The Bookshelf

We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

This week The Bookshelf revisits the Trojan War from the ground up in Yann Martel’s Son of Nobody, moves through friendship and loss in Debra Adelaide’s When I Am Sixty‑Four, and dives into queer Sydney in the 1940s with Fiona Kelly McGregor’s The Trap. 
BOOKS
Fiona Kelly McGregor, The Trap, Picador
Debra Adelaide, When I Am Sixty-Four, UQP
Yann Martel, Son of Nobody, Text
GUESTS
Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Artistic Associate, Belvoir Theatre
Hannah Kent, novelist, scriptwriter and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, Devotion and Always Home Always Homesick
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet
Delia Falconer, works
Peter Cornell, The Ways of Paradise 
Ingrid Horrocks, All Her Lives: Nine Stories
CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound, Craig Tilmouth and Hamish Camilleri
Arts editor, Sarah L'Estrange

A rich mix of voices and stories in short fiction from acclaimed Native American writer Louise Erdrich; essays and memories from two‑time Miles Franklin Award winner Alex Miller; bleakly funny childhood tales by English author Mark Haddon; and, from Michael Winkler, a surreal and darkly comic story about a man who decides he’d rather be the family dog.
BOOKS 
Michael Winkler, Griefdogg, Text 
Louise Erdrich, Python’s Kiss: Stories, Corsair 
Alex Miller, Journey to the End of Time, Allen & Unwin 
Mark Haddon, Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour, Chatto & Windus 
GUESTS 
Shannon Burns, writer and critic from Adelaide, whose first book Childhood: a memoir, was published in 2022 
Tony Birch, poet, writer, and Professor of Australian Literature at Melbourne University. His latest book is the short story collection Pictures of You 
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Grimmish, Michael Winkler
Act of the Damned; Fado Alexandrino, António Lobo Antunes
What We Can Know, Ian McEwan
The Transformations, Andrew Pippos 
Brawler, Lauren Groff
CREDITS
Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh
Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett, Ce Benedict
Sound: Craig Tilmouth, Antonia Gauci
Arts editor: Sarah L' Estrange

What if the most talked‑about streaming show of the moment was a mirror reflecting your most private fears and failures? That unnerving question sits at the heart of John Lanchester’s Look What You Made Me Do, a sharp novel about resentment, revenge, money, class and generational unease. Plus: the art of the short story, as Hannah Kent reads and reflects on Lauren Groff’s new collection Brawler; and a woman’s inner life rendered with quiet and devastating precision in Mary Costello’s A Beautiful Loan.
BOOKS
John Lanchester, Look What You Made Me Do, Faber
Lauren Groff, Brawler, Hutchinson Heinemann
Mary Costello, A Beautiful Loan, Text
GUESTS
Hannah Kent, novelist behind the phenomenon Burial Rites + The Good People, Devotion and Always Home, Always Homesick
Tim Rogers, author of Detours; frontman of You Am I, The Hard-Ons and various musical escapades. His solo tour Le Charme Defensif kicks off this week
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Andrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Michelle de Krester, Theory and Practice
Jacqueline Maley, Lonely Mouth
Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair 
James Joyce, The Dubliners; The Dead 
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
Colm Tóibín, The Magician
Steve Hanley, The Big Midweek: Life Inside the Fall
CREDITS
Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh
Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett
Sound: Craig Tilmouth, Antonia Gauci
Arts editor; Sarah L'Estrange

A Bookshelf festival special with Kate Evans onstage with writers Jock Serong and Emily Maguire on historical fiction, from the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival.