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Jan 12, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Carey Dell |Rhiannon Brown
Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan explains why finishing his latest novel Caledonian Road was like "landing 65 planes on the tarmac" and award-winning author Evie Wyld on her new book The Echoes, and why there are so many sharks in her fiction. Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's latest book Caledonian Road (Faber and Faber) is a big in length and Dickensian scope.
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Dec 13, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Kate Evans |Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Nicola Heath |Declan Fry |Rosie Ward
You know that uncomfortable feeling when you don't know what to read next? Well, get ready to take some notes because we're about to obliterate it. The Bookshelf's Kate Evans, The Book Show's Claire Nichols and Sarah L'Estrange, ABC Arts' Nicola Heath and critics Declan Fry and Rosie Ofori Ward offer up their best reads of 2024, leading us from grieving sisters to mismatched detectives, and from short stories based on real crimes to satire and dystopian futures.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Ariel D. Gross |Rhiannon Brown
British writer Will Self reveals the extent of his 'mother-worship' in his writing which has culminated in his latest novel, Elaine. The book was inspired by his mother's own diaries. Actor and comedian Steph Tisdell has added 'novelist' to her resume with her young adult novel, The Skin I'm In, and Kylie Mirmohamadi's novel Diving, Falling is about a grieving woman of a 'certain age' whose life is about to get messy. What would you do if you found your mother's diaries under her bed?
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Kate Evans |Sarah L'Estrange |Declan Fry |Katherine Smyrk
As summer holidays steadily approach, the pile of bedside books you'll need to see you through isn't going to grow itself. Take note of these new releases our group of critics — The Bookshelf's Kate Evans, The Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange, ABC Arts' Katherine Smyrk and writer Declan Fry — have tucked into this month.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Ariel D. Gross |Rhiannon Brown
Comic book legend, Alan Moore has renounced comics for novels and his new book The Great When uncovers a secret, fictional London. Rosalie Ham returns with a prequel to her bestselling novel The Dressmaker, and why Tigest Girma wrote a black vampire novel. British author Alan Moore has created iconic comics including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
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Nov 17, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Ariel D. Gross |Rhiannon Brown
Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle returns to the character Paula Spencer who first appeared in his fiction in the 1990s, we visit author of The Wedding Forecast Nina Kenwood in her seaside childhood home and Michelle de Kretser pushes the boundaries of fiction in Theory and Practice. Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist and Booker Prize winner (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha). His latest novel is the last in a trio of books that he began almost 30 years ago.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Rhiannon Brown
This year's winner of the Booker Prize is British author Samantha Harvey for her fifth novel, Orbital. The Booker judges were unanimous in their decision. Orbital is set in the International Space Station and takes a bird's eye view of the earth as it orbits the world over a 24 hour period. The reader meets six astronauts and cosmonauts as they grapple with big questions of family, faith and grief, as well as mundane matters of domestic life in the space station.
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Nov 10, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Timothy Jenkins |Rhiannon Brown
Australian crime writer Garry Disher has been writing for almost 50 years but has only recently been able to make a living and now he's published his 60th book, Sanctuary. Emily Maguire explores the medieval urban legend of a female pope in Rapture and in his novel, This Kingdom of Dust, David Dyer imagines what might've happened if the Apollo 11 mission didn't go to plan.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Allyse Symons |Rhiannon Brown
For the first time in a decade, an Australian writer, Charlotte Wood has made the Booker Prize shortlist with her novel Stone Yard Devotional. Hear from Charlotte and the other shortlisted writers, including Rachel Kushner and Percival Everett, and find out who we think will win. The Booker Prize is the most prestigious writing prize in the English speaking world and is open to books written in English, and published in England or Ireland in the last year.
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Oct 27, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Claire Nichols |Sarah L'Estrange |Carey Dell |Rhiannon Brown
A wild puma stalks through Robbie Arnott's haunting new novel, Dusk, Fiona McFarlane's homage to true crime podcasts in Highway 13 and Malcolm Knox raises the stakes in a Soviet era political thriller, The First Friend. Australian author Robbie Arnott has published four novels, and two of them — The Rain Heron and Limberlost — have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
