The Bookshelf

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What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    Madeline Cash: Lost Lambs + George Saunders: Vigil + new releases by George Kemp and Steven Carroll (REVIEWERS: Michael Robotham & Roanna Gonsalves)

    Madeline Cash’s buzzy debut Lost Lambs pairs an off‑kilter storytelling sensibility with a sharp exploration of displacement and identity. George Saunders returns with Vigil, offering his moral curiosity in a novel that probes what it means to pay attention to the world. George Kemp’s Soft Serve delivers a charming and quietly affecting debut about growing up in a small town; and Steven Carroll’s The Afterlife of Harry Playford continues his investigations of history and memory. BOOKS Madeline Cash, Lost Lambs, Doubleday George Saunders, Vigil, Bloomsbury George Kemp, Soft Serve, UQP Steven Carroll, The Afterlife of Harry Playford, Fourth Estate GUESTS Michael Robotham is an international crime writer and former journalist whose books include The Secrets She Keeps, Good Girl Bad Girl, and his latest, White Crow. His next novel — his first to be set in Australia — will be published in October.Roanna Gonsalves is a writer and teacher of creative writing whose short‑story collection The Permanent Resident won wide acclaim. Her novel The Servants will be published later this year.OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Kurt Vonnegut, worksJoseph Heller, worksThomas Pynchon, worksJonathan Franzen, worksPaul Murray, The Bee StingDBC Pierre, Vernon God LittleShaun Prescott, The TownStephen King, worksLiz Nugent, The Truth About Ruby CooperGillian Flynn, Gone GirlDeborah Adelaide, When I Am Sixty-FourTim Ayliffe, Dark Desert RoadKatie Kitamura, AuditionCREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi HubermanArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  2. 30 JAN

    Michael Mohammed Ahmad: Bugger + Jeanette McCurdy: Half His Age + Nina McConigley: How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder (REVIEWERS: Hannah Kent & Tom Wright)

    Kate and Cassie read award-winning Australian author Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s bold new novel Bugger, while reviewers Hannah Kent and Tom Wright take on Jennette McCurdy’s provocative new book Half His Age — from the former child actor whose memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died shook readers worldwide — and Nina McConigley’s How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder...does it live up to the name? BOOKS  Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Bugger, Hachette Jennette McCurdy, Half His Age, Fourth Estate Nina McConigley, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, Fleet GUESTS  Hannah Kent, novelist, screenwriter, and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, The Good People, Devotion, and Always Home, Always Homesick Tom Wright, Artistic Associate at Belvoir St.Theatre OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Jim Butcher, Twelve Months: The Dresden Files Sita Walker, In a Common Hour Jonas Jonasson, The Distinctly Competent District Councillor  Catherine Newman, Wreck India-Rose Bower, We Call Them Witches Amie Kaufman, Red Star Rebels Yxavel Magno Diňo, The Firefly Crown Vladimir Nabokov, LolitaKiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and SunnyOlga Ravn, The Wax Child Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the WindTravis Baldree, Brigands and Breadknives Jorge Luis Borges, LabyrinthsCREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Micky Grossman and Ann Marie DebettencorArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  3. 23 JAN

    Julian Barnes: Departure(s) + Cassie Stroud: Iluka + Patrick Charnley: This, My Second Life (REVIEWERS: Tony Birch & Beejay Silcox)

    Kate and Cassie are back for a big year of books, beginning with Booker-Prize winner Julian Barnes' Departures, a novel about looking back, facing the future, and coming to the end of life. Plus, regular reviewers Tony Birch and Beejay Silcox join us for discussions on This, My Second Life by British novelist Patrick Charnley, and Iluka, by Australian author Cassie Stroud. BOOKS Julian Barnes, Departure(s), Jonathan CapeCassie Stroud, Iluka, HQ BooksPatrick Charnley, This, My Second Life, Hutchinson HeinemannGUESTS Tony Birch, poet, novelist and short story writer whose books include Dark as Last Night, Shadow Boxing, Women and Children and The White Girl. His latest is Pictures of You. He is also a Professor of Australian literature at the University of MelbourneBeejay Silcox, critic, writer and regular interviewer at writers festivals.OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Lily King, Heart the LoverAnne Enright, AttentionMelissa Lucashenko, Not Quite White in the HeadBryan Washington, Palaver; Family MealSouvankham Thammavongsa, Pick the ColourCharlotte Wood, The WeekendAnn Patchett, Tom LakeJonathan Tropper, And Then We Came To the EndMaggie Shipstead, Seating ArrangementsEmily O'Grady, FeastHayle Felicity, Our Brother Nick and the Tolling BellElizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy BartonJoe Hill, King SorrowHaldor Laxness, Independent PeopleDani Netherclift The Shape of Absent BodiesGeorge Eliot, MiddlemarchAlexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte CristoEric Puchner, Dream StateCREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Hubermann and Ann Marie DebettencorArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  4. 22 JAN

    Festival Special: Maggie O'Farrell on Hamnet and more

    Novelist and memoirist Maggie O'Farrell in conversation with Kate Evans at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival. Her nine novels include After You'd Gone, the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, This Must be the Place, Hamnet and the Marriage Portrait . . . and her extraordinary memoir is I Am I Am I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death.

  5. 15 JAN

    Summer Reading: at the Brisbane Writers Festival

    Kate and Cassie on stage at the 2025 Brisbane Writers Festival with authors Eric Puchner, Toni Jordan, Patrick Holland, and Zeynab Gamieldien, discussing their most recent novels and the books and writers who inspire them. This discussion was recorded in front of a live audience, just ahead of our Top 100 Books of the Century. It was first broadcast on Friday 17 October 2025 GUESTS Eric 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 State Toni Jordan, a writer whose novels include Nine Days, Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, Prettier If She Smiles More, Dinner with the Schnabels . . . and her latest, Tenderfoot Patrick 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 published BOOKS MENTIONED BY ERIC PUCHNER •    James Salter, Light Years •    Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad •    Joy Williams, works •    Willa Cather, My Ántonia •    Jhumpa Lahiri, A Temporary Matter •    Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping •    Evan S. Connell, Mrs. Bridge •    César Aira, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter BOOKS MENTIONED BY TONI JORDAN •    Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones •    Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe •    Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall •    Zadie Smith, White Teeth •    Alexis Wright, Carpentaria •    Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet •    Richard Ford, Canada BOOKS MENTIONED BY PATRICK HOLLAND •    Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country •    Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights •    Ernest Hemingway, 88 Poems •    Leah Swann, Bearings •    Felix Calvino, works •    Brian Castro, works •    Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse •    Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian; All the Pretty Horses •    Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji BOOKS MENTIONED BY ZEYNAB GAMIELDIEN •    Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake •    Tara June Winch, The Yield •    Hisham Matar, The Return; My Friends •    Anne Enright, The Gathering •    Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn; Long Island •    Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These •    Sally Rooney, Intermezzo OTHER BOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONED •    J.G. Ballard, works •    Graham Greene, The Quiet American •    David Malouf, works •    Patrick White, works •    Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell •    David Mitchell, works CREDITS •    Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh •    Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett •    Sound engineer, Steve Fieldhouse + Harvey O'Sullivan •    Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

    55 min

  6. 8 JAN

    Summer Reading: with Alan Hollinghurst, Mariana Enriquez, Afra Atiq and Catherine Chidgey

    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

    55 min

  7. 1 JAN

    Summer Reading: It's time for poetry

    Why aren't you reading more poetry? Perhaps you don't know where to begin — in which case, listen here, for a guide. 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. This event was first broadcast on 3 October 2025 POETS AND POETRY MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE •    Warsan Shire, Home •    Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World •    Graeme Dixon, Six Feet of Land Rights •    Gwen Harwood, In the Park •    Anonymous Rose, Broken World •    Zora Howard and Joshya Bennett, Still Life with Police Sirens •    Ali Cobby Eckermann, works •    Simon Armitage, The Shout •    Evelyn Araluen, decolonial poetics (avant gubba) •    Candy Royale, works •    Max Porter, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans Producer, Kate Evans, Lisa Needham Sound engineer, Ann Marie Debettencor + Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    55 min

  8. 31/12/2025

    Summer Books Special: Novelist, essayist, raconteur Colm Tóibín

    Colm Tóibín onstage at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival with The Bookshelf's Kate Evans — on fiction, fridges, rain, hinges, melodrama, reading, and why he can't write American dialogue so every character he writes has to be Irish (except, of course, when they're Thomas Mann and family). This is a conversation that begins in his hometown of Enniscorthy, site of his novels Nora Webster, The Blackwater Lightship, Brooklyn and Long Island — and the site of his memories and overheard conversations — and moves on to his bookshelves, writing, and the story of a tongue. Really.

    52 min
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About

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

Information

  • Creator
    ABC
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2026
  • Episodes
    447
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Bookshelf

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