The Bookshelf

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The Bookshelf

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. 21 NOV

    Literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur + Yu Shi

    A focus on literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur, both of whom are South Korean authors and translators, who translate each others' work, and write outside the system of state-sanctioned literature. Anton translates from Korean into English; Bora translates Russian and Polish works into Korean. In this episode, they describe each others' work, discuss translation, give recommendations, and respond to fellow South Korean writer Han Kang's Nobel Prize in literature. We also meet Chinese podcaster and translator Yu Shi, who has translated Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson's fiction into Mandarin. GUESTS Bora Chung, lecturer, fiction writer and translator from South Korea, who translates from Russian and Polish into Korean. Her books include Cursed Bunny (which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize), Your Utopia and Grocery List Anton Hur, novelist and translator. He translates from Korean into English. His books are Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. He also translated the global phenomenon I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se-hee Yu Shi, Chinese podcaster and translator  Bora Chung and Anton Hur were in Australia as guests of the Korean Cultural Centre ALL BOOKS MENTIONED Han Kang, The Vegetarian; Human Acts; Greek Lessons; We Do Not Part Fyodor Dostoevsky, works Bruno Jasieński, works Bruno Schulz, works Olga Tokarczuk, works Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, works Witold Gombrowicz, works Margaret Atwood, The Testaments; The Handmaid’s Tale Jeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit Stephen King, works Paul Auster, works Mishima Yukio, works CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Peter Climpson Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

    1 hr
  2. 8 NOV

    Niall Williams’ Time of the Child might just be the big ‘feel-good book of the year’

    Niall Williams’ Time of the Child might just be the big ‘feel-good book of the year’—but there’s more to it than that. This is a beautifully written Irish story, full of ordinary lives described in painfully funny detail. Also, Scottish writer Ali Smith and her too-real-to-be-allegorical Gliff; and in Alan Moore's The Great When, we're presented with a hallucinatory vision of an alternative London, anchored in post-World War ll realism. BOOKS Ali Smith, Gliff, Hamish Hamilton Alan Moore, The Great When, Bloomsbury Niall Williams, Time of the Child, Bloomsbury GUESTS Garth Nix, sci-fi and fantasy writer whose books include the Old Kingdom series, Angel Mage , and  The Left-Handed Booksellers of London; his latest is a middle-grade novel, We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord Chris Hammer, crime writer whose books include Scrublands, Silver, and The Tilt. His latest, featuring his characters Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic is The Valley  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These Fintan O'Toole, We Don't Know Ourselves Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove Chris Whittaker, We Begin at the End C.S. Robertson, The Trials of Marjorie Crowe CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth, Ann-Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min
  3. 1 NOV

    Dark Skies, a quest and nature writing in Inga Simpson’s The Thinning

    The Dressmaker’s backstory, a universe of stars to expand our ideas about nature writing, and fragments and tricks galore: Kate and Cassie read Inga Simpson’s The Thinning, Brian Castro’s Chinese Postman and Rosalie Ham’s Molly with guests Ella Jeffery and Amanda Hampson BOOKS Inga Simpson, The Thinning, Hachette Brian Castro, Chinese Postman, Giramondo Rosalie Ham, Molly, Picador GUESTS Dr Ella Jeffery, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Griffith University, Qld; ABC Radio National ‘Top 5 Arts’ candidate; currently examining insecure housing as a theme in 21st-century literature Amanda Hampson, novelist whose latest series feature tea ladies in 1960s Sydney . . . solving crime. The first, The Tea Ladies, won the 2024 Danger Award for Best Crime Novel. The second is The Cryptic Clue; and the third – The Deadly Dispute – will be published in April 2025. There will be five in the series. Other books mentioned: Patricia Wrightson, The Nargun and the Stars John Marsden, Tomorrow when the War Began James Bradley, Deep Water: The World in the Ocean Richard Powers, Playground Robert C. O’Brien, Z for Zachariah Cormac McCarthy, The Road  Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career A B Facey, A Fortunate Life Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Ruth Park, works  Helen Garner, Works John Birmingham, He Died with a Felafel in his Hand Andrew McGahan, works Bernadette Brennan, Brain Castro’s Fiction: The Seductive Play of Language CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Peter Climpson, Emrys Cronin Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min
4.4
out of 5
266 Ratings

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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.

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