The Bookshelf

Cassie and Jonathan Green review The Ministry of Time by debut British-Cambodian novelist Kaliane Bradley, a heads up, it's brilliant.Michael Brissenden reviews Crooked Seeds by South African writer Karen Jennings, a crime mystery set in Cape Town.Nicole Abadee looks at The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry, a story that takes us to 1891 and a grim winter in a small mining town of immigrant Irish workers in the Rocky Mountains. BOOKSThe Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley (Hachette)Crooked Seeds, Karen Jennings (Text)The Heart in Winter, Kevin Barry (Allen and Unwin)GUESTSNicole Abadee, books writer, podcaster and festival moderator who regularly interviews at writers festivals and literary events. Contributor to Good Weekend magazineMichael Brissenden, award-winning journalist and author. His latest book is a crime thriller novel called SmokeOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDCormac McCarthy, worksPaul Lynch, worksSebastian Barry, workJoseph O'Connor, works  Malcolm Knox, The First FriendClaire Messud, This Strange Eventful HistoryCREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh + Jonathan GreenProducer, Cassie McCullagh + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Huberman + Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Claire Nichols team up on stage at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival to grill some huge literary stars on their reading lives: Irish Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, U.S. bestseller Celeste Ng, and Australia’s Christos Tsoilkas.GUESTSPaul Lynch, internationally acclaimed, prize-winning author of five novels  including the 2023 Booker Prize Winner Prophet SongCeleste Ng, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing HeartsChristos Tsiolkas, author of eight novels, including the international bestseller The Slap. His latest is The In-BetweenBOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONEDColm Tóibín, worksGustave Flaubert, worksGraham Greene, worksMarcel Proust, worksVirginia Woolf, works E.M. Forster, worksFlannery O'Connor, worksJoseph Conrad, TyphoonPatrick White, worksFyodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed; Crime and Punishment; The Brothers KaramazovLeo Tolstoy, Anna KareninaAlexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte CristoVladimir Nabokov, worksRobbie Arnott, LimberlostJohn Steinbeck, The BreakfastSaul Bellow, HerzogToni Morrison, The Bluest EyeWilliam Faulkner, worksCharles Dickens, worksWilliam Shakespeare, worksMarguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of HadrianStendahl, The Red and the BlackHannah Kent, DevotionPeter Polites, God Forgets About the PoorChristos also mentioned the film criticism of Pauline Kael)CREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh + Claire NicholsProducer, Cassie McCullagh + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Beth Stewart + David Le MayExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Jonathan Green review Safe Haven by 2023 Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran, Table For Two by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman In  Moscow), and Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan of Crazy Rich Asians fame.BOOKSSafe Haven, Shankari Chandran (Ultimo Press)Lies and Weddings, Kevin Kwan (Penguin)Table for Two, Amor Towles (Penguin)GUESTSJennifer Wong, Chinese-Australian writer and comedian. She’s the presenter of Chopsticks or Fork?, a six-part AACTA-nominated ABC series on Chinese restaurants in regional AustraliaSam Twyford-Moore, writer and cultural historian whose latest book is Castmates: Australian actors in Hollywood and at HomeOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDRoald Dahl, worksJohn Cheever, worksO Henry, worksPaul Auster, worksKirstin Chen, CounterfeitGrace D. Li, Portrait of a ThiefGeoff Dyer, The Ongoing MomentCREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh + Jonathan GreenProducer, Cassie McCullagh + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Isabella Tropiano + Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and guest host Tom Wright discuss Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History, about a family torn apart by war, geography, politics and religion, over the course of three generations. Plus, guests Claire Mabey and Shannon Burns review new fiction from Sarah Perry and Alan Murrin.BOOKSThis Strange Eventful History, Claire Messud (Hachette)Enlightenment, Sarah Perry (Penguin)The Coast Road, Alan Murrin (Bloomsbury)GUESTSShannon Burns, writer, critic, and member of The JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide. His book Childhood: A Memoir is published by Text and has just been shortlisted for the NSW Premiers' Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-FictionClaire Mabey, Founder of Verb Wellington and books editor at The Spinoff (NZ online culture and news site). Her first book, a middle grade novel called The Raven's Eye Runaways will be published in JulyOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDEdna O'Brien, Byron in LoveJavier Marías, A Heart So WhiteNicholas John Turner, Let the Boys PlayLauren Groff, The Vaster WildsLouise Wallace, AshMax Porter, worksCREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh + Tom WrightProducer, Cassie McCullagh + Sarah Corbett + Barbara HeggenSound engineer, Hamish Camilleri + Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Jonathan Green discuss Colm Tóibín's eagerly awaited new novel Long Island. Star reviewers Madeleine Gray and Benjamin Law discuss buzzy new fiction from Siang Lu (Ghost Cities), and Rachel Khong (Real Americans). BOOKSLong Island, Colm Toibin (Pan Macmillan)Ghost Cities, Siang Lu (UQP)Real Americans, Rachel Khong (Penguin)GUESTSBenjamin Law, writer, columnist, screenwriter. His work includes The Family Law and WellmaniaMadeleine Gray, arts writer, critic and PhD candidate in English Literature. Her debut novel is Green Dot (A&U)OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDHaruki Murakami, worksSarah Firth, Eventually Everything ConnectsHelen Garner, worksJoan Didion, worksDylin Hardcastle, A Language of LimbsJessie Tu, The HoneyeaterJessica Au, Cold Enough For SnowMadison Godfrey, Dress RehearsalsCREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh + Jonathan GreenProducer, Cassie McCullagh + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Craig Tilmouth + Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Jonathan Green look at Until August, the lost novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and guest reviewers Hannah Kent and Roanna Gonsalves discuss powerful new fiction out of Iceland and the UK.

Cassie and guest host Beejay Silcox read new work by One Day sensation David Nicholls.

Cassie, Tom Wright and guests look at The End of the Morning, the never-before-published novel by the Australian writer Charmian Clift, who died in 1969. Plus, The Alternatives by Ireland’s Caoilinn Hughes, and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, about the consequences of colonisation and the forced assimilation of Native Americans, which is already generating high praise.BOOKSThe End of the Morning, Charmian Clift (New South)Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange (Penguin Random House)The Alternatives, Caoilinn Hughes (A&U)GUESTSNicole Abadee, Books writer, podcaster and festival moderator who regularly interviews at writers festivals and literary events. Contributor to Good Weekend magazine. Paul Daley, Walkley award-winning columnist for The Guardian who regularly writes on Indigenous affairs. He is also a novelist, short story writer, essayist and playwright. His latest novel is JesustownOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDGeroge Johnston, Meredith TrilogyRandolph Stow, The Merry-Go-Round in the SeaHal Porter, The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony  Sumner Locke Elliott, Careful He Might Hear YouHazzard and Harrower (Edited by Brigitta Olubas, Susan Wyndham)Shankari Chandran, Safe Haven James Bradley, Deep WaterHenry Handel Richardson, Maurice GuestIvy Compton-Burnett, The Present and the PastCREDITSPresenter, Cassie McCullagh + Tom WrightProducer,  Cassie McCullagh + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Craig Tilmouth + Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Michaela Kalowski and Cassie look at The Work by Bri Lee, plus new novels from Call Me By Your Name author Andre Aciman, and a work of speculative fiction by Mykaela Saunders.

Cassie and guest host Tom Wright take a look at the exceptional new novel from award-winning Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan, plus, a genre bending mystery from Stuart Turton and a clever new thriller set in Edinburgh.