The Bookshelf

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4.4 (277)
BOOKS
UPDATED WEEKLY

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.

19 HRS AGO

James Bradley's Landfall reveals a flooded, baked and dilapidated city

Cities that are both flooded and on alert for the next storm in James Bradley’s Landfall. The body of a saint, dreamily and weirdly listening to everyone around her in Western Australia, in Josephine Rowe’s Little World. And from Malaysia, Tash Aw's The South, in which a family has left the city to head to a failing orchard, a story of longing, promise, generations, and misunderstandings BOOKS James Bradley, Landfall, Penguin Josephine Rowe, Little World, Black Inc Tash Aw, The South, Fourth Estate GUESTS Tegan Bennett-Daylight, novelist, teacher, and essayist, whose books include Bombora, What Falls Away, and The Details. Her latest, How to Survive 1985, is a YA novel that will be published in May Rosa Ellen, producer and presenter with Radio National’s Arts team OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Willa Cather, works David Szalay, Flesh Gretchen Shirm, Out of the Woods Yuko Tsushima, Territory of Light Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kappa Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Isabella Tropiano Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

54 min
6 DAYS AGO

The Bookshelf Easter Special: Irish writer Niall Williams

Irish writer Niall Williams with Kate Evans at the 2025 Adelaide Writers Week — with a focus on his Faha novels, History of the Rain, This is Happiness and (his latest) Time of the Child. Williams is also a screenwriter, playwright and travel writer — and his first novel, Four Letters of Love, has just been released as a film. He also appeared onstage at AWW with Kate and Cassie, for a special edition of the Bookshelf on books, reading, and influences, with English writer Charlotte Mendelsohn and Australian writer Brian Castro.

54 min
17 APR

A love triangle set against the beauty of Montana in Eric Puchner's Dream State

Families, secrets, mysteries, war...Kate and Cassie read Eric Puchner’s Dream State, an American saga that spans fifty years and is set against the expansive beauty of Montana; mysterious encounters and marital strife between an actor and an art critic in New York in Katie Kitamura’s Audition, and a World War II story set in an apartment block in Brussels in Alice Austen’s 33 Place Brugmann. BOOKS Eric Puchner, Dream State, Sceptre Katie Kitamura, Audition, Fern Press Alice Austen, 33 Place Brugmann, Bloomsbury GUESTS Mark Mordue, music writer, journalist, poet – whose books include Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave. He’s also director of the Addi Road Writers Festival – a community festival in Sydney’s Marrickville – coming up on Saturday 17 May Gretchen Shirm, novelist and literary critic – whose books include Having Cried Wolf, The Crying Room and her latest (published this month), Out of the Woods OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED John Irving, The World According to Garp Svetlana Alexievich, works T.S. Eliot, Gerontion Lucy Sante, I Heard Her Call My Name Han Kang, We Do Not Part James Bradley, Landfall Clinton Heylin, Behind the Shades Revisited Patrick Holland, Oblivion Bret Easton Ellis, Less than Zero CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs + Dylan Prins Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

54 min
10 APR

Folk horror, dreams under surveillance, lonely in Guatemala

Cassie McCullagh is on leave this week, so Kate Evans and guests read Lucy Rose’s The Lamb, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel, and Rachel Morton’s The Sun was Electric Light (with interview extracts from Lucy Rose on body horror and Cumbrian folk traditions, and from Rachel Morton on her move from poetry to prose). BOOKS Rachel Morton, The Sun was Electric Light, UQP Lucy Rose, The Lamb, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Laila Lalami, The Dream Hotel, Bloomsbury GUESTS Roanna Gonsalves, writer, academic, teacher of creative writing. Her collection of short stories, The Permanent Resident, was published in India and South Asia as, Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney Annie Coulthard has worked in radio and publishing – and is a dedicated reader OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale Philip K. Dick, The Minority Report Franz Kafka, works Michelle de Krester, Questions of Travel; Theory and Practice Christopher Isherwood, works Melanie Cheng, The Burrow Andrew Michael Hurley, Starve Acre Elizabeth Jane Howard, We Are For the Dark Sanya Rushdi, Hospital Jessie Tu, The Honeyeater Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13; The Sun Walks Down Eileen Chong, We Speak of Flowers CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Simon Branthwaite Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

1h 13m
3 APR

Andrea Goldsmith's The Buried Life - and a train steaming towards disaster . . .

Kate and Cassie read three new works of fiction, with the help of two guest reviewers: a novel of ideas, death, love and music, in Australian writer Andrea Goldsmith's The Buried Life; a real train derailment from the 1890s hurtles together rail workers, coffee sellers, anarcho-feminism, art and typewriters in Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue's The Paris Express (read with historical novelist Natasha Lester); and rocknroll choices, career crises and friendship in Australian YA author Claire Zorn's first adult novel, Better Days (read with doco maker and academic, Anna Broinowski). BOOKS Andrea Goldsmith, The Buried Life, Transit Lounge Emma Donoghue, The Paris Express, Picador Claire Zorn, Better Days, Atlantic Books GUESTS Natasha Lester, historical novelist whose books include A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, The Paris Seamstress and The French Photographer. Her latest novel — her ninth — is The Mademoiselle Alliance, and it was published last week Anna Broinowski is a documentary maker, memoirist and academic at Sydney College of the Arts. Her books include Datsun Angel: A true-story adventure inside the savage heart of 1980s Australia and Please Explain: The rise and fall and rise again of Pauline Hanson. She also works on the films of North Korea and the impact of deep fakes Other books mentioned in the discussion: Sarah Wynne-Williams, Careless People Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep Cameron Stewart, Why do Horses Run Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk Douglas Rushkoff, Survival of the Richest CREDITS • Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh • Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett • Sound engineers: Emrys Cronin, Simon Branthwaite • Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

54 min
27 MAR

Curtis Sittenfeld's Show Don't Tell + Tim Rogers and Zan Rowe on two new debuts

Kate and Cassie discuss bestselling American writer Curtis Sittenfeld’s sharp and observant collection of short stories Show Don’t Tell; You Am I frontman Tim Rogers reads First Name Second Name, an excellent debut from Queensland novelist Steve MinOn, and the ABC’s own Zan Rowe (of Triple J, Double J and Take 5 fame) shares her thoughts on Scottish singer-songwriter (from Belle and Sebastian) Stuart Murdoch’s Nobody’s Empire, a case of life inspiring art. BOOKS Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don’t Tell, Doubleday Stuart Murdoch, Nobody’s Empire: A Novel, Faber Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name, UQP GUESTS Tim Rogers, lead singer with You Am I and The Hard-Ons, about to launch into a You Am I tour celebrating 30 years of the Hi Fi Way album. Author of Detours Zan Rowe, Double J’s Music Correspondent and host of Friday Mornings; presenter of Take 5 OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Andrew O'Hagan, Mayflies Robbie Arnott, Dusk Hannah Kent, works Lech Blaine, Australian Gospel Helen Garner, The Season; Monkey Grip Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days; Horse Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking Jennifer Homans, Mr. B Ronald Hugh Morrieson, The Scarecrow Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Emrys Cronin Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

55 min
20 MAR

This week’s novels takes us to Zanzibar, Budapest and Renaissance Florence

This week’s novels takes us to Zanzibar, Budapest and Renaissance Florence with Nobel Prize-winning English-Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft; while guest reviewers Tim Ayliffe reads Laurent Binet’s Perspectives; and Siang Lu reads David Szalay’s Flesh. BOOKS Abdulrazak Gurnah, Theft, Bloomsbury Laurent Binet, Perspectives (translated from the French by Sam Taylor), Harvill Secker David Szalay, Flesh, Jonathan Cape GUESTS Tim Ayliffe, journalist and crime writer – whose John Bailey series include the books The Enemy Within, Killer Traitor Spy, and The Wrong Man Siang Lu, writes for film and TV and is also the author of the books Ghost Cities and The Whitewash OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Michael Connelly, works Leon Uris, works John Le Carre, works Stephen King, works Andrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road; Mayflies Nick Cave and Swan O'Hagan, Faith, Hope and Carnage Sara Foster, When She Was Gone Camille Booker, The Woman in the Waves Natasha Rai, An Onslaught of Light Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name

54 min
13 MAR

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

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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!