World Book Club

BBC World Service
World Book Club

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

  1. MAR 1

    Ottessa Moshfegh: My Year of Rest and Relaxation

    Harriett Gilbert is joined by one of the boldest writers of her generation, Ottessa Moshfegh, to delve into her second novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. This twisted Sleeping Beauty story is told from the perspective of an unnamed protagonist, a twentysomething art school graduate who, after the death of her parents, quits her gallery job to heal her pain by drugging herself into a year-long hibernation. Her only ties to the waking world are the bodega which she routinely slouches to for coffee, the most unscrupulous psychiatrist in New York, and her best friend, and object of contempt, Reva. We love this book because it’s a hypnotic, wickedly humorous character study of a woman who is broken, toxic, yet utterly fascinating. Even if you don’t take her to your heart, this character will linger in your mind every time you have a long lie in bed. Image: Ottessa Moshfegh (Credit: Jake Belcher)

    58 min

  2. FEB 1

    Meg Rosoff: How I Live Now

    Novelist Meg Rosoff joins Harriett Gilbert to answer listeners' questions about one of her best-loved novels, How I Live Now. It is the story of Daisy, an American teenager shipped off to live with her aunt and cousins in England. What is at first an idyllic escape into English countryside life is shattered at the onset of War, when England is suddenly occupied by an unknown enemy. Daisy finds herself struggling to survive and keep her new family safe as they face violence, fear and starvation, while at the same time experiencing her first love, with her own cousin - Edmond. Beautiful, brutal, and laced with Daisy’s razor-sharp, jaded teenage humour, this is a book that brings readers into a world that feels incredibly, terrifyingly real, and will likely stay in your memory for years to come. (Photo: Meg Rosoff. Credit: Glora Hamlyn/Penguin Books)

    49 min
  3. World Book Café: Oslo

    JAN 25

    World Book Café: Oslo

    World Book Café heads to Oslo to Europe’s largest Literature House to find out if Norway is the best place in the world to be a writer? Octavia Bright is joined to discuss the highs and lows by the internationally bestselling novelist and climate activist Maja Lunde. Johan Harstad prize winning novelist and the first in-house writer at the National Theatre in Oslo, Gunnhild Oyehaug whose witty and experimental short stories and novels have won her fans around the world and Oliver Lovrenski whose first book was an instant bestseller when it was published in Norway in 2023, when he was just 19. With generous grants for writers to live and work the Norwegian government also buys 1,000 copies of every book published to give to local libraries across the country. The organisation NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad) is funded by the ministry of culture and, since 2004, it has contributed to the translation of more than 8,000 books into no less than 73 languages. For a country of 5.5 million people Norwegian literature punches above its weight. However with much of the country’s wealth coming from the oil industry do environmental concerns tarnish this utopia for its writers? Producer: Kirsten Locke

    49 min

  4. JAN 1

    Anne Holt: 1,222

    A special programme from the largest public literature house in Europe, Litteraturhuset in Oslo. Harriett Gilbert is joined by one of Scandinavia’s most successful crime writers, Anne Holt. Her novel 1,222 is a tense, twisty story set during a snowstorm in an isolated mountain hotel, a reference to the fact that the hotel is one thousand, two hundred and twenty-two metres above sea level. It features her series detective Hanne Wilhelmsen, no longer in the police force due to being paralysed by a bullet that hit her in the back. Murder, intrigue and a lot of snow pulls her back into what she does best. Image: Anne Holt (Credit: Lars Eivind Bones)

    49 min

  5. 12/05/2024

    Douglas Stuart: Shuggie Bain

    The Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart talks about his Booker Prize winning Shuggie Bain. The powerful, heartbreaking story of a young boy's love for his addict mother, and a mother's chaotic love for her son. Photo credit: Martyn Pickersgill

    49 min
  6. Kate Mosse: Labyrinth

    11/01/2024

    Kate Mosse: Labyrinth

    Ahead of its 20th anniversary early next year, the author Kate Mosse talks to Harriett Gilbert and readers from around the world, about her globally bestselling novel, Labyrinth. It’s a historical thriller set between medieval and contemporary France where the lives of two women, living centuries apart, are linked in a common destiny. In 13th century Carcassonne, seventeen-year-old Alaïs is given a mysterious book by her father which he claims contains the secret of the Grail. While 700 years later, archaeologist Dr Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons in a forgotten cave in the French Pyrenees and sets out to investigate their origin.

    49 min

  7. 10/01/2024

    Elif Batuman

    In this month’s edition of BBC World Book Club bestselling American writer Elif Batuman discusses her acclaimed debut novel. ‘The Idiot’ follows Selin, a Turkish-American fresher at Harvard in the mid-1990s, delving into her experiences as she navigates the challenges of university life, grappling with identity, language, and the complexities of relationships, romantic and otherwise. Selin becomes infatuated with Ivan, an older Hungarian mathematics student, and their relationship unfolds primarily through a series of cryptic emails, highlighting the difficulties of virtual communication across cultures. As Selin travels to Europe for a summer teaching job, she continues to struggle with her sense of self, her obsession with Ivan, and the meaning of her experiences. The novel captures the disorienting, often absurd nature of early adulthood, where intellectual exploration meets the messiness of real life and its chaotic emotions. Infused with dry humour and philosophical musings, The Idiot is at heart a playful meditation on the limitation of language, and the gap between theoretical knowledge and lived experience.

    50 min

  8. 09/01/2024

    Ewald Arenz: Tasting Sunlight

    German author Ewald Arenz answers readers' questions about his bestselling novel Tasting Sunlight. It’s the moving story of Liss, a reclusive woman who single-handedly runs her family farm, and teenage runaway Sally who takes refuge there. As they work together, Liss and Sally form an unlikely – and nurturing – friendship. Image: Ewald Arenz (Credit: Tristar Media/Getty Images)

    49 min
See All (276)

    Hosts & Guests

    4.6
    out of 5
    349 Ratings

    About

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

    Information

    • Creator
      BBC World Service
    • Years Active
      2007 - 2025
    • Episodes
      276
    • Rating
      Clean
    • Copyright
      © (C) BBC 2025
    • Show Website
      World Book Club

    More From BBC

    You Might Also Like

    Content Restricted

    This episode can’t be played on the web in your country or region.

    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