The Bookshelf

Kate and Cassie are back in the studio, introducing a line-up of October releases that span continents, centuries, and genres, kicking off with an Australian story set in the world of print journalism in Andrew Pippos' The Transformations. Then, we head to India with Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, a grand tale shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. And finally, we travel back to 16th-century Denmark, where the spectre of witch trials looms large in Olga Ravn's The Wax Child.BOOKSAndrew Pippos, The Transformations — PicadorKiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny — Hamish HamiltonOlga Ravn, The Wax Child — Viking Penguin (Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken)GUESTSScott Stephens — Editor of ABC’s Religion & Ethics online and co-host of The Minefield on Radio National (with Waleed Aly)Beejay Silcox — Critic and writerOTHER BOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONEDGeorge Eliot, MiddlemarchEM Forster, Howard's EndCharles Dickens, worksErnest Hemingway, worksLeo Tolstoy, worksFyodor Dostoevsky, worksNathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet LetterJeanette Winterson, The Daylight GateGeraldine Brooks, Year of WondersJenni Fagan, HexCeridwen Dovey, Only the AstronautsChris Flynn, Here be LeviathansJosephine Rowe, Little WorldAngela O'Keefe, Night BlueHannah Kent, Burial RitesLydia Davis, Into the WeedsInger Sigrun Brodey, Jane Austen and the Price of HappinessJ.M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimopulos, Speaking in TonguesJ.M. Coetzee, The PoleToni Morrison, worksKarl Ove Knausgaard, worksLydia Davis, Into the WeedsJoy Williams, worksLily King, Heart the LoverMichael Winkler, Grimmish; Grief DogDevoney Looser, Wild For AustenSofie Laguna, The Underworld The Rose Field (The Book of Dust: Volume 3), Philip Pullman Margaret Atwood, Book of LivesPatti Smith, Bread of Angels Mick Herron, Clown TownClaire-Louise Bennett, Big Kiss Bye-ByeBrandon Taylor, Minor Black FiguresJohn Irving, Queen EstherCatherine Newman, WreckEleanor Elliott Thomas, Do We Deserve ThisThomas Pynchon, Shadow TicketOlivia Laing, The Silver BookJeanette Winterson, One Aladdin Two LampsMadeleine Gray, Chosen FamilyChris Krauss, The Four Spent the Day TogetherGraeme Macrae Burnet, BenbeculaCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Beth Stewart and Ann Marie DebettencorArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Join us for a lively Top 100 Books of the 21st Century after-party!Following last weekend’s extraordinary two-day countdown, this event recaps the results of over 288,000 votes cast by readers across Australia. Kate, Cassie, and special guests will unpack the trends, surprises, and insights that reveal what Australians are reading — and why. Plus, the countdown is not over. We're revealing the books that almost cracked the Top 100!GUESTSMichaela Kalowski, Curator and Top 100 ProducerGavin Williams, Owner - Matilda Bookshop in the Adelaide Hills; Chair - BookPeople Maryanne Vagg, Librarian, Warrnambool LibraryDownload a printable list of The Ones That Got AwayListen to the Top 100 Books countdown.CREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh, Kate EvansProducer, Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Michaela Kalowski, Shevonne Hunt, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Simon Branthwaite, Beth StewartArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Joining Kate and Cassie on stage at Brisbane Writers Festival, authors Eric Puchner, Toni Jordan, Patrick Holland, and Zeynab Gamieldien discuss their most recent novels and the books and writers who inspire them. With voting cast for our Top 100 Books of the Century, these writers make the case for their favourites.GUESTSEric Puchner, novelist, academic, and short story writer, whose books include the collections Last Day on Earth and Music Through the Floor, and the novels Model Home and (his latest) Dream StateToni Jordan, a writer whose novels include Nine Days, Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, Prettier If She Smiles More, Dinner with the Schnabels . . . and her latest, TenderfootPatrick Holland is a writer and academic, and author of eight books, including the novel The Mary Smokes Boys and – his latest – Oblivion. He lives between Hong Kong and Brisbane Zeynab Gamieldien is a writer whose first novel, The Scope of Permissibility, won the inaugural WestWords/Ultimo Prize (for emerging writers from Western Sydney); and her second novel, Learned Behaviours, has just been publishedBOOKS MENTIONED BY ERIC PUCHNERJames Salter, Light YearsJennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon SquadJoy Williams, worksWilla Cather, My ÁntoniaJhumpa Lahiri, A Temporary MatterMarilynne Robinson, HousekeepingEvan S. Connell, Mrs. BridgeCésar Aira, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape PainterBOOKS MENTIONED BY TONI JORDANCraig Silvey, Jasper JonesTrent Dalton, Boy Swallows UniverseHilary Mantel, Wolf HallZadie Smith, White TeethAlexis Wright, CarpentariaMaggie O'Farrell, HamnetRichard Ford, CanadaBOOKS MENTIONED BY PATRICK HOLLANDYasunari Kawabata, Snow CountryEmily Brontë, Wuthering HeightsErnest Hemingway, 88 PoemsLeah Swann, BearingsFelix Calvino, worksBrian Castro, worksFrançoise Sagan, Bonjour TristesseCormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian; All the Pretty HorsesMurasaki Shikibu, The Tale of GenjiBOOKS MENTIONED BY ZEYNAB GAMIELDIENJhumpa Lahiri, The NamesakeTara June Winch, The YieldHisham Matar, The Return; My FriendsAnne Enright, The GatheringColm Tóibín, Brooklyn; Long IslandClaire Keegan, Small Things Like TheseSally Rooney, IntermezzoOTHER BOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONEDJ.G. Ballard, worksGraham Greene, The Quiet AmericanDavid Malouf, worksPatrick White, worksCurtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't TellDavid Mitchell, worksCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate EvansSound engineer, Steve FieldhouseArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

We look at some compelling new memoirs, including Mandy Sayer’s No Dancing in the Lift, a tribute to her jazz drummer father, capturing the grit of Kings Cross and the grace of caregiving. Elizabeth Gilbert’s All the Way to the River recounts her intense love story with Rayya Elias, confronting addiction and devotion. Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me reflects on her formidable mother’s legacy - equal parts shelter and storm, and S. Shakthidharan’s Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath offers a tender, multi-generational journey from Sri Lanka to Western Sydney.BOOKSMandy Sayer, No Dancing in the Lift: A Memoir, Transit LoungeElizabeth Gilbert, All the Way to the River: Love, Loss and Liberation, BloomsburyArundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me, Hamish HamiltonSHAKTI Shakthidharan, Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, Powerhouse Publishing  GUESTSMelanie Tait, Playwright. Her latest, How To Plot a Hit in Two Days, plays at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney until 11 October.Roanna Gonsalves, novelist and academic; editor of the literary journal, Southerly  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDHannah Kent, Always Home, Always HomesickJeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Can Be NormalElizabeth Strout, worksJenny Hocking, Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History; His TimeSarah Malik, Desi Girl: On Feminism, Race, Faith and BelongingCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Micky Grossman and Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

What are your favourite poems of the last 25 years? The ones that you turn to, couplets memorised and shared, the lines that leapt from the page or stage. Poetry that both defined and defied space and time, whether it rhymed or not.Join Kate Evans, as she is joined by acclaimed author and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, Stella Prize-winning poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, much-loved broadcaster and author Daniel Browning, and best-selling author and journalist Julia Baird to discuss and read some of the poems that have shone brightest for each of them this century, as well as how the art-form has evolved.This event was presented at the State Library of NSW in partnership with Red Room Poetry.POETS AND POETRY MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEWarsan Shire, HomeAdam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated WorldGraeme Dixon, Six Feet of Land RightsGwen Harwood, In the ParkAnonymous Rose,  Broken WorldZora Howard and Joshya Bennett, Still Life with Police SirensAli Cobby Eckermann, worksSimon Armitage, The ShoutEvelyn Araluen, decolonial poetics (avant gubba)Candy Royale, worksMax Porter, worksCREDITSPresenter, Kate EvansProducer, Kate Evans, Lisa NeedhamSound engineer, Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

This week’s episode explores three new books. First up, Patricia Lockwood’s Will There Ever Be Another You, a third-person autofiction-ish tale that includes a family trip to Scotland, grief and fairies. Then we head to the American frontier for blood-soaked vengeance and vampires in Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Finally, Nell Stevens’ The Original takes us into a world of art forgeries, lost sons, con-artists and the tangled truths behind paintings.BOOKSPatricia Lockwood, Will There Ever Be Another You, Bloomsbury CircusStephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Titan BooksNell Stevens, The Original, ScribnerGUESTSPaul Daley, journalist, essayist, and novelist – who writes for the Guardian, and whose books include the non-fiction Beersheba and On Capitalism, and the novels Jesustown and The LeapTom Wright, playwright and dramaturg. Artistic Associate, Belvoir St Theatre. His latest play, Troy, has just finished its run at Melbourne’s Malthouse TheatrePAUL DALEY'S TOP 100 LISTPercival Everett, The TreesRobin Robertson, The Long TakeTOM WRIGHT'S TOP 100 LISTMartin Crimp, The CityElla Hickson, The WriterOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDDonal Ryan, The Spinning HeartEric Puchner, Dream StateJulio Cortazar, HopscotchCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, John Jacobs and Micky GrossmanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

We get stuck into some new fiction, starting with Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know, a meditation on a future shaped by climate disaster and memory. We’re joined by Australian authors Madeleine Gray and Gretchen Shirm to take a look at Miranda Darling’s Fireweather, a poetic story of breakdown and resistance,  and Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night, a dreamy blend of folklore and philosophy.BOOKSIan McEwan, What We Can Know, Jonathan CapeMiranda Darling, Fireweather, ScribeOlga Tokarczuk, House of Day, House of Night, (Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), TextGUESTSGretchen Shirm, is a novelist and literary critic whose books include Having Cried Woolf and The Crying Room. Her latest, Out of the Woods, was published in April Madeleine Gray, is a critic, arts writer, and novelist whose debut novel, Green Dot, was published in 2023, and whose latest novel, Chosen Family, will be out in November GRETCHEN SHIRM'S TOP 100 LISTRachel Cusk, Outline trilogySheila Heti, How Should a Person BeVigdis Hjorth, Will and TestamentTara June Winch, Swallow the AirMADELEINE GRAY'S TOP 100 LISTAli Smith, How To Be BothEvelyn Araluen, DropbearJessica Love, Julian is a MermaidOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDEleanor Catton, The RehearsalVirginia Woolf, Mrs DallowayHelen Garner, worksMaggie O'Farrell, Hamnet, The Marriage PortraitErin Hortle, A Catalogue of LoveMichelle Arrow, The Seventies: The personal, the political and the making of modern AustraliaA.S. Byatt, PossessionJames Fenton, worksRichard Holmes, FootstepsRobert Louis Stevenson, worksCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Huberman and Tim JenkinsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

In the year of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, this lively and thought-provoking discussion explores her life, legacy, and literary brilliance — her novels are charming, sure, but also radical, political, witty, and entertaining.Presented in partnership with the State Library of NSW, this event brings together Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with Scott Stephens from Radio National's The Minefield, and Sophie Gee, English Professor at Princeton, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow in the humanities at the University of Sydney, and co-host of the Secret Life of Books podcast, for a conversation that delves into Austen’s sharp observations on friendship, ambition, money, love, power, and equality.CREDITSPanellists: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Scott Stephens, Sophie GeeProducer: Kate Evans, Amanda RobertsSound engineer: John JacobsExecutive producer: Muditha Dias

Australian poet, artist, hip hop musician and author, Omar Musa, tells a story of Australia and Borneo, forests and fathers, in his new novel Fierceland.  An American saga of love, war, and complicated families in Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye, and experimental British author Geoff Dyer returns with Homework, a look back on his childhood and coming of age in sixties and seventies England.BOOKS Omar Musa, Fierceland, Penguin Random House Geoff Dyer, Homework: A Memoir, Canongate Patrick Ryan, Buckeye, Bloomsbury GUESTS Andy Griffiths, bestselling children’s author whose works include the Treehouse series, and his latest, You & Me series (You & Me and the Peanut Butter Beast has just been released) Geordie Williamson, literary critic for The Australian, The Saturday Paper, and publisher (Picador/ Pan Macmillan). His latest book is on Alexis Wright, in Black Ink’s Writers on Writers series ANDY GRIFFITH'S TOP 100 LISTKate Grenville, The Secret RiverLech Blaine, Australian GospelRobert Skinner, I'd Rather NotGEORDIE WILLIAMSON'S TOP 100 LISTCormac McCarthy, The RoadAlexis Wright, CarpentariaOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDFrank Moorhouse, Dark PalaceHannah Kent, Burial RitesDaniel Kehlmann, The DirectorCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

An Australian story of the tender, eager lives of greyhounds and their owners in Tenderfoot by Australian author Toni Jordan. Dark academia in Yellowface author R.F. Kuang’s new fantasy novel, Katabasis. Sport, miracles, and the Amish, in Ron Rindo’s Life, and Death, and Giants.BOOKS Toni Jordan, Tenderfoot, Hachette R.F. Kuang, Katabasis, Harper Voyager Ron Rindo, Life, and Death, and Giants, Pan Macmillan GUESTS Seth Robinson, writer, producer, and lecturer at the University of Melbourne. He is also co-hosting a new podcast with Tony Birch – Unfolded – in which writers take apart short stories to see what makes them work. Michael McGirr, writer, reviewer, and mission director at Caritas Australia. His own books include Ideas to Save Your Life, Books that Saved my Life, and The Story of a Road MICHAEL'S TOP 100 LISTPatriot by Alexei Navalny.  This is Happiness by Niall Williams Apeirogon by Colum McCann King by Jonathan Eig People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright Emily Wilson’s Translation of the Odyssey The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung The Fig Tree by Arnold ZableSETH'S TOP 100 LISTDemon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt Educated, Tara Westover Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton Less, Andrew Sean Greer The Overstory, Richard Powers Still Life, Sarah Winman  The Passage (Trilogy), Justin Cronin Station 11, Emily St John Mandel James, Percival Everett  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEMelissa Lucashenko, Too Much LipGillian Mears, Foal's BreadKim Scott, That Deadman DanceKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeGabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and TomorrowTony Birch, Pictures of YouBehrouz Boochani, No Friend but the MountainsCharles Dickens, David CopperfieldLucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning WomenCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown