The Bookshelf

In this episode, we travel from the Swiss Alps to the quiet strangeness of Danish suburbia and the fierce edges of American literary drama. We begin with the visceral intensity of Gabriel Tallent’s latest novel, Crux, where characters cling to passion and survival with bloodied fingertips. Claire Thomas reflects on art, ambition, and the lure of towering peaks in On Not Climbing Mountains, and Helle Helle's They, a delicately surreal portrait of mothers, daughters, and the lives lived between silences. 
BOOKS 
Gabriel Tallent, Crux, Fig Tree 
Claire Thomas, On Not Climbing Mountains, Hachette 
Helle Helle, They, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, Giramondo 
GUESTS
Hannah Kent, novelist, scriptwriter, and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, The Good People, Devotion, and Always Home Always Homesick 
Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Artistic Associate at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney 
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Olga Tocarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Rachel Cusk, works
W.G. Sebald, works
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Henry James, works
Rainer Maria Rilke, works
James Baldwin, works
Katherine Mansfield, works
Leo Tolstoy, works
Teju Cole, works
Muriel Sparks, works
Johanna Spyri, Heidi
Blaise Cendrars, works
Jessica Au, Cold Enough for Snow
Harry Matthews, Sleuth
John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent 
Harry Mathews, Tlooth 
Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume
Catherine Lacey, The Möbius Book
CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Micky Grossman and Roi Huberman
Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Emerald Fennell's film adaptation of Wuthering Heights has been marketed as "the greatest love story ever told", which is not typically the description given to the original novel. What does this adaptation achieve, and what does it sacrifice in the process?
The Bookshelf's Kate Evans and Radio National's Arts Hour's Sky Kirkham discuss what they felt did and didn't work in this film and, in an expanded podcast extra edition, they also discussed the film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

Kate and Cassie read Kin, the latest novel from Tayari Jones — the acclaimed American novelist behind An American Marriage, a book that resonated with both critics and readers alike. Her work sits alongside a bold mix of stories in this episode, from a vampiric love story to speed‑dating slasher fiction, and South African writer Nadia Davids adds her own unsettling brilliance, taking us into the life of a furious yet outwardly obedient domestic servant in a mysterious house on a hill in Cape Fever.
BOOKS
Tayari Jones, Kin, Penguin
Nadia Davids, Cape Fever, Scribner
Shailee Thompson, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates, Atria Books
Pip Knight, Aubrey Wants to Die, Harper Collins  
GUESTS
Tony Birch, poet and novelist; Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at Melbourne University
Beejay Silcox, writer and critic
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
David Peace, The Red Riding Quartet; Twilight series
Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
Dan Jennings, Dancing Through the Fire
Rebecca Perry, May We Feed the King
Maylis de Kerangal, Painting Time
CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan and Simon Branthwaite
Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Join Kate and Cassie as they explore new fiction alongside guests: musician Tim Rogers (You Am I) and novelist Madeleine Gray (Green Dot, Chosen Family). Three American novels, each tackling big ideas in very different ways - from the political absurdity and humour of Jess Walter’s So Far Gone, to the mockumentary-style tensions of Patmeena Sabit’s Good People, to the darkly comic moral maze of Jonathan Miles’ Eradication.
BOOKS
Jess Walter, So Far Gone, Harper
Jonathan Miles, Eradication, Riverrun
Patmeena Sabit, Good People, Virago
GUESTS
Tim Rogers, singer-songwriter and actor. Frontman of You Am I.
Madeleine Gray, novelist whose books are Green Dot and Chosen Family
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Larry McMurtry, works
Bertie Blackman, Bohemian Negligence
Jhumpa Lahiri, Whereabouts
Nussaibah Younis, Fundamentally
Niamh Campbell, Make Strange
Ellena Savage, The Ruiners; Blueberries
Alexandra Vasti, Ladies in Hating
Katherine Mansfield, works
Ian Penman, Three Piece Suite
Zadie Smith, The Fraud
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Antonia Gauci and Harvey O'Sullivan
Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Madeline Cash’s buzzy debut Lost Lambs pairs an off‑kilter storytelling sensibility with a sharp exploration of displacement and identity. George Saunders returns with Vigil, offering his moral curiosity in a novel that probes what it means to pay attention to the world. George Kemp’s Soft Serve delivers a charming and quietly affecting debut about growing up in a small town; and Steven Carroll’s The Afterlife of Harry Playford continues his investigations of history and memory.
BOOKS
Madeline Cash, Lost Lambs, Doubleday
George Saunders, Vigil, Bloomsbury
George Kemp, Soft Serve, UQP
Steven Carroll, The Afterlife of Harry Playford, Fourth Estate
GUESTS
Michael Robotham is an international crime writer and former journalist whose books include The Secrets She Keeps, Good Girl Bad Girl, and his latest, White Crow. His next novel — his first to be set in Australia — will be published in October.
Roanna Gonsalves is a writer and teacher of creative writing whose short‑story collection The Permanent Resident won wide acclaim. Her novel The Servants will be published later this year.
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Kurt Vonnegut, works
Joseph Heller, works
Thomas Pynchon, works
Jonathan Franzen, works
Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
Shaun Prescott, The Town
Stephen King, works
Liz Nugent, The Truth About Ruby Cooper
Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
Deborah Adelaide, When I Am Sixty-Four
Tim Ayliffe, Dark Desert Road
Katie Kitamura, Audition
CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Roi Huberman
Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown