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.

6 DAYS AGO

On stage at Adelaide Writers' Week with Niall Williams, Charlotte Mendelson and Brian Castro

This edition of the Bookshelf was recorded on stage at Adelaide Writers' Week on Sunday 2 March – with Irish writer Niall Williams (Time of the Child), English writer Charlotte Mendelson (Wife) and all the way from the Adelaide Hills, Australian writer Brian Castro (Chinese Postman). How and when do they do their best reading, what have books meant to them, what are their influences and touchstones? With a surprising swerve or to into the bath and to the funeral of a beloved author. BOOKS MENTIONED Laurence Sterne, works James Joyce, works, Ulysses Samuel Beckett, works P. W. Joyce, English As We Speak It in Ireland Charles Dickens, Great Expectations; Bleak House W.G.Sebald, Rings of Saturn; Austerlitz Thomas Bernhard, works Helen Garner, Diaries; The Children's Bach; Monkey Grip Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls; Memoir Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil Salvatore Satta, The Day of Judgment Samantha Harvey, Orbital Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts Louise Glück, works Anne Carson, works Jelena Dinic, works Alistair MacLeod, Ireland and Other Stories John McGahern, Amongst Women Percival Everett, James Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store Patrick Lane, There is a Season Alba de Céspedes, works Elena Ferrante, works

54 min
6 MAR

Australian bestseller Diana Reid returns with Signs of Damage

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. BOOKS Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dream Count, Fourth Estate Diana Reid, Signs of Damage, Ultimo Press Annika Norlin, Colony, (translated from the Swedish by Alice E. Olsson), Scribe GUESTS Peter Polites, Western Sydney writer whose books include the novels Down the Hume and The Pillars, and the memoir-fiction hybrid, God Forgets About the Poor Stephanie 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 Story OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun; Americana Diana Reid, Love and Virtue; Seeing Other People Fiona McGregor, Chemical Palace; Iris James Parker, Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes: Odes to Being Alive CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Ann Marie Debettencor, Simon Branthwaite Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

54 min
27 FEB

Irish writer Colum McCann’s Twist dives deep under the ocean and takes on a charismatic mystery

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. BOOKS Colum 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 GUESTS Beejay Silcox, critic, essayist and regular onstage interviewer of writers. Until last week – Director of the Canberra Writers Festival Bernadette Brennan, literary scholar and judge, whose books include literary biographies of Australian Helen Garner and Gillian Mears OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Susannah Clarke, Piranesi Sarah Manguso, Liars Alba de Céspedes, No Turning Back CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

54 min
20 FEB

Mothers and Sons...is the story as fraught as the title suggests?

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. BOOKS Adam Haslett, Mothers and Sons, Hamish Hamilton Robert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me, Allen & Unwin Garrett Carr, The Boy from the Sea, Picador GUESTS Claire 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 MENTIONED Percival Everett, James Charles Dickens, David Copperfield Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead Samantha Harvey, Orbital Robert Lukins, The Everlasting Sunday; Loveland F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Herman Melville, Moby Dick Shakespeare, Hamlet Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited Audrey Magee, The Colony Paul Murray, The Bee Sting Paul Lynch, Prophet Song Colm Toibin, works Niall Williams, Time of the Child Fiona McFarlane, The Sun Walks Down James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Marilynne Robinson, Gilead Susannah Clarke, Piranesi Damien Wilkins, Delirious Harriet Baker, Rural Hours CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: John Jacobs, Ann Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

54 min
13 FEB

Alaska, folktales and mothers and daughters in Eowyn Ivey's Black Woods Blue Sky

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. BOOKS Eowyn Ivey, Black Woods, Blue Sky, Tinder Press Anne Tyler, Three Days in June, Chatto & Windus Vincenzo Latronico, Perfection (translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes), Text GUESTS Alice Pung, novelist, memoirist and editor. Her books include Unpolished Gem, Laurinda and One Hundred Days Dylin Hardcastle, novelist, artist and screenwriter, currently completing their PhD. Their novels include Below Deck and A Language of Limbs OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Eowyn Ivey, The Snow Child John Marsden, works Anne Tyler, works Jazz Money, Mark the Dawn David Owen Kelly, Host City Kirsty Jagger, Roseghetto Weike Wang, Joan is Okay CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, John Jacobs, Tegan Nicholls Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

54 min
6 FEB

A story of yearning, belonging, secrets and identity from Native America

A brief foray into the world of ‘romantasy’ and the international bestseller Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. 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. 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 Film Sarah 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 Lit OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Nikki May, Wahala Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Cazalet Chronicles Elsa Morante, Lies and Sorcery Elene Ferrante, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs and Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

57 min
30 JAN

France, Sweden, New Zealand: books from around the world

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. BOOKS Marie-Hélène Lafon, The Son’s Story (translated from the French by Stephanie Smee), MLP Geoff Parkes, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, Penguin Random House Sigge Eklund, The Group (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles), Ithaka Press GUESTS Hayley Scrivenor, crime writer whose books are Dirt Town and – her latest – Girl Falling Johan Gabrielsson, documentary maker: longtime Australian resident, he was born in Sweden OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Mary McCarthy, The Group Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr Ripley Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Cold Truth Sara Foster, When She Was Gone Samantha Byres, Dead Ends James Bridle, Ways of Being Slavoj Zizek, Too Late To Awaken CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman, Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

54 min
23 JAN

Escaping a drunken rant in Catherine Jinks' Panic

Kate and Cassie are back for 2025 to discuss 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. BOOKS Catherine Jinks, Panic, Text Garth Greenwell, Small Rain, Picador Shankari Chandran, Unfinished Business, Ultimo Press GUESTS George Haddad, novelist, artist and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Western Sydney. His novel Losing Face was published in 2022 Sue 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 SMH OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time Alice Winn, In Memoriam Richard J. Evans, Hitler's People George Eliot, Middlemarch Caroline Darian, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again: Turning our family trauma of Chemical Submission into a collective fight Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell; Romantic Comedy; Eligible Garth Greenwell, Cleanness Shankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens Katherine Brabon, Body Friend Ben Watt, Patient Alexandros Papadiamantis, The Murderess Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice Ronni Salt, Gunnawah Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Cold Truth; Dark Mode Katherena Vermette, The Stranger family trilogy CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Tegan Nicholls, Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

54 min

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4.4

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More recommendations

15/11/2023

User40342

Love your show. Please consider having more book recommendations for younger readers. It is important to nurture young readers as they become adult readers in the future.
Platforming transphobes

10 Mar

M028O

I was so deeply disappointed to hear you platforming Adichie, a known transphobe. I expect much better from ABC. Shame on you.
…..

22/04/2024

keen listener!

Fewer crime novels please Love your discussions and banter!
Awesome wonderful brilliant

03/03/2024

AkMSaM

Cassie & Kate- perfect balance of your own individual interests and deeply engaging interviews. Your book choices are so varied that I’m awed by your breadth! I also love your great personalities and the laughter and quick witted banter!