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Sri Lankan-born Canadian essayist, poet, and Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje has just released a stunning collection of poems. Ondaatje is now 80 years old and it’s almost half a century since he published his first novel; even longer since he first published poetry. This week, Michael joins Read This for a conversation about A Year of Last Things and why writing remains such a joyful act of discovery.

Reading list:
Coming Through Slaughter, Michael Ondaatje, 1976
In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje, 1986
The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems, Michael Ondaatje, 1989
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, 1992
Handwriting, Michael Ondaatje, 1998
Anil's Ghost, Michael Ondaatje, 2000
Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje, 2007
The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje, 2011
Warlight, Michael Ondaatje, 2018
A Year of Last Things, Michael Ondaatje, 2024

The Collected Poems of W. S. Merwin, 2013

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Guest: Michael Ondaatje

Paul Murray’s last two novels, Skippy Dies and The Mark and the Void, were both modern masterpieces of institutional failure. In his 2023 Booker Prize shortlisted novel, The Bee Sting, the failing institution Paul turns his comedic eye to is the family. This week, Michael and Paul sit down for a discussion about fraudulence, empathy, and the beautiful opera of life.

Reading list:
An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Paul Murray, 2003
Skippy Dies, Paul Murray, 2010
The Mark and the Void, Paul Murray, 2015
The Bee Sting, Paul Murray, 2023

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein, 2023

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. 

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Guest: Paul Murray

For many years, Irish writer Paul Lynch was a household name…in France. And while his work was popular in translation, and received numerous French literary awards, it was still considered niche. This all changed in 2023, following the release of Prophet Song, which was critically lauded and eventually won the holy grail of English language literary awards: the Booker Prize. This week we return to the Melbourne Writers’ Festival to hear a conversation between Michael and Paul about how Paul became a writer, and why he doesn’t think Prophet Song is a political novel.

Reading list:
Red Sky in Morning, Paul Lynch, 2013
The Black Snow, Paul Lynch, 2014
Grace, Paul Lynch, 2017
Beyond the Sea, Paul Lynch, 2020
Prophet Song, Paul Lynch, 2023

The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope, 1894
King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard, 1885
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy, 1886

The Heart in Winter, Kevin Barry, 2024

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. 

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Guest: Paul Lynch.

Leslie Jamison is celebrated for her ability to link the personal to the cultural to the critical in ways that resonate and move and connect with readers. She first did it with The Empathy Exams – an essay, then a best-selling, award-winning collection. Now she is back with a new book, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, a memoir about rebuilding a life after the end of a marriage. This week, Michael sits down with Leslie to discuss this latest work and what it means to be many things – a teacher, an artist, a lover and a mother. 

Reading list:
The Gin Closet, Leslie Jamison, 2010
The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison, 2014
The Recovering, Leslie Jamison, 2018
Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, Leslie Jamison, 2024

Sleepless Nights, Elizabeth Hardwick, 1979
Fragile Creatures, Khin Myint, 2024

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. 

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Guest: Leslie Jamison

In 2015, Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel, The Sympathizer. Now, nearly a decade later, the book has been adapted into an HBO miniseries of the same name. This week, Michael sits down with Viet for a conversation about his latest book, A Man with Two Faces, which expands beyond the familiar beats of memoir, and features the author’s trademark interest in the broader political and colonial implications of the personal.

Reading list:
The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2014
The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2021
A Man of Two Faces, Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2023

Dune, Frank Herbert, 1965
Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth,1968 

Quarterly Essay: Highway to Hell, Joëlle Gergis, 2024 

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. 

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Guest: Viet Thanh Nguyen

It was 2014 when Bruce Pascoe went from being a prolific, yet relatively unknown writer, to public enemy #1 in Australia’s culture wars. That was the year that Bruce published his now infamous book, Dark Emu, and its re-examination of accepted historical accounts of pre-invasion Australia. This week, he joins Michael for a discussion about his new novel Imperial Harvest and shares why he still believes we need the messiness of democracy.

Reading list:
Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe, 2014
Imperial Harvest, Bruce Pascoe, 2024

Time’s Monster, Priya Satia, 2020
The Ministry of Time, Kellyanne Bradley, 2024

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. 

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Guest: Bruce Pascoe