The Book Show

ABC listen
  • 4.8 (12)
  • BOOKS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
The Book Show

Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    Tim Winton's call to action in Juice

    Tim Winton explains his urgency for writing about climate change in his new novel Juice, beware the evil eye in Matia, the debut novel of West Australian writer Emily Tsokos Purtill and singer-songwriter turned novelist, Nardi Simpson, explains the ambition of her second novel The Belburd. Tim Winton shares the anger and frustration that compelled him to write his latest novel Juice. It's set in a future north Australia where resources are scarce and people are scarred by the sun and spend months living underground to escape the heat. He reflects on the sense of urgency he feels around climate change and the role of fiction to address big topics. This is what Radio National critics had to say about Juice. From a West Australian literary veteran to a debut novelist, Claire Nichols visits Emily Tsokos Purtill in Perth. Emily's novel Matia tracks four generations of Greek-Australian women, and the dark prophecy that hangs over all of them. Nardi Simpson is a singer-songwriter turned novelist. Her award winning debut was Song of the Crocodile and her new book The Belburd is similarly ambitious. In one story strand there's a young poet in modern-day Australia and in the other is a sprite swimming through a cosmic ocean with the mythical Mother Eel.

    54 min

  2. OCT 13

    Grande Dames Pat Barker and Kate Atkinson

    Former Booker Prize winner Pat Barker grapples with the lot of Cassandra in her latest Ancient Greek novel, The Voyage Home and Life After Life author, Kate Atkinson, returns to her famous character Jackson Brodie in Death at the Sign of The Rook. Plus debut novelist Raeden Richardson on the importance of Melbourne's iconic Degraves Street in The Degenerates. Booker Prize winner Pat Barker is renowned for her World War One Regeneration trilogy. Her latest series draws on the mythology of the Ancient Greek Trojan War (Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy) to re-imagine the lives of the women often sidelined in these myths. The latest, The Voyage Home, inhabits the plight of prophetess Cassandra, who's destined to never be believed. Pat reflects on the urgency she feels to write and why she's drawn to the tragedy of Clytemnestra. Kate Atkinson is another legend of British fiction who's celebrated for her books Life After Life, A God in Ruins and Transcription. Kate also writes crime fiction and has released the sixth novel in her Jackson Brodie series, Death at the Sign of The Rook. It's set at a manor house where a murder mystery show is underway. She tells Claire how a character she imagined 20 years ago finally made it into this book.  Melbourne author Raeden Richardson describes his debut novel The Degenerates as a love letter to the city. It's about a woman known as Mother Pulse who gives new life to the stories of social outcasts. Raeden takes The Book Show to the iconic Degraves Street, one of the key landmarks in the book and explains how its multi layered history influenced the story.

    54 min

  3. OCT 6

    Onyi Nwabineli, Ella Baxter and Melanie Cheng on Mumflencers, stalkers and rabbits

    British author Onyi Nwabineli explores the scars of a child influencer in Allow Me to Introduce Myself, Ella Baxter writes back to her stalker in Woo Woo, and Melanie Cheng's The Burrow, a gentle novel about grief and a rabbit.  Onyi Nwabineli is a British novelist who tackles the minefield of mumfluencers and child stars in her second novel, Allow Me to Introduce Myself. It's about former child influencer, Anuri, who's now 25 and still dealing with the legacy of her childhood being shared on social media. Australian visual artist and author Ella Baxter writes back to her stalker in her second novel Woo Woo (her first was New Animal), about a visual artist who confronts her stalker in the most powerful way she knows, through her art. The Burrow is the latest novel by Melbourne writer and GP Melanie Cheng, and follows her award winning books Australia Day and Room for a Stranger. The Burrow is about a grieving family who bring a rabbit into their home. Will it be a witness to a family healing or to a family falling further apart?

    54 min

  4. SEP 30

    Writing with an agenda — Laura Jean McKay, Laurie Steed and Chemutai Glasheen

    Today we take to you to two writers festivals: In Perth, Laura Jean McKay, Laurie Steed and Chemutai Glasheen reflect on what it means to bring their convictions to the page, and by the seaside in Sorrento, Victoria, poet, essayist and short story writer Nam Le retraces his roots as a storyteller. At the Perth Festival Writers Weekend, Claire Nichols spoke to three authors whose recent short story collections unapologetically focus on their respective passions. Laura Jean McKay writes about non-human animals in her collection Gunflower and in her Miles Franklin shortlisted novel The Animals in That Country. Kenyan born, WA based writer Chemutai Glasheen's collection of young adult short stories, I Am the Mau, explores human rights and life in Africa. And Perth based author, Laurie Steed focuses on relationships and male vulnerability in his collection Greater City Shadows. And at the Sorrento Writers Festival, Sarah L'Estrange spoke to writer Nam Le about his collection of poetry 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem as well as his writing journey and how he wrote his celebrated short story collection, The Boat (2008).

    54 min

  5. SEP 23

    Rumaan Alam — why we don't talk about money

    Bestselling author of Leave the World Behind, Rumaan Alam explores money obsession in his novel Entitlement, plus Jock Serong gets magical in Cherrywood and writer-doctor Jumaana Abdu's debut novel, Translations. American author, Rumaan Alam's bestselling last book, Leave the World Behind, was adapted to the screen starring Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke. His new book is Entitlement and while it explores themes of power, race and class it also begs us to ask ourselves "does money really buy happiness?" Set in New York, it's about a young, middle class black woman, who's hired to help an old rich white man give away his billions. Rumaan also reflects on what the success of Leave the World Behind has given him as a writer. Australian author Jock Serong's seventh novel Cherrywood is a mystery touched with a hint of magic and is a divergence from his previous, heavily researched fiction about Bass Strait and Australia's colonial past (The Settlement, Perseverance and The Burning Island). Cherrywood is a story about trees, love and grand follies and is a braided narrative about an early 20th century Scottish industrialist and a successful (but miserable) lawyer in 1990s Melbourne. Doctor-turned-writer, Jumaana Abdu's debut novel, Translations, is about a woman who wants a small, quiet life but who discovers life doesn't always work out as planned. Jumaana explains how she wrote the novel while she was studying medicine and also, how Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was an inspiration.

    54 min

  6. SEP 16

    Richard Osman's new crime-fighting team

    Richard Osman has followed up his bestselling crime series The Thursday Murder Club with a new series, the first instalment is We Solve Murders. Plus Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar explains how dreams are woven into his novel Martyr! and Dylin Hardcastle on their novel that began with the idea of a kiss. Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club and its sequels are so popular that a screen adaptation is underway. Not content with this success, Richard has begun a new crime series with a book called We Solve Murders. He explains who he writes for, why he prefers to stay home and watch snooker over jet setting, and why he calls himself a writer first and foremost. Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet whose debut novel Martyr! has been championed by former US President Barack Obama in his 2024 Summer Reading List. The novel follows Cyrus Shams who's in his late 20s and is struggling with addiction and sobriety and channels his existential doubts into a poetry project about martyrdom. Lisa Simpson and Rumi also make cameos in the story. The Australian writer Dylin Hardcastle's new book is A Language of Limbs. It's set in the 1970s and it's about the parallel lives of two women: one, a young queer woman who embraces her desires and her attraction to women and another who rejects them, in the hope of a more so-called 'conventional' life. Is it a sliding-doors narrative or are they different people?

    55 min

  7. SEP 9

    Elif Shafak and the water that connects us

    Celebrated British-Turkish author Elif Shafak follows a single drop of water through history in her novel There are Rivers in the Sky, Kaliane Bradley on her bestseller The Ministry of Time which has attracted Barack Obama's attention and Nicola Moriarty's latest domestic drama Every Last Suspect. Elif Shafak is a British-Turkish author and activist. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World and for the Women's Prize for her novel, The Island of Missing Trees. Her new novel, There are Rivers in the Sky, is an epic in which three key stories are connected by raindrops, rivers and water.  The Ministry of Time by British-Cambodian author Kaliane Bradley is listed on former US president Barack Obama annual summer reading list this year. It's a time travel novel in which a handful of (mostly) fictional historical characters who've been transplanted from their time period to a near future England. It's about love, refugees, bureaucracy and the doomed Franklin Arctic expedition. The Moriarty sisters — Liane, Jaclyn and Nicola — are a powerhouse family in Australian publishing. Each sister is a successful author in their own right, including the youngest Nicola. In her latest family drama, Every Last Suspect, as a woman lies dying she decides to use her final moments to figure out who did it.

    54 min

  8. SEP 2

    Meet Meena Kandasamy: poet, novelist, rebel

    Meena Kandasamy is an Indian born poet, novelist, rebel and activist who's been threatened and harassed for her writing. From the Byron Writers Festival she explains why she keeps going despite the threats.   She is also celebrated for her innovative approach to storytelling. Her debut novel The Gypsy Goddess (2015) was about the 1968 massacre of Dalit agricultural workers. Her book When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife is about her own experience of domestic violence. Her latest work is a collection of poetry called Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You.  She told Claire Nichols about the importance of ego as a writer, her family background raised in a house of academics and rebels and the challenge of being an activist.

    54 min
See All (405)

Hosts & Guests

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.

Information

  • Creator
    ABC listen
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2024
  • Episodes
    405
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Book Show

More From ABC Podcasts

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada