Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan explains why finishing his latest novel Caledonian Road was like "landing 65 planes on the tarmac" and award-winning author Evie Wyld on her new book The Echoes, and why there are so many sharks in her fiction.Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's latest book Caledonian Road (Faber and Faber) is a big in length and Dickensian scope. It's an exploration of life in London — a world of intellectuals and elites, Russian oligarchs and human traffickers, rappers, DJs, wellness assistants and those who seek to shake up the whole rotten system. First broadcast 22 April 2024.Evie Wyld is one of the few Australian writers to win both the Miles Franklin and the Stella Prizes (the Miles for All the Birds, Singing, and the Stella for The Bass Rock). She is drawn to the paranormal and gothic in her fiction and this atmosphere imbues her new book, The Echoes, which is partly narrated by a ghost. Evie shares her go to writing tip (yes, it has to do with sharks) and the appeal of the TV series Neighbours when she was growing up in England. First broadcast 25 August 2024.
--------
54:06
Summer reading with Anne Enright
At Adelaide Writers' Week, Booker Prize-winner Anne Enright speaks about the contradictions at the heart of families.Anne joined Claire Nichols in front of a live audience to talk about her latest book The Wren, The Wren. It's about a straight-laced mum, her-free-spirit daughter and the poet father who left them in the lurch. Anne also shared insights about her other books including Actress, The Gathering (Booker Prize winner 2007) and Making Babies. And she offered her theory on why Irish poets don't drink!First broadcast Monday 11 March 2024.
--------
54:06
Summer Reading with Celeste Ng
From Sydney Writers' Festival, American author Celeste Ng shares how her latest novel Our Missing Hearts explores one of her deepest fears.Celeste Ng is known for her dark realist novels, Everything I Never Told You, and Little Fires Everywhere (which was adapted to the screen in 2020).Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian, near-future America, where anti-Asian sentiment has peaked, books are disappearing from the shelves, and children are being taken away from their families.It's a chilling world but as Claire Nichols discovers at this Sydney Writers' Festival event, there is also hope in art, poetry, and family.First Broadcast 3 June 2024
--------
54:16
Summer reading with Tim Winton, Kaliane Bradley and Siang Lu
Tim Winton explains his urgency for writing about climate change in his new novel Juice, Kaliane Bradley on her bestseller The Ministry of Time which has attracted Barack Obama's attention and Siang Lu's ambitious and complicated novel Ghost Cities.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. Winton reflects on the sense of urgency he feels around climate change and the role of fiction to address big topics. First broadcast 21 August 2024.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. First broadcast 9 September 2024.Siang Lu is the author of the silly but serious novel The Whitewash which was a satire, presented as an oral history, about the making of a disastrous movie. Siang's second novel Ghost Cities is equally ambitious, complicated and fun as it weaves between a storyline set in the modern day and another set in ancient China. First broadcast 24 June 2024.
--------
54:06
Summer reading with Melissa Lucashenko
At Adelaide Writers' Week, Melissa Lucashenko explains how understanding that "all history is fiction" allowed her to write her historic novel Edenglassie.Melissa Lucashenko is known for creating unforgettable, feisty modern women in her fiction. There's Kerry Salter from her Miles Franklin winning novel Too Much Lip and Jo Breen, from her earlier acclaimed novel, Mullumbimby.But with her new book, Melissa has stepped into a new world. Edenglassie is about Brisbane before it was Brisbane in the mid-19th century when Aboriginal people still outnumbered white settlers, and everything was about to change.Melissa Lucashenko joined The Book Show's Claire Nichols on stage at the 2024 Adelaide Writers' Week.First Broadcast 1 April 2024
Australia