The Bookshelf's Kate Evans and the Book Show's Claire Nichols joined forces onstage at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival — with a panel of international writers — to talk favourite and influential books from the 21st century, in the lead up to the inaugural Top 100 Books countdown of the twenty-first century. This live broadcast happened in May 2025 — with Emirati poet Afra Atiq, English chronicler of gay lives, Alan Hollinghurst, Argentinian purveyor of all things dark and surprising, Mariana Enriquez, and New Zealand novelist with a dystopian edge, Catherine Chidgey. This discussion was first broadcast live on Friday 23 May 2025 For more details of the final Top 100 Books of the 21st Century countdown, follow the link here BOOKS MENTIONED in this program ALAN HOLLINGHURST Alice Munro, Runaway David Szalay, All That Man Is Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang Bryan Washington, Lot Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These; Foster MARIANA ENRIQUEZ Cormac McCarthy, The Road Dennis Cooper, The Sluts Jorge Luis Borges, works Horacio Castellanos Moya, Senselessness CATHERINE CHIDGEY Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking John D'Agata and Jim Fingal, The Lifespan of a Fact Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie Anna Smaill, The Chime OTHERS Paul Lynch, Prophet Song Kate Grenville, The Secret River Sarah Winman, Still Life Markus Zusak, The Book Thief Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch Ann Patchett, Bel Canto Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror Robbie Arnott, Limberlost Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonder Min Jin Lee, Pachinko Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse CREDITS • Presenter: Kate Evans, Claire Nichols • Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett • Sound engineer: Emrys Cronin, Hamish Camilleri, Harvey O'Sullivan • Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown
