The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf comes to you from a sold out session at Sydney Writers’ Festival, for a conversation that brings together an exceptional line-up: acclaimed novelist and poet Tony Birch, Miles Franklin Award-winning author Siang Lu, and internationally celebrated writer Lily King. Together, with Cassie, Kate and special guest Claire Nichols from The Book Show, they mark the launch of ABC Radio National’s 2026 Top 100 Books countdown, this year turning the spotlight on the very best of Australian writing, fiction and non-fiction, across all time.
~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY LILY KING
Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds
Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus; The Evening of the Holiday
Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection
Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children
~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY TONY BIRCH
William Dick, A Bunch of Ratbags
Ruth Park, works
Colin Johnson, Wild Cat Falling
Kenneth Cook, Wake in Fright
Frank Hardy, Power Without Glory
Peter Carey, American Dreams; Crabs
Pi O, 24 Hours: Ulysses in Fitzroy
~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY SIANG LU
Nam Le, The Boat
Michael Winkler, Grimmish
Peter Carey, The True History of the Kelly Gang
Helen Garner, Monkey Grip
Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional
~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIE MCCULLAGH
Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career
Peter Temple, Broken Shore
Peter Carey, The Fat Man in History
~  BOOKS MENTIONED BY KATE EVANS
Ethel Turner, Seven Little Australians
Florence James and Dymphna Cusack, Come in Spinner
Peter Carey, Illywhacker; Oscar and Lucinda
~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY CLAIRE NICHOLS
The Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book
Mem Fox, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald
Kim Scott, works
Tim Winton, works
Josephine Wilson, Extinctions
~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED 
Tim Winton, Cloudstreet
Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe
Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore
Sally Morgan, My Place
Archie Roach, Tell Me Why
Jimmy Barnes, Working Class Boy
Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don’t Take Your Love to Town
Thea Astley, works
Helen Garner, The Children's Bach; The Spare Room
Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North; Question 7
Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black
Shankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens
Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow
Andrew McGahan, Praise
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
Robbie Arnott, Limberlost
Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding
A.B. Facey, A Fortunate Life
David Malouf, Johnno 
Jane Harper, The Dry
~ CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Claire Nichols
Producer, Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett
Sound, Harvey O'Sullivan
Arts Editor, Rhiannon Brown

We head by rackety ferry to Scotland in John of John, the latest, quietly devastating novel from Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart. Henry Lawson reimagined - brawling poets, strange tunnels, time loops, and a warped tussle between city and bush in Wayne Marshall’s Henry Goes Bush, reviewed by You Am I's Tim Rogers. From there, novelist Madeleine Gray turns her eye to Lena Dunham’s sharp, self‑aware memoir Famesick, before moving to Ellena Savage’s The Ruiners, which shifts between a Melbourne lobster shack and a smoke‑wreathed Greek island.
~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Norman Lindsay, Bohemians of the Bulletin
Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow
Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist: Essays
Lena Dunham, Not That Kind of Girl
Joan Didion, works
Eve Babitz, works
Ellena Savage, Blueberries
Charles Dickens, works
Charmian Clift, works
George Johnston, works
Michael Winkler, Griefdogg
Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch
Colum McCann, Apeirogon
Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
James Bailey, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark
Lee Lai, Cannon
~ CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Roi Huberman
Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

This week’s Bookshelf features the latest from Elizabeth Strout, creator of Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, returning with a stand‑alone novel called The Things We Never Say. We’re also reading an ambitious, genre‑bending novel that moves from 1980s gaming culture to far‑future space travel, and Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director, a German novel in translation that explores film, power and propaganda. Joining us to review are Geordie Williamson - critic, publisher and writer; and Robert Forster - singer‑songwriter, founding member of The Go‑Betweens, memoirist and brand new novelist with Songwriters on the Run.
~ REVIEWERS
Robert Forster and Geordie Williamson
~ BOOKS
Daniel Kehlmann, The Director (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin), Riverrun
Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say, Viking Penguin  
Portia Elan, Homebound, Chatto & Windus
Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear, Fourth Estate 
~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Daniel Kehlmann, works
Elizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy Barton
The Boundless Deep, Richard Holmes
Johnno, David Malouf
Keeley Jobe, The Endling
Ana Paula Maia, On Earth as It Is Beneath
~ CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound, Craig Tilmouth and Roi Huberman
Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

In this episode, superstar reviewer Hannah Kent tackles the rugged terrain of a journey that edges towards the Tibetan border in Deepa Anappara's The Last of Earth, and theatre writer Tom Wright ponders extraterrestrial encounters in Amanda Lohrey's new one, Capture. Plus, Kate and Cassie take a look at two titles on the International Booker Prize shortlist, from France and Bulgaria, one follows a not‑very‑successful witch who weeps tears of blood; and the other is the story of a woman in Albania who switches genders through an ancient ritual.
~ BOOKS 
Marie NDiaye, The Witch, translated from the French by Jordan Stump, MacLehose Press 
Rene Karabash, She Who Remains, translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel, Peirene Press 
Deepa Anappara, The Last of Earth, One World 
Amanda Lohrey, Capture, Text
~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
David Malouf, works
Chloe Dalton, Raising Hare
Laura McPhee Brown, Worry Doll 
Ranginui Walker, Struggle Without End 
Patricia Walker, Potiki 
Cameron Sullivan, The Red Winter
~ CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Bella Tropiano and Hamish Camilleri
Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

This week The Bookshelf leans into the wild as Kate Evans and guests are circled by stories of wolves, wild boar and witches, along with the final year of celebrated poet Sylvia Plath and a sensual story of food and obsession from Japan. Kate is joined by regular guests, the novelist, poet and Professor of Australian literature Tony Birch; and critic Beejay Silcox, who arrives fresh from the U.K. ready to talk literary pilgrimages and bookish souvenirs. Plus, a bonus discussion on this year's Stella Prize shortlist.
~ BOOKS REVIEWED
Inga Simpson, Once We Were Wildlife: Stories, Hachette
Sarah Walker, The Water Takes, Summit Books
Asako Yuzuki, Hooked, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton, Fourth Estate
Helen Bain, The Daffodil Days, Bloomsbury
Sally O’Reilly, Hagtale, Scribe
~ 2026 Stella Prize shortlist
Evelyn Araluen, The Rot, UQP
Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days, Hachette
Miranda Darling, Fireweather, Scribe
Lee Lai, Cannon, Giramondo
Marika Sosnowski, 58 Facets: On violence and the Law, Melbourne University Press  
Tasma Walton, I am Nannertgarrook, Simon & Schuster
NOTE: the winner will be announced on 13 May 
~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
Ian McEwan, What We Can Know
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Kim Scott, Dead Man Dance
John Higgs, Lynchian: The Spell of David Lynch
Asako Yuzuki, Butter
Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs
Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman; Earthlings
Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void
Colum McCann, works
Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13
Guillaume Lecasble, Lobster 
Lucie Rico, Fowl Eulogies
Robin Robertson, The Long Take
Jenni Fagan, The Delusions
James Alistair Henry, Pagans
Laurie Colwin, Shine On Bright and Dangerous Object
Tracy Chevalier, Burning Bright 
~ CREDITS
Presenter, Kate Evans
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound, Roi Huberman and Tegan Nicholls
Arts Editor, Rhiannon Brown