The Bookshelf

Catch up on the best books and discussions about them from the last year. A songwriter, a plaintive guitar, time travel and a motel are all in the mix.Kate and Cassie's review of Willie Vlautin's Horse was originally was originally broadcast on 26 July 2024Cassie and Jonathan Green's appraisal of Kaliane Bradley's Ministry of Time was originally broadcast on 30 May 2024Kate, Kate Mildenhall and Beejay Silcox disagreed over Miranda July's All Fours back on 21 June 2024And bookseller David Gaunt and NZ Festival Director Claire Mabey gave their book recommendations on 26 July 2024

Detectives, tea ladies, journos, psychologists – what's the appeal of the crime series and repeat protagonist? Kate Evans with crime writers Michael Robotham, Tim Ayliffe and Amanda Hampson onstage at the BAD Sydney Crime Festival.GUESTSMichael Robotham, internationally bestselling crime writer, whose books include the Joe O'Loughlin series and the Cyrus Haven series. His latest is Storm Child.Tim Ayliffe, journalist and novelist, whose central character is also a media man. John Bailey is his name – and the latest book in that series is The Wrong Man.Amanda Hampson is an author of many novels, whose crime novels, set in the 1960s, feature tea ladies. Her latest is The Cryptic Clue.CRIME SERIES MENTIONED IN THE DISCUSSIONIan Rankin, Rebus seriesMichael Connelly, Bosch and McEvoy seriesAnne Cleeves, Vera seriesJanet Evanovitch, Stephanie Plum seriesKerry Greenwood, Phryne Fischer seriesStieg Larsson, Lisbeth Salander seriesPeter Høeg, Miss Smilla's Feeling for SnowStephen King's Holly Gibney seriesPatricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta seriesMick Herron's Slow HorsesTom Clancy, worksPeter Temple's Jack Irish seriesJohn Le Carre, worksJack Beaumont, Frenchman seriesWalter Mosley, Easy Rawlins seriesAdrian McKinty, Sean Duffy seriesSulari Gentill, Rowland Sinclair seriesCandice Fox, worksSujata Massey, Perveen Mistry seriesChris Hammer, worksCandice Fox, worksDon Winslow, worksPresenter: Kate EvansProducer: Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineers: John Jacobs + Tegan NichollsExecutive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

The best books of 2024 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Jason Steger, Lev Grossman and Michaela Kalowski. Keep scrolling for a full (and somewhat idiosyncratic) list.GUESTSJason Steger, literary journalist. Former literary editor at the Age and SMH; and regular guest on ABC TV's Tuesday Book Club.Lev Grossman, bestselling American novelist and journalist — whose books include The Magicians trilogy and (his latest), The Bright Sword (an Arthurian tale).Michaela Kalowski, literary interviewer and the curator of Radio National's Big Weekend of BooksBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS(listed according to the person who made the recommendation)Lev Grossman:Percival Everett, JamesPaolo Bacigalupi, NavolaTana French, The HunterKate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the RookM.T. Anderson, NickedKarl Ove Knausgaard, The Third RealmNick Harkaway, Karla's ChoiceCassie McCullagh:Percival Everett, JamesKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeFrancis Spufford, Cahokia JazzCeridwen Dovey, Only the AstronautsMichaela Kalowski's selection (in categories)Uplifting (subject matter or style):Ailsa Piper, For LifeJulia Baird, Bright Shining International:Percival Everett, JamesFrancis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz Australian:Robbie Arnott, Dusk Lexi Freiman, The Book of AynTim Winton, Juice Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War James Bradley, Deep Water Julian Borger, I Seek a Kind Person Books in Translation:Greek Lessons by Han KangFantasy:Kelly Link, The Book of LoveJason StegerUplifting/ positive:Colm Tóibín, Long IslandMelanie Cheng, The BurrowKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeOther highlightsNick Harkaway, Karla's ChoiceHelen Garner, The SeasonSamantha Harvey, OrbitalHeather Taylor Johnson, Little BitKate EvansPositive/ Joy or beauty:Niall Williams, Time of the ChildHanif Kureishi, ShatteredDeborah Levy, the Position of SpoonsInternational:Francis Spufford, Cahokia JazzAlan Hollinghurst, Our EveningsRichard Powers, PlaygroundIn translation:Olga Tokarczuk, The EmpusiumAustralian:Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of LimbsCatherine McKinnon, To Sing of WarRobbie Arnott, DuskInga Simpson, The ThinningCREDITSPresenters: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineers: Craig Tilmouth, Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

What do Kate and Cassie make of Will Self’s Elaine, a portrait of a frustrated fifties housewife, based on his mother's own diaries. Plus, The City and its Uncertain Walls, the much anticipated new novel by Haruki Murakami with a dreamy library in a parallel universe at its centre; and Rosalia Aguilar Solace’s The Great Library of Tomorrow, another novel set in an alternate world that pays tribute to libraries.BOOKSWill Self, Elaine, Grove PressHaruki Murakami, The City and its Uncertain Walls (translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel), Harvill SeckerRosalia Aguilar Solace, The Great Library of Tomorrow, TextGUESTSJon Page, long-time bookseller. General Manager, Dymocks, Sydney CBD store C.S. Pacat, writer whose books include the Dark Rise and Captive Prince series, and the graphic novel Fence series. OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDStephanie Meyers, Twilight seriesSamantha Harvey, OrbitalAsako Yuzuki, ButterGenevieve Cogman, Invisible LibrariesJorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel; Labyrinths Anne Rice, The Vampire ChroniclesChristine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives Colum McCann, Apeirogon; TwistCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A focus on literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur, both of whom are South Korean authors and translators, who translate each others' work, and write outside the system of state-sanctioned literature. Anton translates from Korean into English; Bora translates Russian and Polish works into Korean. In this episode, they describe each others' work, discuss translation, give recommendations, and respond to fellow South Korean writer Han Kang's Nobel Prize in literature.We also meet Chinese podcaster and translator Yu Shi, who has translated Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson's fiction into Mandarin.GUESTSBora Chung, lecturer, fiction writer and translator from South Korea, who translates from Russian and Polish into Korean. Her books include Cursed Bunny (which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize), Your Utopia and Grocery ListAnton Hur, novelist and translator. He translates from Korean into English. His books are Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. He also translated the global phenomenon I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se-heeYu Shi, Chinese podcaster and translator Bora Chung and Anton Hur were in Australia as guests of the Korean Cultural CentreALL BOOKS MENTIONEDHan Kang, The Vegetarian; Human Acts; Greek Lessons; We Do Not PartFyodor Dostoevsky, worksBruno Jasieński, worksBruno Schulz, worksOlga Tokarczuk, worksStanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, worksWitold Gombrowicz, worksMargaret Atwood, The Testaments; The Handmaid’s TaleJeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only FruitStephen King, worksPaul Auster, worksMishima Yukio, worksCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Peter ClimpsonExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

Derided, disparaged and cursed to the heavens, book critics are depicted as literature’s grand villains – as frustrated creators and gleeful wreckers. But what do critics really do? And why are they necessary for a healthy literary ecosystem? James Jiang, Beejay Silcox and Christos Tsiolkas join Kate and Cassie as part of a panel discussion at Canberra Writers' Festival - five Aussie critics - making the case for criticism.

At 2025 Adelaide Writers’ Week, Irish author Niall Williams joins Kate Evans to talk Faha, fiction, and Time of the Child—his latest novel. Also a playwright and screenwriter, Williams celebrates the film release of Four Letters of Love, and teams up with Kate, Cassie, Charlotte Mendelsohn, and Brian Castro for a lively Bookshelf special on books, reading, and influence.

The Dressmaker’s backstory, a universe of stars to expand our ideas about nature writing, and fragments and tricks galore: Kate and Cassie read Inga Simpson’s The Thinning, Brian Castro’s Chinese Postman and Rosalie Ham’s Molly with guests Ella Jeffery and Amanda HampsonBOOKSInga Simpson, The Thinning, HachetteBrian Castro, Chinese Postman, GiramondoRosalie Ham, Molly, PicadorGUESTSDr Ella Jeffery, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Griffith University, Qld; ABC Radio National ‘Top 5 Arts’ candidate; currently examining insecure housing as a theme in 21st-century literatureAmanda Hampson, novelist whose latest series feature tea ladies in 1960s Sydney . . . solving crime. The first, The Tea Ladies, won the 2024 Danger Award for Best Crime Novel. The second is The Cryptic Clue; and the third – The Deadly Dispute – will be published in April 2025. There will be five in the series.Other books mentioned:Patricia Wrightson, The Nargun and the StarsJohn Marsden, Tomorrow when the War BeganJames Bradley, Deep Water: The World in the OceanRichard Powers, PlaygroundRobert C. O’Brien, Z for ZachariahCormac McCarthy, The Road Miles Franklin, My Brilliant CareerA B Facey, A Fortunate LifeMarcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural LifeRuth Park, works Helen Garner, WorksJohn Birmingham, He Died with a Felafel in his HandAndrew McGahan, worksBernadette Brennan, Brain Castro’s Fiction: The Seductive Play of LanguageCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Peter Climpson, Emrys CroninExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

The latest from double Miles Franklin Award winner, Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice, a novel that evokes the 1980s and Virginia Woolf. Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet plays a French literary game in A Case of Matricide; and summer days under the light of a strange star in Norway in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm.BOOKSGraeme Macrae Burnet, A Case of Matricide, TextMichelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice, TextKarl Ove Knausgaard, The Third Realm, (Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken), Harvill SeckerGUESTSClare Monagle, Professor of Mediaeval History, Macquarie University – who specialises in the history of ideas, and theology in the Middle AgesMark Mordue, freelance music writer and poet whose latest book is the biography, Boy on Fire - The Young Nick Cave. He is also co-director of the Addi Road Writers Festival OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Daphne du Maurier, RebeccaHelen Garner, worksC.J. Sansom, Shardlake seriesUmberto Eco, The Name of the Rose Jack Gilbert, Collected PoemsJuno Gemes, Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of the Movement for Indigenous Rights CREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls, Ann Marie de BettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie read Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow, a pandemic-set novella that details the healing powers of a pet rabbit for a family dealing with tragedy. Plus, Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, a beautifully crafted novel about a love triangle and everyday life in a farming community in North Dakota, and the latest from Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, a poetic montage of life and death.BOOKS Melanie Cheng, The Burrow, Text Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red, Corsair Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, Hachette GUESTS Steph Harmon, Culture Editor, The Guardian Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Associate Director, Belvoir Theatre OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDNardi Simpson, Song of the CrocodileEmeric Pressburger, The Glass PearlsClaire Kilroy, Soldier SailorAlan Murrin, The Coast Road Dan Hogan, Secret Third Thing​CREDITPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown