262 episodes

The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.

World Book Club BBC World Service

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.6 • 337 Ratings

The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.

    Percival Everett: The Trees

    Percival Everett: The Trees

    Percival Everett will be discussing his Booker-shortlisted novel The Trees. This powerful and fiercely funny satire centring on revenge and racial justice in America shifts genres between police procedural, magical realism and horror with wit and consummate skill. Percival Everett addresses some of America’s darkest history with an unusual mix of playfulness and political seriousness.

    • 49 min
    Charlotte Wood: The Weekend

    Charlotte Wood: The Weekend

    Award-winning Australian novelist Charlotte Wood joins Harriett Gilbert to answer questions from readers around the world about her novel, The Weekend.
    It's a story of grief and friendship; three women meet to clear their deceased friend’s beach house and find themselves uncovering secrets and stirring up memories.
    (Image: Charlotte Wood. Photo credit: Carly Earl.)

    • 49 min
    Ann Patchett: The Dutch House

    Ann Patchett: The Dutch House

    Multi award-winning novelist Ann Patchett will be discussing The Dutch House.
    A dark modern fairytale set against the very real world of post-WWII Philadelphia, tracing the love between a brother and sister, their vanishing mother, distant father and jealous stepmother. Ann Patchett tells the story of a family over five decades with a finely balanced mixture of wit and heartbreak.
    (Image: Ann Patchett. Photo credit: Emily Dorio.)

    • 49 min
    Madrid

    Madrid

    World Book Café heads to Madrid to talk to writers about a new boom in feminist fiction. A few month after the resignation of President of the Spanish Football Federation over a non-consensual kiss of footballer Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup final, World Book Café investigates how Madrid’s women writers are challenging gender roles in the books world.

    • 48 min
    Carlo Rovelli: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

    Carlo Rovelli: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

    Presenter Harriett Gilbert and readers around the world talk to acclaimed Italian physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli about his runaway bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.
    A compact and engaging exploration of some of the most fundamental ideas in modern physics this book takes readers on a captivating journey through seven concise chapters, each dedicated to a different topic. From the theory of relativity to quantum mechanics and the nature of time, Rovelli presents complex concepts with remarkable clarity, making them accessible to a wide audience.
    Throughout the book, Rovelli weaves together the history of scientific discovery with his own personal reflections, creating a narrative that is both poetic and thought-provoking. Delving into the mysteries of the universe and examining our own place in the cosmos Rovelli invites readers to ponder the profound questions that physics raises about the nature of space, time, and existence itself.
    (Photo: Carlo Rovelli. Credit: Christopher Wahl.)

    • 49 min
    Antonio Muñoz Molina: In the Night of Time

    Antonio Muñoz Molina: In the Night of Time

    Antonio Muñoz Molina answers questions from around the world on his novel In the Night of Time. The panoramic portrait of Spain on the brink of civil war follows the life of Ignacio Abel, master builder and architect, as he navigates an illicit love affair with an American woman as the darkness of war surrounds him.
    Recorded in the prestigious Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.
    (Photo: Antonio Muñoz Molina. Credit: Elena Blanco)

    • 49 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
337 Ratings

337 Ratings

Wendy Whimsy ,

Delicious! Such depth.

It is wonderful to hear the voices of readers from all corners of the world talking about the same book. The comments and questions are rich and the answers of authors are rich. The discussions expand our openness to the diversity of our global family.

avm1406 ,

The best!

Harriet Gilbert is the best and this podcast is a class apart.

suraniwine ,

Philosophical

I really enjoy driving and listening to such a brilliant podcast and interviews, very well done! It make you to dive deeply in subjects with an existential and philosophical way.

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