Episoder

  • Catch up on the best books and discussions about them from the last year. A songwriter, a plaintive guitar, time travel and a motel are all in the mix.

    Kate and Cassie's review of Willie Vlautin's Horse was originally was originally broadcast on 26 July 2024

    Cassie and Jonathan Green's appraisal of Kaliane Bradley's Ministry of Time was originally broadcast on 30 May 2024

    Kate, Kate Mildenhall and Beejay Silcox disagreed over Miranda July's All Fours back on 21 June 2024

    And bookseller David Gaunt and NZ Festival Director Claire Mabey gave their book recommendations on 26 July 2024

  • Detectives, tea ladies, journos, psychologists – what's the appeal of the crime series and repeat protagonist? Kate Evans with crime writers Michael Robotham, Tim Ayliffe and Amanda Hampson onstage at the BAD Sydney Crime Festival.

    GUESTS

    Michael Robotham, internationally bestselling crime writer, whose books include the Joe O'Loughlin series and the Cyrus Haven series. His latest is Storm Child.

    Tim Ayliffe, journalist and novelist, whose central character is also a media man. John Bailey is his name – and the latest book in that series is The Wrong Man.

    Amanda Hampson is an author of many novels, whose crime novels, set in the 1960s, feature tea ladies. Her latest is The Cryptic Clue.

    CRIME SERIES MENTIONED IN THE DISCUSSION

    Ian Rankin, Rebus series

    Michael Connelly, Bosch and McEvoy series

    Anne Cleeves, Vera series

    Janet Evanovitch, Stephanie Plum series

    Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fischer series

    Stieg Larsson, Lisbeth Salander series

    Peter Høeg, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

    Stephen King's Holly Gibney series

    Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta series

    Mick Herron's Slow Horses

    Tom Clancy, works

    Peter Temple's Jack Irish series

    John Le Carre, works

    Jack Beaumont, Frenchman series

    Walter Mosley, Easy Rawlins series

    Adrian McKinty, Sean Duffy series

    Sulari Gentill, Rowland Sinclair series

    Candice Fox, works

    Sujata Massey, Perveen Mistry series

    Chris Hammer, works

    Candice Fox, works

    Don Winslow, works

    Presenter: Kate Evans

    Producer: Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett

    Sound engineers: John Jacobs + Tegan Nicholls

    Executive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

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  • The best books of 2024 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Jason Steger, Lev Grossman and Michaela Kalowski. Keep scrolling for a full (and somewhat idiosyncratic) list.

    GUESTS

    Jason Steger, literary journalist. Former literary editor at the Age and SMH; and regular guest on ABC TV's Tuesday Book Club.

    Lev Grossman, bestselling American novelist and journalist — whose books include The Magicians trilogy and (his latest), The Bright Sword (an Arthurian tale).

    Michaela Kalowski, literary interviewer and the curator of Radio National's Big Weekend of Books

    BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

    (listed according to the person who made the recommendation)

    Lev Grossman:

    Percival Everett, James

    Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola

    Tana French, The Hunter

    Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook

    M.T. Anderson, Nicked

    Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Third Realm

    Nick Harkaway, Karla's Choice

    Cassie McCullagh:

    Percival Everett, James

    Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

    Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

    Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts

    Michaela Kalowski's selection (in categories)

    Uplifting (subject matter or style):

    Ailsa Piper, For Life

    Julia Baird, Bright Shining

    International:

    Percival Everett, James

    Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

    Australian:

    Robbie Arnott, Dusk

    Lexi Freiman, The Book of Ayn

    Tim Winton, Juice

    Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War

    James Bradley, Deep Water

    Julian Borger, I Seek a Kind Person

    Books in Translation:

    Greek Lessons by Han Kang

    Fantasy:

    Kelly Link, The Book of Love

    Jason Steger

    Uplifting/ positive:

    Colm Tóibín, Long Island

    Melanie Cheng, The Burrow

    Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

    Other highlights

    Nick Harkaway, Karla's Choice

    Helen Garner, The Season

    Samantha Harvey, Orbital

    Heather Taylor Johnson, Little Bit

    Kate Evans

    Positive/ Joy or beauty:

    Niall Williams, Time of the Child

    Hanif Kureishi, Shattered

    Deborah Levy, the Position of Spoons

    International:

    Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

    Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings

    Richard Powers, Playground

    In translation:

    Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium

    Australian:

    Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13

    Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs

    Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War

    Robbie Arnott, Dusk

    Inga Simpson, The Thinning

    CREDITS

    Presenters: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh

    Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett

    Sound engineers: Craig Tilmouth, Ann Marie Debettencor

    Executive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

  • What do Kate and Cassie make of Will Self’s Elaine, a portrait of a frustrated fifties housewife, based on his mother's own diaries. Plus, The City and its Uncertain Walls, the much anticipated new novel by Haruki Murakami with a dreamy library in a parallel universe at its centre; and Rosalia Aguilar Solace’s The Great Library of Tomorrow, another novel set in an alternate world that pays tribute to libraries.

    BOOKS

    Will Self, Elaine, Grove Press

    Haruki Murakami, The City and its Uncertain Walls (translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel), Harvill Secker

    Rosalia Aguilar Solace, The Great Library of Tomorrow, Text

    GUESTS

    Jon Page, long-time bookseller. General Manager, Dymocks, Sydney CBD store

    C.S. Pacat, writer whose books include the Dark Rise and Captive Prince series, and the graphic novel Fence series.

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

    Stephanie Meyers, Twilight seriesSamantha Harvey, OrbitalAsako Yuzuki, ButterGenevieve Cogman, Invisible LibrariesJorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel; Labyrinths Anne Rice, The Vampire ChroniclesChristine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives Colum McCann, Apeirogon; Twist

    CREDITS

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

  • A focus on literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur, both of whom are South Korean authors and translators, who translate each others' work, and write outside the system of state-sanctioned literature. Anton translates from Korean into English; Bora translates Russian and Polish works into Korean. In this episode, they describe each others' work, discuss translation, give recommendations, and respond to fellow South Korean writer Han Kang's Nobel Prize in literature.

    We also meet Chinese podcaster and translator Yu Shi, who has translated Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson's fiction into Mandarin.

    GUESTS

    Bora Chung, lecturer, fiction writer and translator from South Korea, who translates from Russian and Polish into Korean. Her books include Cursed Bunny (which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize), Your Utopia and Grocery List

    Anton Hur, novelist and translator. He translates from Korean into English. His books are Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. He also translated the global phenomenon I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se-hee

    Yu Shi, Chinese podcaster and translator

    Bora Chung and Anton Hur were in Australia as guests of the Korean Cultural Centre

    ALL BOOKS MENTIONEDHan Kang, The Vegetarian; Human Acts; Greek Lessons; We Do Not PartFyodor Dostoevsky, worksBruno Jasieński, worksBruno Schulz, worksOlga Tokarczuk, worksStanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, worksWitold Gombrowicz, worksMargaret Atwood, The Testaments; The Handmaid’s TaleJeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only FruitStephen King, worksPaul Auster, worksMishima Yukio, works

    CREDITS

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Peter ClimpsonExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown
  • Derided, disparaged and cursed to the heavens, book critics are depicted as literature’s grand villains – as frustrated creators and gleeful wreckers. But what do critics really do? And why are they necessary for a healthy literary ecosystem? James Jiang, Beejay Silcox and Christos Tsiolkas join Kate and Cassie as part of a panel discussion at Canberra Writers' Festival - five Aussie critics - making the case for criticism.

  • Niall Williams’ Time of the Child might just be the big ‘feel-good book of the year’—but there’s more to it than that. This is a beautifully written Irish story, full of ordinary lives described in painfully funny detail. Also, Scottish writer Ali Smith and her too-real-to-be-allegorical Gliff; and in Alan Moore's The Great When, we're presented with a hallucinatory vision of an alternative London, anchored in post-World War ll realism.

    BOOKS

    Ali Smith, Gliff, Hamish Hamilton

    Alan Moore, The Great When, Bloomsbury

    Niall Williams, Time of the Child, Bloomsbury

    GUESTS

    Garth Nix, sci-fi and fantasy writer whose books include the Old Kingdom series, Angel Mage , and  The Left-Handed Booksellers of London; his latest is a middle-grade novel, We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord

    Chris Hammer, crime writer whose books include Scrublands, Silver, and The Tilt. His latest, featuring his characters Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic is The Valley

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDKazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me GoAldous Huxley, Brave New WorldClaire Keegan, Small Things Like TheseFintan O'Toole, We Don't Know OurselvesLarry McMurtry, Lonesome DoveChris Whittaker, We Begin at the EndC.S. Robertson, The Trials of Marjorie Crowe

    CREDITS

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Craig Tilmouth, Ann-Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • The Dressmaker’s backstory, a universe of stars to expand our ideas about nature writing, and fragments and tricks galore: Kate and Cassie read Inga Simpson’s The Thinning, Brian Castro’s Chinese Postman and Rosalie Ham’s Molly with guests Ella Jeffery and Amanda HampsonBOOKSInga Simpson, The Thinning, HachetteBrian Castro, Chinese Postman, GiramondoRosalie Ham, Molly, PicadorGUESTSDr Ella Jeffery, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Griffith University, Qld; ABC Radio National ‘Top 5 Arts’ candidate; currently examining insecure housing as a theme in 21st-century literatureAmanda Hampson, novelist whose latest series feature tea ladies in 1960s Sydney . . . solving crime. The first, The Tea Ladies, won the 2024 Danger Award for Best Crime Novel. The second is The Cryptic Clue; and the third – The Deadly Dispute – will be published in April 2025. There will be five in the series.Other books mentioned:Patricia Wrightson, The Nargun and the StarsJohn Marsden, Tomorrow when the War BeganJames Bradley, Deep Water: The World in the OceanRichard Powers, PlaygroundRobert C. O’Brien, Z for ZachariahCormac McCarthy, The Road Miles Franklin, My Brilliant CareerA B Facey, A Fortunate LifeMarcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural LifeRuth Park, works Helen Garner, WorksJohn Birmingham, He Died with a Felafel in his HandAndrew McGahan, worksBernadette Brennan, Brain Castro’s Fiction: The Seductive Play of Language

    CREDITS

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Peter Climpson, Emrys CroninExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

  • The latest from double Miles Franklin Award winner, Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice, a novel that evokes the 1980s and Virginia Woolf. Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet plays a French literary game in A Case of Matricide; and summer days under the light of a strange star in Norway in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm.

    BOOKS

    Graeme Macrae Burnet, A Case of Matricide, Text

    Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice, Text

    Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Third Realm, (Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken), Harvill Secker

    GUESTS

    Clare Monagle, Professor of Mediaeval History, Macquarie University – who specialises in the history of ideas, and theology in the Middle Ages

    Mark Mordue, freelance music writer and poet whose latest book is the biography, Boy on Fire - The Young Nick Cave. He is also co-director of the Addi Road Writers Festival

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Daphne du Maurier, RebeccaHelen Garner, worksC.J. Sansom, Shardlake seriesUmberto Eco, The Name of the Rose Jack Gilbert, Collected PoemsJuno Gemes, Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of the Movement for Indigenous Rights

    CREDITS

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls, Ann Marie de BettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • Kate and Cassie read Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow, a pandemic-set novella that details the healing powers of a pet rabbit for a family dealing with tragedy. Plus, Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, a beautifully crafted novel about a love triangle and everyday life in a farming community in North Dakota, and the latest from Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, a poetic montage of life and death.

    BOOKS

    Melanie Cheng, The Burrow, Text

    Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red, Corsair

    Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, Hachette

    GUESTS

    Steph Harmon, Culture Editor, The Guardian

    Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Associate Director, Belvoir Theatre

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDNardi Simpson, Song of the CrocodileEmeric Pressburger, The Glass PearlsClaire Kilroy, Soldier SailorAlan Murrin, The Coast Road Dan Hogan, Secret Third Thing

    ​CREDIT

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • Twins, pumas and a colonial western in Robbie Arnott’s Dusk; gay lives, racial politics, class, theatre and exquisite writing, in Alan Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings; and writing between the myths, rumours and religious speculation of a mediaeval woman pope in Emily Maguire's Rapture.

    BOOKS

    Robbie Arnott, Dusk, Picador

    Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings, Picador

    Emily Maguire, Rapture, Allen & Unwin

    GUESTS

    Huw Griffiths, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Sydney – with a special interest in Shakespeare and contemporary gay literature. His books include Disavowing Authority in the Shakespeare Classroom and Shakespeare’s Body Parts: Figuring Sovereignty in the History Plays

    Meredith Lake, presents Soul Search on ABC Radio National as well as Mornings on ABC Alice Springs. She is also a historian of religion, whose latest book is The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJon Ransom, The GallopersMax Porter, worksCynan Jones, worksArelhekenhe Angkentye - Women’s Talk, Poems of Lyapirtneme from Arrernte Women in Central AustraliaKim Mahood, Craft for a Dry Lake; Position Doubtful; Wandering with Intent

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Huberman, Ann-Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • Many people have been awaiting the release of Intermezzo, the latest book by Irish writer Sally Rooney, which explores love, grief, growing up, playing chess, understanding and misunderstanding family...Kate and Cassie begin the show with this one, with additional input from millennial author Madeleine Gray. Also, under the sea with Richard Powers in his new novel Playground; and searching the American South with Gayl Jones in The Unicorn Woman, with guidance from historian Ethan Blue.

    BOOKS

    Sally Rooney, Intermezzo, Faber

    Richard Powers, Playground, Hutchinson Heinemann

    Gayl Jones, The Unicorn Woman, Virago

    GUESTS

    Madeleine Gray, critic and writer whose debut novel, Green Dot, was published in 2023 and is now being adapted for screen. Winner of the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the 2024 ABIAs

    Ethan Blue, Associate Professor of History at the University of W.A., where he specialises in histories of punishment, migration and incarceration. Author of The Deportation Express: A History of America through Forced Removal https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-deportation-express/hardcover

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDBonnie Garmus, Lessons in ChemistryReginald Rose, Twelve Angry MenMiriam Toews, Women TalkingJulia Langbein, American MermaidRosemarie Garland-Thomson, Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body Neil Stephenson, Termination ShockEleanor Catton. Birnam WoodZora Neal Hurston, There Eyes are Watching GodLangston Hughes, worksW.E.B. Du Bois, worksRichard Wright, worksElla Baxter, Woo WooAnne Carson, Eros the BittersweetPercival Everett, JamesIvan Chaar Lopez, The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and IntrusionFelicity Amaya Schaeffer, Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous LandsFrederick Jamieson, The Political UnconsciousMargaret Drabble, worksThomas Hardy, works

    CREDITS

    CREDITS

    Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown
  • Novels from France, Poland and India – with politics, sanatoriums, automata and horror in the mix too. Kate and Cassie read French writer (and provocateur) Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation (but can they get to the end of the book? There’s the question); while Polish reader and publicist Anna O’Grady joins them to discuss Nobel Prize winning writer Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story; and academic, novelist and memoirist Kári Gislason joins them to review Tania James’ Loot.

    BOOKS

    Michel Houellebecq, Annihilation, Picador

    Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, Text

    Tania James, Loot, Harvill Secker

    GUESTS

    Anna O’Grady, Publicity Director, Simon & Schuster. Born in Poland, both her parents and grandparents were connected with the Polish publishing industry

    Kári Gislason, Professor in Creative Writing & Literary Studies, Queensland University of Technology. His books include The Promise of Iceland, the novel The Sorrow Stone and Saga Land (co-authored with Richard Fidler). His latest is the memoir Running with Pirates

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDThomas Mann, The Magic MountainSamantha Harvey, OrbitalCarys Davis, ClearJennifer Croft, The Extinction of Irena ReyDebra Dank, We Come With This PlaceTegan Bennett Daylight, The DetailsGerald Durrell, My Family and Other AnimalsKarl Over Knausgaard, My Struggle seriesAnna Jacobson, How to Knit a Human

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan + Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • Sex parties, corruption and dark dark deeds in not-quite-Nigeria, in Akwaeke Emezi’s Little Rot; aspiration, real estate and misguided philanthropists in New York, in Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement, and ordinary people living extraordinary lives, and all those untold stories, in Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything.

    GUESTS

    Gretchen Shirm, critic and writer whose books include the short story collection Having Cried Wolf and the novels Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room.

    Stephen Long, Senior Fellow at the independent policy research organisation, The Australia Institute. Before that he was a senior reporter for the ABC’s investigative journalism program, Four Corners, as economics correspondent and national finance correspondent.

    BOOKS

    Akwaeke Emezi, Little Rot, Faber Rumaan Alam, Entitlement, Riverhead Books Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything, Viking Penguin

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDBarbara Kingsolver, Demon CopperheadTaffy Brodesser-Akner , Long Island CompromisePorochista Khakpour, TehrangelesAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian RoadAlice Robinson, If You GoSusie Boyt, Love and MissedPaul Lynch, Prophet SongJoseph Stiglitz, The Road to Freedom - Economics and the Good Society

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls + Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • A peripatetic hotel, a paddle steamer of dreams and a dastardly law firm, in Jock Serong’s Cherrywood; one of the 20th century’s top 10 all-star ‘leading’ murderers, and what it might mean to be close to him, in Malcolm Knox’s The First Friend; and spies, caves, lies and Neanderthals in Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake.

    BOOKS

    Malcolm Knox, The First Friend, Allen & Unwin

    Jock Serong, Cherrywood, Fourth Estate

    Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, Jonathan Cape

    GUESTS

    Roanna Gonsalves, creative writing academic, writer whose books include the short story collection The Permanent Resident

    Tom Wright, theatre writer and adapter; artistic associate, the Belvoir Theatre

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDPeter Carey, worksJoseph Conrad, Heart of DarknessJames Bradley, Ghost SpeciesJon Baptiste del Amo, Son of ManMichelle de Kretser, Theory and PracticeWilliam Dalrymple, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the WorldJosé Saramago, The Elephant's JourneyAdalbert Stifter, The BachelorsJonathan Raban, Soft City

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Craig Tilmouth + Ann-Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • An overview of the books of the year so far, what’s coming up for the rest of the year, and the 'to be read' book pile of regret as Kate and Cassie confess all with bookseller Jon Page and literary interviewer and editor of The Monthly Michael Williams.

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIEPercival Everett, JamesCeridwen Dovey, Only the AstronautsIain Ryan, The StripGabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeFrancis Spufford, Cahokia JazzElizabeth Strout, Tell Me EverythingRobbie Arnott, worksTim Winton, Juice

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY JON PAGESarah J. Maas, Court of Thorns seriesRebecca Yarros, The Empyrean seriesTéa Obreht, The MorningsideMurray Middleton, No Church in the WildGarry Disher, worksJane Harper, The DryChris Hammer, worksChristian White, worksHayley Scrivenor, worksMichael Robotham, worksPeter Temple, worksBarbara Kingsolver, worksHaruki Murakami, worksNagi, Recipe Tin Eats cookbooksJock Serong, CherrywoodElizabeth Strout, Tell Me EverythingTim Winton, JuiceCormac McCarthy, The RoadKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY KATEFrancis Spufford, Cahokia JazzRodney Hall, VortexDylin Hardcastle, A Language of LimbsFiona McFarlane, Highway 13Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of WarAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian RoadOlga Tokarczuk, The EmpusiumLouise Erdrich, The Mighty RedJames McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY MICHAEL WILLIAMSMelissa Lucashenko, EdenglassieTony Birch, Women and ChildrenKate Grenville, Dolly MaunderJonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime NovelRebecca Makkai, The Great BelieversNam Le, 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese PoemRichard Osman, We Solve Murders seriesSally Rooney, IntermezzoHelen Garner, The SeasonMelanie Cheng, The Burrow

    An overview of the books of the year so far, what’s coming up for the rest of the year, and the 'to be read' book pile of regret as Kate and Cassie confess all with bookseller Jon Page and literary interviewer and editor of The Monthly Michael Williams.

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIEPercival Everett, JamesCeridwen Dovey, Only the AstronautsIain Ryan, The StripGabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeFrancis Spufford, Cahokia JazzElizabeth Strout, Tell Me EverythingRobbie Arnott, DuskTim Winton, Juice

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY JON PAGESarah J. Maas, Court of Thorns seriesRebecca Yarros, The Empyrean seriesJonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime NovelTéa Obreht, The MorningsideMurray Middleton, No Church in the WildGarry Disher, worksJane Harper, The DryChris Hammer, worksChristian White, worksHayley Scrivenor, worksMichael Robotham, worksPeter Temple, worksBarbara Kingsolver, worksHaruki Murakami, worksNagi Maehashi, Recipe Tin Eats seriesJock Serong, CherrywoodElizabeth Strout, Tell Me EverythingTim Winton, JuiceCormac McCarthy, The RoadKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY KATEFrancis Spufford, Cahokia JazzDylin Hardcastle, A Language of LimbsFiona McFarlane, Highway 13Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of WarAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian RoadOlga Tokarczuk, The EmpusiumLouise Erdrich, The Mighty RedJames McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

    BOOKS MENTIONED BY MICHAEL WILLIAMSMelissa Lucashenko, EdenglassieTony Birch, Women and ChildrenKate Grenville, Restless Dolly MaunderJonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime NovelRebecca Makkai, The Great BelieversNam Le, 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese PoemRichard Osman, We Solve Murders seriesSally Rooney, IntermezzoHelen Garner, The SeasonMelanie Cheng, The Burrow

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Beth Stewart + Emrys CroninExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • Stories of Northern Soul, pigs trotters in performance art and politics in the subtropical 1950s come to life in three new works of fiction including Vortex, the new novel from 88 year old Rodney Hall, twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award; Woo Woo, by another Australian writer, Ella Baxter; and Rare Singles, the latest from English writer and journalist Benjamin Myers.

    BOOKS

    Rodney Hall, Vortex, PicadorElla Baxter, Woo Woo, Allen & UnwinBenjamin Myers, Rare Singles, Bloomsbury

    GUESTS

    Gretchen Shirm, critic, novelist and teacher of creative writing. Her books include Having Cried Wolf, Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room. (Her book Out of the Woods will be published next year)

    Stuart Coupe, music writer and promoter. His books include Roadies: The Secret History of Australian Rock N Roll; biographies of Paul Kelly, Tex Perkins and Michael Gudinski; and the memoir, Shake Some Action. (He is currently writing a history of the Australian entertainment industry and its links to organised crime)

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJonathan Lethem, worksNick Hornsby, worksWalter Moseley, worksÉdouard Louis, Change; The End of EddyKate Jennings, Snake Bud Smith, TeenagerWilly Vlautin, The Horse

    CREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

  • Kate and Cassie read Rita Bullwinkle's Headshot, a luminous debut that follows eight teenage girl boxers in Reno, Nevada. Crime writer Michael Robotham discusses Chris Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark – a story with a one-eyed boy, missing children, and a character who may or may not be an hallucination, and a nod to True Crime and Australia’s dark history in Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13, with critic Beejay Silcox.

    BOOKS

    Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot, DB Originals

    Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13, Allen & Unwin

    Chris Whitaker, All the Colours of the Dark, Orion

    GUESTS

    Beejay Silcox, critic, essayist and director of the Canberra Writers Festival

    Michael Robotham, internationally bestselling crime writer whose books include the Joe O’Loughlin series and the Cyrus Haven series. His latest is Storm Child

    OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDStephen King, worksDavid Owen Kelly, Host CityRebecca Makkai, The Great BelieversRodney Hall, VortexMichael Winkler, GrimmishJ.P. Pomare, Seventeen Years LaterColm Tóibín, Long Island

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Beth Stewart + Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown
  • What does the 2024 Miles Franklin shortlist tell us about our shared imagination? Bernadette Brennan and Geordie Williamson join Kate and Cassie to examine the winner, Alexis Wright's epic novel Praiseworthy, and all the finalists for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.

    BOOKS

    WINNER:

    Alexis Wright, Praiseworthy (Giramondo)

    REST OF SHORTLIST:

    Hossein Asgari, Only Sound Remains (Puncher & Wattmann)Jen Craig, Wall (Puncher & Wattmann)André Dao, Anam (Hamish Hamilton)Gregory Day, The Bell of the World (Transit Lounge)Sanya Rushdi, Hospital, (Giramondo)

    GUESTS

    Bernadette Brennan, literary scholar, biographer, and former judge of the Miles Franklin

    Geordie Williamson, literary critic and publisher

    CREDITS

    Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls and Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown