The Book Show

Esther Freud mines her family story to discover new truths in My Sister and Other Lovers, Dominic Amerena asks what is the price of ambition in I Want Everything and Madeleine Watts returns to a story of water and climate catastrophe in her road trip novel Elegy, Southwest.Esther Freud is a novelist known for her famous family as the daughter of the painter Lucien Freud and great grand-daughter of Sigmund Freud. Esther's family stories have fuelled her work from the beginning, with the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky, but it's not the famous men of her family who inspire her, instead, it's the women. Her new book, My Sister and Other Lovers, revisits characters from Hideous Kinky, as they make their way into adulthood and try to come to terms with their past.I Want Everything is the debut novel of Australian author Dominic Amerena. It's about an ambitious writer who wants to make a name for himself but doesn't want to do the work to get there. He thinks he's won the jackpot when he discovers the true identity of a fictional, great Australian author who went to ground after the success of her novels in the 1970s. He decides he will be the one to resurrect her career even if it means sacrificing his moral compass to achieve the fame he desperately wants.Elegy, Southwest is a road trip novel by the Berlin-based Australian writer Madeleine Watts, whose novel The Inland Sea was shortlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin. This novel, set in the USA, is also about water as well as love, grief and climate catastrophe.

Newly crowned 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction winner Yael van der Wouden on her celebrated novel The Safekeep. The win tops off an incredible year for Yael who also made the 2024 Booker Prize shortlist for her debut. The Safekeep is set in the Netherlands, 15 years after the end of World War II and is about an uptight woman, an unpredictable house guest, loneliness, repression and desire. The novel confronts the prevailing narrative about the Dutch experience of World War II and its treatment of Jewish people.Claire Nichols spoke to Yael at the Sydney Writers Festival.

New Zealand author Catherine Chidgey asks, what if World War II had ended differently in her latest novel The Book of Guilt. Plus Kevin Wilson sends his characters on an American road trip in Run for the Hills and Australian author Josephine Rowe on her moving and slender novel, Little World.What if the second world war had ended differently? This idea and more are explored in Catherine Chidgey's latest novel The Book of Guilt which is set long after the end of the war in 1970s England. Catherine is a New Zealand writer best known for her novels The Wish Child and Remote Sympathy which are also about World War II and she reveals her interest in this dark period in European history dates to her time at high school. Run for the Hills is the latest novel by American author Kevin Wilson and it features his trademark quirkiness and heart. It's about a group of newly discovered siblings who take a road trip across the US to confront their father for abandoning them. Kevin says the seeds for this novel were sown in his previous novel, Now is Not the Time to Panic.Australian author Josephine Rowe shares her approach to crafting a slim but clever book, Little World, which is about three people, seemingly disconnected over time and geography that's drawn together through a connection to the body of an almost saint.

British author Samantha Harvey says she didn't mean to write a book set in space but what she ended up with was the 2024 Booker Prize winning novel, Orbital.Orbital can be described as a "space pastoral" about six astronauts on the International Space Station contemplating the wonder and beauty of the earth. Samantha joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival for a revelatory conversation about dreams, insomnia and writing a book without plot.

Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst reflects on writing about gay lives and Booker Prize shortlisted author Charlotte Wood explains what it's like to not win the prestigious prize.British writer Alan Hollinghust won the 2004 Booker Prize for his novel The Line of Beauty about a gay man living in 1980s Britain. His latest novel, Our Evenings, is about another queer man but this story spans a much longer period of British history and follows Dave Win for 60 years as he navigates his life as a gay, biracial man. Alan was a guest of Sydney Writers Festival.The Australian writer Charlotte Wood shortlisted for the 2024 Booker for her novel Stone Yard Devotional about an atheist woman who retreats to a nunnery in the Australian bush. It was the first time in 10 years that an Australian was shortlisted for the prize. Claire Nichols spoke to Charlotte at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, WA.

From Sydney Writers Festival, two bestselling writers, David Nicholls and Liane Moriarty, reveal what it's like to see their stories go from the page to the screen.The British writer David Nicholls is best known for his novel One Day, which has been adapted to film and to television.While Australia's Liane Moriarty has seen every one of her books optioned for the screen and hit the big time with the starry TV adaptation of her novel Big Little Lies.David and Liane also discuss their latest novels, You Are Here and Here One Moment.

Kaliane Bradley shares the serious side to her obsession with muttonchops and time travel, with her book The Ministry of Time, and Rumaan Alam reflects on the success of his novels, Entitlement and Leave the World Behind which was adapted to the screen starring Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke.British Cambodian author Kaliane Bradley shares the inspiration behind her hit 2024 debut The Ministry of Time. It's a time travel novel that began during lockdown when Kaliane became obsessed with the failed 19th century Franklin Arctic Expedition and one of the officers on board who sported seductive muttonchops and a twinkle in his eye.Rumaan Alam is the American author of four novels but is most known for his 2020 end-of-the-world thriller Leave the World Behind. He followed it up with Entitlement which is about a young black woman working for very rich, old white man. Both works explore the similar territory of race, power and privilege.Kaliane Bradley and Rumaan Alam spoke to Claire Nichols at Melbourne Writers Festival. 

Marian Keyes, the queen of commercial fiction, explains why she fetishes family, the getting of wisdom and writing books she wants to read.   Marian joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival and they spoke about how Marian became a writer when she was in the depths of despair. Marian also acknowledged the wisdom she's gained in a sometimes tumultuous life. Marian's 16th novel, My Favourite Mistake (Penguin), is another story about one of her beloved Walsh sisters, a family she's been writing about for 30 years.In other news, find out more about Radio National's Top 100 Books countdown. 

Irish writer Eimear McBride revisits favourite characters on a rainy night, actor-turned-writer Tasma Walton dredges up a family story of abduction and James Bradley's crime novel about climate catastrophe.Irish writer Eimear McBride is a past winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction whose writing is celebrated for its originality and inventive use of language. In her latest novel, The City Changes its Face (Faber), Eimear revisits the main characters of her second novel The Lesser Bohemians about actors Stephen and Eily's love affair despite the 20 year age gap. Eimear tells Claire Nichols she was drawn back to their story because they're everything she loves to write about. Listen to Claire's 2020 interview with Eimear about her previous novel, Strange Hotel.   Actor-turned-writer, Tasma Walton (The Twelve, Mystery Road), explains the personal story behind her second novel I Am Nannertgarrook (Bundyi) which is about the abduction of one of her Boonwurrung Indigenous ancestors by sealers.Australian author James Bradley is no stranger to the burgeoning genre of cli-fi (climate fiction) but his novel Landfall (Penguin) marks his first foray into crime. It's set in a near future Sydney devastated by climate change when a child has gone missing as a dangerous storm approaches.

Palestinian American playwright Betty Shamieh turns to fiction in Too Soon, a nuanced and lusty story of three generations of Palestinian women and the times that shape them. Australian author and TV screen writer Debra Oswald follows the eventful life of a gritty, strong woman in One Years of Betty. And in her biting satire Mother Tongue, Naima Brown asks, if you could change your life, could you live with what you left behind?