The Bookshelf

Four women’s lives intertwined between Africa and the USA in Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count. Plus, secrets and trauma in the South of France  in Australian novelist Diana Reid’s new one, Signs of Damage; and into the Swedish wilderness to observe a group of seven unlikely people in indie musician turned novelist Annika Norlin’s Colony.BOOKSChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dream Count, Fourth EstateDiana Reid, Signs of Damage, Ultimo PressAnnika Norlin, Colony, (translated from the Swedish by Alice E. Olsson), ScribeGUESTSPeter Polites, Western Sydney writer whose books include the novels Down the Hume and The Pillars, and the memoir-fiction hybrid, God Forgets About the PoorStephanie Smee is a translator who works from French into English and whose translations include Hannelore Cayre’s The Godmother, Helene Gaudy’s A World with No Shore and Marie-Helene La Fon’s The Son’s StoryOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun; AmericanaDiana Reid, Love and Virtue; Seeing Other PeopleFiona McGregor, Chemical Palace; IrisJames Parker, Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes: Odes to Being AliveCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Ann Marie Debettencor, Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

Irish writer Colum McCann’s Twist dives deep under the ocean and takes on a charismatic mystery; 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang’s We Do Not Part explores massacres on Jeju Island during (and after) the Korean War, stories actively repressed by both the South Korean and American governments; and Australian novelist Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore takes us to a fictional island between Tasmania and Antarctica, inhabited only by a man and his three children.BOOKSColum McCann, Twist, Bloomsbury Han Kang, We Do Not Part (translated from Korean by e. yaewon & Page Aniyah Morris), Hamish Hamilton Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore, Penguin Random House GUESTSBeejay Silcox, critic, essayist and regular onstage interviewer of writers. Until last week – Director of the Canberra Writers FestivalBernadette Brennan, literary scholar and judge, whose books include literary biographies of Australian Helen Garner and Gillian MearsOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJoseph Conrad, Heart of DarknessSusannah Clarke, PiranesiSarah Manguso, LiarsAlba de Céspedes, No Turning BackCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, John JacobsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

An examination of family dynamics through three novels...Adam Haslett’s Mothers and Sons reflects on unspoken stories and familial divides; The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr, set in 1970s Ireland, tells the story of a family that takes in a child washed ashore, and Robert Lukins’ Somebody Down There Likes Me depicts an uber-rich family who gather together as their wealth and corruption begin to unravel.BOOKSAdam Haslett, Mothers and Sons, Hamish HamiltonRobert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me, Allen & UnwinGarrett Carr, The Boy from the Sea, PicadorGUESTSClaire Mabey, founder of NZ’s Verb Wellington literary organisation and writers’ festival; books editor at The Spinoff; writer whose middle-grade children’s book The Raven's Eye Runaways was published last year. And, here's a link to the NZ book awards Claire mentions: https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/)Jonty Claypole, CEO Red Room Poetry; co-host of podcast The Secret Life of Books; author, Words Fail Us: In Defence of Disfluency OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDPercival Everett, JamesCharles Dickens, David CopperfieldBarbara Kingsolver, Demon CopperheadSamantha Harvey, OrbitalRobert Lukins, The Everlasting Sunday; LovelandF. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great GatsbyHerman Melville, Moby DickShakespeare, HamletEvelyn Waugh, Brideshead RevisitedAudrey Magee, The ColonyPaul Murray, The Bee StingPaul Lynch, Prophet SongColm Toibin, worksNiall Williams, Time of the ChildFiona McFarlane, The Sun Walks DownJames Baldwin, Giovanni's RoomJane Austen, Pride and PrejudiceMarilynne Robinson, GileadSusannah Clarke, PiranesiDamien Wilkins, DeliriousHarriet Baker, Rural HoursCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: John Jacobs, Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown 

Alaska, folktales and mothers and daughters in Eowyn Ivey's Black Woods Blue Sky. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Anne Tyler is back with Three Days in June, another novel about mothers and daughters; and Italian novelist Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection, a critique of social media and contemporary life.BOOKSEowyn Ivey, Black Woods, Blue Sky, Tinder PressAnne Tyler, Three Days in June, Chatto & WindusVincenzo Latronico, Perfection (translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes), TextGUESTSAlice Pung, novelist, memoirist and editor. Her books include Unpolished Gem, Laurinda and One Hundred DaysDylin Hardcastle, novelist, artist and screenwriter, currently completing their PhD. Their novels include Below Deck and A Language of Limbs OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDEowyn Ivey, The Snow ChildJohn Marsden, worksAnne Tyler, worksJazz Money, Mark the DawnDavid Owen Kelly, Host CityKirsty Jagger, RoseghettoWeike Wang, Joan is OkayCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, John Jacobs, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A story of yearning, belonging, secrets and identity from Native America in Morgan Talty’s Fire Exit; rusted robots, prosthetic limbs, AI and noisy families in Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author; and coercive control and walking on eggshells in Irish writer Roisín  O’Donnell’s Nesting; and a brief foray into the world of ‘romantasy’ and the international bestseller Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros.BOOKS Morgan Talty, Fire Exit, Scribe Rebecca Yarros, Onyx Storm [Book three in the Fourth Wing/Empyrean series], Piatkus Nnedi Okorafor, Death of the Author, Gollancz Roisín O’Donnell, Nesting, Scribner GUESTS Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Sydney; and co-host of the podcast Film Versus FilmSarah Gilbert, journalist, Executive Producer, Impact Studios, University of Technology, Sydney. Her latest book is Unconventional Women: The Story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia. She is currently writing a biblio-memoir set in Buenos Aires, and has a podcast coming with Sydney Review of Books called Fully LitOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDNikki May, WahalaDostoevsky, Crime and PunishmentIain Pears, An Instance of the FingerpostUmberto Eco, The Name of the RoseElizabeth Jane Howard, The Cazalet ChroniclesElsa Morante, Lies and SorceryElene Ferrante, worksCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, John Jacobs and Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Kate read Marie-Hélène Lafon’s The Son’s Story, a family story that spans the twentieth-century, full of melancholy beauty and secrets. Crime writer Hayley Scrivenor reads Geoff Parkes’ When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, a story of small towns, envy and threat in New Zealand; and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson reads Swedish bestseller The Group, by Sigge Eklund, in which art, sun, wealth and beautiful people meet and mingle in Madrid.BOOKSMarie-Hélène Lafon, The Son’s Story (translated from the French by Stephanie Smee), MLPGeoff Parkes, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, Penguin Random HouseSigge Eklund, The Group (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles), Ithaka PressGUESTSHayley Scrivenor, crime writer whose books are Dirt Town and – her latest – Girl FallingJohan Gabrielsson, documentary maker: longtime Australian resident, he was born in SwedenOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDMary McCarthy, The GroupPatricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr RipleyAshley Kalagian Blunt, Cold TruthSara Foster, When She Was GoneSamantha Byres, Dead EndsJames Bridle, Ways of BeingSlavoj Zizek, Too Late To Awaken CREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Huberman, Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie are back for 2025!In this episode, a discussion of Panic by Catherine Jinks, about a young woman looking for a fresh start after posting a drunken rant that went horrifically viral. Novelist George Haddad, and Professor Sue Turnbull, who specialises in crime drama and fiction, are also along, to take a look at new novels by Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran and American author Garth Greenwell.BOOKSCatherine Jinks, Panic, TextGarth Greenwell, Small Rain, PicadorShankari Chandran, Unfinished Business, Ultimo PressGUESTSGeorge Haddad, novelist, artist and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Western Sydney. His novel Losing Face was published in 2022Sue Turnbull, Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, who specialises in crime drama and fiction. She is also chief crime fiction reviewer for The Age and SMHOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeAlice Winn, In MemoriamRichard J. Evans, Hitler's PeopleGeorge Eliot, MiddlemarchCaroline Darian, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again:  Turning our family trauma of Chemical Submission into a collective fightCurtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell; Romantic Comedy; EligibleGarth Greenwell, CleannessShankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon GardensKatherine Brabon, Body FriendBen Watt, Patient Alexandros Papadiamantis, The MurderessMichelle de Kretser, Theory and PracticeRonni Salt, Gunnawah Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Cold Truth; Dark ModeKatherena Vermette, The Stranger family trilogyCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Tegan Nicholls, Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

Reading Percival Everett's James, Dylin Hardcastle's Language of Limbs and James McBride's The Heaven and Earth Grocery StoreCassie and literary interviewer Michaela Kalowski discussed Percival Everett's James in a conversation first broadcast on 15 March 2024Kate and Jonathan Green reviewed Dylin Hardcastle's Language of Limbs on 19 July 2024And James McBride spoke to Kate about The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store for Radio National's 2024 Big Weekend of Books

Books you might have missed: from England, Turkey and within the Australian Tongan communityCassie and critic Beejay Silcox agree to disagree over David Nicholls' You Are Here – from a conversation first broadcast on 19 April 2024Kate, Richard Aedy and writer Patrick Carey reviewed Oisín McKenna, Evenings and Weekends on 28 June 2024Cassie, Beejay Silcox and academic Jioji Ravulo read Winnie Dunn's Dirt Poor Islanders on 19 April 2024And Cassie spoke to Turkish-British author Elif Shafak ahead of the publication of her novel There Are Rivers in the Sky, on Radio National's 2024 Big Weekend of Books

Time to reassess your TBR pile – To Be Read, that is – ready for 2025. To help, some of the best books and literary discussions from the past year.Kate and Cassie's review of Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot was first broadcast on 16 August 2024Kate and Richard Aedy's discussion of Catherine McKinnon's To Sing of War was first broadcast on 28 June 2024Cassie and Kate first delved into Rodney Hall's Vortex on 22 August 2024