The Book Show
ABC
Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 17, 2023 • 54min
Ego and creativity with Anna Funder and Paul Jennings
Australian writers Anna Funder and Paul Jennings on what it takes to be a writer.
Dec 10, 2023 • 1h 5min
Naomi Alderman and Charlotte Wood on bunkers, billionaires and nuns
Naomi Alderman takes on tech giants and survivalists in a novel that imagines the end of the world, and an atheist joins a monastery in Charlotte Wood's meditative new book.
Dec 3, 2023 • 54min
Amanda Lohrey, Matthew Reilly and Katherine Brabon on the sacred, swimming and Einstein
Miles Franklin winner Amanda Lohrey asks where we find community in our secular world, Matthew Reilly's latest adventure and the restorative power of the pool with Katherine Brabon.
Nov 27, 2023 • 19min
Pod extra with the Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch
Paul Lynch is the 2023 Booker Prize winner for his novel Prophet Song. Prophet Song (Bloomsbury) is an unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland where a populist government has taken control and becoming increasingly authoritarian. Activists are being disappeared and the main character Eilish Stack is trying to keep her family together. Paul Lynch spoke to the Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange about the writer's responsibility to truth and how to craft a novel that resembles myth.
Nov 26, 2023 • 54min
Richard Flanagan on the atomic bomb, HG Wells and a kiss
Booker winner Richard Flanagan on why writing his latest book Question 7 "felt like a strange dream". Also, the artist's muse in fiction and how a mistake led to Laura Jean McKay's latest book.
Nov 19, 2023 • 54min
Tony Birch and Christos Tsiolkas on love, shame and dangerous dinner-parties
Two very different writers explore the dynamics of family and violence: Tony Birch in a 1960s working class, Catholic family and Christos Tsiolkas in middle-aged gay relationships.
Nov 12, 2023 • 54min
Booker Prize shortlist — mythical, profound and lyrical
In the lead up to the 2023 Booker Prize award, we dive into the six shortlisted novels and meet the authors.
Nov 5, 2023 • 54min
"We don't come from nowhere" — Melissa Lucashenko on her historical novel Edenglassie
Brisbane is in the spotlight with Melissa Lucashenko exploring the early days of the colony in time for the city's bicentenary and debut novelist Melanie Saward's story of a troubled teen with an attraction to fire.
Oct 29, 2023 • 54min
Haunting fiction with Shehan Karunatilaka, Steve Toltz and many more
Things are getting spooky on The Book Show, as we explore ghostly fiction. Booker winner Shehan Karunatilaka and Australian Steve Toltz will imagine the afterlife with their beyond-the-grave novels. Jennifer Mills, SJ Norman and Kevin Jared Hosein will tell you about the ghosts haunting their books, and Josh Kemp and Michelle Johnston will take you to the ghost towns that inspired their fiction.
Oct 22, 2023 • 54min
Between two worlds with Jesmyn Ward, Graham Akhurst and Anna McGahan
Three authors on the spirits and spirituality at the heart of their novels - award winning US author Jesmyn Ward's lyrical novel about slavery, Indigenous author Graham Akhurt's terrifying dog man in his debut novel, and Anna McGahan on her former membership of a Pentecostal church that informs her Vogel Literary Award winning book.
