...
Serial killers, thrillers and Shirley Hazzard: new books from Bret Easton Ellis and Deepti Kapoor
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie are back with new fiction for 2023: reading Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards and Deepti Kapoor's Age of Vice with guests Geordie William...
Summer Reading: Where will books take you?
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hoofbeats, assassins and tracks in the snow. Rereading Gillian Mears’ novel Foal’s Bread; reading Kári Gíslason's The Sorrow Stone; and spe...
Books Extra: Fiona McFarlane's The Sun Walks Down
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A child is lost in a nineteenth-century landscape carved out of both thousands of years of history, and more recent expectations and misunderstanding...
Summer reading: from the afterlife to New Zealand fiction, we have you covered
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Steve Toltz's Here Goes Nothing and Ashley Goldberg's Abomination, and speaking to Tracey Lien (All That's Left Unsaid) and Sue Orr (Loop Tra...
Books Extra: Becky Manawatu and Leila Mottley
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stories that are tough and joyful, heartbreaking and beautiful, confronting and worth it: Kate Evans speaks with New Zealand writer Becky Manawatu ...
Summer Reading: It's time to catch up on some great books you missed
06 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Canadian Métis writer Katherena Vermette's The Strangers, Irish writer Louise Kennedy's Trespasses, and speaking to Scottish writer Graeme M...
Books Extra: Audrey Magee's The Colony
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is it about Irish storytelling: that combination of poetry and pain, brutality and a wicked laugh or ten? All that lyrical toughness, and a sens...
Summer Reading: love, sex, drugs and mischief
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Chris Womersley's The Diplomat, Lauren John Joseph's At Certain Points We Touch and Jonathan Bazzi's Fever – with Nigel Featherstone; and t...
Books Extra: the criminal (ish) minds of John Darnielle and Charity Norman
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two writers who grapple with crime, with very different style and intent, in conversation with Kate Evans. American writer John Darnielle is also a m...
Summer reading: Islands of the imagination
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Four novels about islands: reading Emily Brugman's The Islands, Audrey Magee's The Colony and Eliza Henry Jones' Salt and Skin; and speaking to Tom W...
Books Extra: Patrick Gale's Mother's Boy
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
English novelist Patrick Gale specialises in hidden lives, secret stories, and celebrating queer histories. His books include Rough Music, Notes from...
Shelflife: Four writers on the books that electrified them (no, not literally)
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Four writers speak to Kate Evans at the 2022 Melbourne Writers Festival about a particularly significant book, that shaped or defined them in some wa...
Summer reading extra: Republic and Revolution in England with Philippa Gregory
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bestselling English novelist Philippa Gregory speaks with Kate Evans about the radical politics of the seventeenth century and how best to capture th...
Books of the year: 2022 with a panel of readers
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kate and Cassie are joined by guests literary editor Jason Steger, books podcaster Dani Vee and crime aficionado Felix Shannon to talk their favourit...
The Book Club: Beyond the boundary
02 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Talking cricket in fiction, with a particular focus on Inga Simpson's new novel, Willowman, with RN's sports specialist Warwick Hadfield, historian M...
Stolen bicycles, stolen love and stolen children: new books by Philip Salom, Celeste Ng and Arinze Ifeakandu
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Reading Philip Salom's Sweeney and the Bicycles, Arinze Ifeakandu's God's Children Are Little Broken Things and Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts with ...
Underclass, underground, undone: New Australian fiction from Fiona Kelly McGregor, Shaun Prescott and Yumna Kassab
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Walking the streets and exploring the shadows in 1930s Australia, in Fiona Kelly McGregor's Iris; lost towns and lost souls in Shaun Prescott's Bon a...
Blazing stories: new fiction from Gail Jones, Alex Miller and Luke Carman
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Witnessing a great and terrible event in Gail Jones' Salonika Burning; a life up-ended and re-worked in Alex Miller's A Brief Affair; and careful obs...
The Book Club: Reading Kamila Shamsie
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Exploring the novels of Pakistani and English writer Kamala Shamsie with Maryam Azam and Sonia Nair, with a particular focus on Best of Friends a...
New fiction from Cormac McCarthy, Fiona McFarlane and Cole Haddon
28 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A brother and sister walk uneasy paths, and plumb both literal and hallucinatory depths in Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger; worlds and characters exp...
George Saunders, Barbara Kingsolver, John Irving: an American Bookshelf
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An all-American edition of the bookshelf, with new fiction from George Saunders, Barbara Kingsolver and John Irving. Both Charles Dickens and Herman ...
Sisters at breaking point, a grizzly bear on the run and living with 100 ex-boyfriends
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two wildly different sisters are trying to work out how to live and who to love during a sweaty Sydney summer in Diana Reid's hotly anticipated new n...
A whale gone mad, fierce Irish love and a Māori detective
07 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
in this episode Jonathan Green joins Cassie McCullagh to talk about three hard hitting new works of fiction from Robbie Arnott, Donal Ryan and Michae...
The Book Club: The ouevre of Ian McEwan
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this edition of RN's monthly Book Club, we look at Ian McEwan's extraordinary body of work, paying particular attention to his new novel Lessons,...