The Bookshelf

Statues come alive and London is re-imagined in Francis Spufford's Nonesuch, and surprising parallels in two Australian novels of secrets, shame, land and time in M L Stedman's A Far-Flung Life and Eva Hornung's The Minstrels. Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Michael Robotham and Roanna Gonsalves - to help you decide what to read next.
BOOKS
Francis Spufford, Nonesuch, Faber
Eva Hornung, The Minstrels, Text
M L Stedman, A Far-Flung Life, Penguin
GUESTS
Michael Robotham, internationally acclaimed crime writer – whose books include the Joe O’Loughlin series, the Cyrus Haven/ Evie Cormac series, and his latest – featuring Philomena MCcCarthy, The White Crow. His first Australian-based novel is out later this year
Roanna Gonsalves, writer whose collection of short stories is The Permanent Resident, and whose first novel (The Servants) will be published later this year. She is also one of the hosts of a monthly book club at the State Library of NSW
Other books mentioned:
Phillippa McGuiness and Richard Neville (eds) The Library that Made Me (you can write your own stories about libraries that have shaped you right here)
Anita Heiss, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams 
Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Rashida Murphy’s Old Ghosts  and Karleah Olson’s Bloodwood (forthcoming)
Michelle de Kretser, The Hamilton Case
Natasha Brown, Assembly, Universality
Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore
Don Winslow, The Power of the Dog, The Death and Life of Bobby Z,  The Final Score [stories]
Presenters: Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer: Kate Evans
Sound engineers: Timothy Jenkins
Arts Editor: Rhiannon Brown

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