God of Small Things author Arundhati Roy on her monstrous mother and becoming a writer, Colum McCann dives into the digital age with Twist and Penobscot Indian Nation writer Morgan Talty on his story of family bonds, Fire Exit.

Arundhati Roy is a giant of literature. She's published two novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things and is a prolific author of non-fiction, much of which confronts injustice in her home country of India. Her latest book is a memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, which examines her complicated relationship with her mother, Mary Roy. Mary was a trailblazer in education and in fighting for equality for women but as a mum, she could be cruel and even violent. She died in 2022, and in the book, Arundhati Roy writes, "perhaps more than a daughter mourning the passing of her mother, I mourn her as a writer who has lost her most enthralling subject."

In his latest book Twist, New York-based Irish writer Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin, Apeirogon) dives into the digital age, travelling deep under the ocean into a tangled world of ruptured fibrous connections, its human cost, and repair.

Penobscot Indian Nation writer Morgan Talty's Fire Exit is a story of family bonds that go beyond bloodlines. Charles is a white man who must not only confront his past but decide whether to reveal his identity to the daughter he watches from across the river that borders the Native American Reservation of the Penobscot people. A compassionate account of family, love and connections, it also explores the complications that may arise from truth-telling.

Presenter: Claire Nichols

Producer: Sarah L'Estrange

Sound engineer: Carey Dell and David Le May

Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

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Deadline: White House

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