The Bookshelf continues to explore new fiction, beginning in this episode with Ruins by Amy Taylor, a plunge into holiday chaos during a simmering summer in Greece. Maria Reva’s Endling takes us to Ukraine, where an eccentric scientist is breeding rare snails. And, Leif Enger’s I Cheerfully Refuse...dystopia with a twist. BOOKS  Amy Taylor, Ruins, Allen & Unwin  Maria Reva, Endling, Virago  Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse, Grove Press  GUESTS  Mark Mordue, music writer, journalist, and poet – whose books include Boy On Fire: The Young Nick Cave  Robert Goodman, critic who writes regularly for the Newtown Review of Books and on his website, Pile by the Bed OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan Louise Erdrich, works Lanny, Max Porter The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka By Night in Chile; 2666, Roberto Bolaño Leviathan Wakes, James S.A. Corey  Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie Chronicles, Bob Dylan  Just Kids, Patti Smith  Road Series, Hugo Race  Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, Will Hermes  Perdido Street Station, China Mieville  Babel; Yellowface; Katabasis, R.F. Kuang The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay  The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation, Charlotte Beradt The White Hotel, D.M. Thomas Salvage, Jennifer Mills Juice, Tim Winton Arborescence; Hovering, Rhett Davis Deaf Republic, Ilya Kaminsky CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs and Tegan Nicholls Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie discuss Vera, or Faith, Gary Shteyngart’s new novel about a ten-year-old Korean-American girl growing up in a dystopian United States. Alongside guest critics, they also look at The Bombshell by Darrow Farr, which traces the radicalisation of a young French woman in Corsica, and The Slip by Lucas Schaefer, the story of a missing teenage boy and the transformative power of boxing. Books: Darrow Farr, The Bombshell, Atlantic Lucas Schaefer, The Slip, Simon & Schuster Gary Shteyngart, Vera, or Faith, Atlantic  GUESTS Sarah Gilbert, writer and documentary producer; head of UTS Impact Studios, which makes the literary podcast Fully Lit. Her first book of non-fiction - Unconventional Women: The story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia - came out last year Michael Winkler, critic and novelist. His book, Grimmish, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2022. His novel Griefdogg will be published next year  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Brian Castro, Chinese Postman Michelle de Krestser, works Marilynne Robinson, Gilead Denis Johnson, Train Dreams Carys Davies, West Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend O. Henry, The Last Leaf Loïc Wacquant, Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City series Rhett Davis, Arborescence Raaza Jamshed, What Kept You Alexis Wright, Carpentaria CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs and Tegan Nicholls Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Australian author Rhett Davis re-imagines the everyday in his novels. In his latest, Arborescence, ordinary people begin transforming into trees. Is it a cult? Performance art? Or something else entirely? Also on the show: Guest reviewer Roanna Gonsalves discusses Saraswati, the debut novel by Gurnaik Johal, which winds its narrative around a sacred and possibly mythical river in North India. And, Kate Evans speaks with Irish writer Colm Tóibín, delving into the literary influences that have shaped his work.  BOOKS  Rhett Davis, Arborescence, Hachette  Gurnaik Johal, Saraswati, Serpent’s Tail  Colm Toibin, works  GUESTS  Roanna Gonsalves is a writer, teacher of creative writing at UNSW, and editor of the literary journal, Southerly  Colm Toibin, Irish novelist and essayist – whose books include The Blackwater Lightship, Nora Webster, Brooklyn, The Master, The Magician – and his latest, Long Island. He spoke to Kate Evans at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Jane Austen, works Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13 Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees J.R.R. Tolkein, works Malcolm Knox The First Friend Raaza Jamshed, What Kept You Georgia Rose Phillips, The Bearcat Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge Henry James, works Thomas Mann, works James Baldwin, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Simon Branthwaite  Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A critical assessment of the shortlist and winner of Australia’s most prestigious literary award, The Miles Franklin Literary Award. Kate and Cassie are joined by guests, scholar and literary biographer (and former judge of the MFLA) Bernadette Brennan; and critic and publisher, Geordie Williamson. BOOKS Brian Castro, Chinese Postman, Giramondo Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice, Text Winnie Dunn, Dirt Poor Islanders, Hachette  Julie Janson, Compassion, Magabala Books Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13, Allen & Unwin Siang Lu, Ghost Cities, UQP (WINNER) GUESTS Bernadette Brennan, literary scholar; former judge for the Miles Franklin Literary Award   Geordie Williamson, chief literary critic, The Australian; publisher, Picador  CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Parties, scandals, sex, love, families, friendship, death – these books have, as they say, all the things. Nell Zink’s Sister Europe moves through one night in Berlin, while Amy Bloom’s I’ll Be Right Here sweeps through 80 years of history, and in James Frey’s Next to Heaven, the beautiful and rich fall apart rather spectacularly. BOOKS  Nell Zink, Sister Europe, Penguin Viking  Amy Bloom, I’ll Be Right Here, Granta  James Frey, Next to Heaven, Swift  GUESTS  Shannon Burns, writer and member of the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide. His memoir, Childhood, was published in 2022  Suzanne Leal, writer and literary interviewer. She writes for both adults and children, and her novels include Deceptions, The Watchful Wife and The Teacher’s Secret. Her latest, The Year We Escaped, was published last month OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED James Frey, works Raynor Winn, The Salt Path Colette, works Yuan Yang, Private Revolutions Lenora Thaker, The Pearl of Tagai Town Peter Grose, A Good Place to Hide Pablo Neruda, The Captain's Verses Robert Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony Brian Castro, Chinese Postman JANE AUSTEN EVENT Still Turning Heads at 250: Jane Austen’s Enduring Charm ABC Radio National's The Bookshelf & The Minefield join forces with a literary scholar & the State Library of NSW on Austen the professional. Book your spot here  CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Tegan Nicholls and Emrys Cronin Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown  

Stories of the sea – and a great white whale in Xiaolu Guo's Call Me Ishmaelle; Hungry ghosts and kitchen mishaps in Daria Lavelle's NYC set novel Aftertaste; and the latest Australian crime fiction (of which there is a lot!) BOOKS  AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION:  Mark Brandi, Eden  Paul Daley, The Leap  Sam Guthrie, The Peak  Angie Faye Martin, Melaleuca   Michael Robotham, White Crow  Tanya Scott, Stillwater  Matthew Spencer, Broke Road  Xiaolu Guo, Call Me Ishmaelle, Chatto & Windus  Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste, Bloomsbury  GUESTS  Mark Dunn, historian whose latest book is The Convict Valley: The Bloody Struggle on Australia's Early Frontier  Danielle Bagnato, writer and book critic – whose work appears in The Big Issue  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Alice Oseman, Radio Silence Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby Douglas Stewart, Young Mungo Herman Melville, Moby Dick Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Richard Flanagan, Question 7 V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Catherine Webb, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman; Vanishing World Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Simon Branthwaite and Roi Huberman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A panel of international authors discuss the current state of the art of fiction. The latest Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey, Rumaan Alam, Torrey Peters, and Robbie Arnott find connections in their writing and their bookshelves. PANELLISTS Samantha Harvey, an English writer whose five novels include The Wilderness, Dear Thief, and the 2024 Booker Prize winner, Orbital. Her non-fiction work is The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping Rumaan Alam, an American writer whose five novels include Rich and Pretty, Leave the World Behind and Entitlement. Torrey Peters, an American writer of novels, short stories and novellas, including her debut novel Detransition, Baby and a new collection, Stag Dance. Robbie Arnott, an Australian writer whose novels are Flames, The Rain Heron, Limberlost and Dusk. ------------------------ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain George Orwell, 1984 Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven Melanie Cheng, The Burrow Helen Garner, The Children’s Bach Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go Edward St Aubyn, Parallel Lines ------------------------ CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans Producer, Kate Evans & Salome Lines-Morison Sound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite & Timothy Jenkins Executive Producer, Rhiannon Brown

The same question is at the heart of three very different international novels on The Bookshelf this week, “What really happened”… To a WWI soldier who has forgotten his name and identity in The Remembered Soldier by Dutch author Anjet Daanje? To a fortune teller for the elite class in Ben Okri’s Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted? When four high achieving American boys entered a cave, and one emerged terribly hurt, In Sameer Pandya’s Our Beautiful Boys? Keep scrolling for a full list of all books mentioned on this week's program.   BOOKS Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier (translated from the Dutch by David McKay), Scribe  Ben Okri, Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-hearted, Apollo  Sameer Pandya, Our Beautiful Boys,  Bloomsbury     GUESTS  Tom Wright, theatre writer and adapter, and Artistic Associate at Belvoir Street Theatre. Bronwyn Rivers, researcher and novelist whose debut, The Reunion was released this year. She also has a PhD on the 19th century novel.   OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Bronwyn Rivers, The Reunion Max Porter, Grief is the Thing With Feathers Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock Ben Okri, The Famished Road William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land William Shakespeare, As You Like It T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men Ben Okri, The Freedom Artist E. M. Forster, A Passage to India Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap Curzio Malaparte, The Skin Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob Victor Hugo, Les Misérables Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White Kate Atkinson, Death at the Sign of the Rook: A Jackson Brodie Novel   CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans & Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans & Salome Lines-Morison Sound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite & Tegan Nicholls Executive Producer, Rhiannon Brown

What would make a great Australian sporting novel? Our guests discuss translating the love of the game, footy nicknames, and intense team culture in ex-AFL player Brandon Jack’s Pissants. And making sport of the Melbourne literary scene, Dominic Amarena’s debut novel I Want Everything is a clever, celebratory satire.  Kate and Cassie also review the 2025 International Booker Prize winner Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories from southern India.  Meanwhile, back home, The Miles Franklin shortlist has been announced. Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlist: Brian Castro, Chinese Postman  Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice Winnie Dunn, Dirt Poor Islanders Julie Janson, Compassion Siang Lu, Ghost Cities Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13   BOOKS   Banu Mushtaq, Heart Lamp: selected stories (translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhashti), Scribe  Brandon Jack, Pissants, Summit Books Australia   Dominic Amarena, I Want Everything, Summit Books Australia   GUESTS  James Button, writer, editor and journalist, whose books include Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong, and Speechless: A Year in my Father's Business, about his time working as a speechwriter for Kevin Rudd and what that taught him about his own father's life, John Button, Minister for Industry in the Hawke and Keating Governments.  Beejay Silcox, writer, literary critic, and regular interviewer at writers’ festivals.  ----------- OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED James Button, Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong James Button, Speechless: A Year in my Father’s Business Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot Brandon Jack, 28 Leigh Matthews, Accept the Challenge Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club Helen Garner, The Season David Williamson, The Club Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters Halldór Laxness, Independent People George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Middlemarch R. F. Kuang, Yellowface R. F. Kuang, Katabasis Lucas Schaefer, The Slip David Remnick, King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero ----------- CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans & Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans & Salome Lines-Morison Sound Engineer, Roi Huberman & Dylan Prins Executive Producer, Rhiannon Brown

The latest best-selling novels from Taylor Jenkins-Reid (Atmosphere) and Fredrik Backman (My Friends) explore 1980s astronauts, ambition and romance; and teenage anguish, friendship and art. Emotive and cinematic, how often is popular fiction written for the screen? Speaking of the screen, screenwriter Thomas Vowles’ debut novel Our New Gods takes us on a twisted psychological thriller through gay saunas, bush doofs, and the grit of Melbourne’s queer scene. BOOKS Thomas Vowles, Our New Gods, UQP Fredrik Backman, My Friends (Translated from Swedish by Neil Smith), Simon and Schuster Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Atmosphere, Hutchinson Heinemann (Keep scrolling to see all other books mentioned on the program)   GUESTS Tegan Bennett-Daylight, author and teacher of creative writing, whose books include the novels Bombora and What Falls Away; the essay collection, The Details; the short story collection, Six Bedrooms; and the Young Adult novels Royals and (her latest) How to Survive 1985. She’s a Bookshelf regular. Richard Aedy, longtime Radio National colleague (whose programs included The Money and Life Matters); now producing a podcast for the Productivity Commission: The ProdCast; Also a Bookshelf regular.     OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six Holden Sheppard, King of Dirt Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards Tegan Bennett-Daylight, Royals Tegan Bennett-Daylight, How to Survive 1985 Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman, Beartown Fredrik Backman, Anxious People Percival Everett, James Samantha Harvey, Orbital Ceridwen Dovey, Only The Astronauts Taylor Jenkins-Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Malibu Rising Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Carrie Soto is Back: A Novel Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time Kevin Barry, The Heart in Winter Kevin Barry, Night Boat to Tangier Sarah Holland-Batt, The Jaguar Michelle de Krester, Theory & Practice Sharleigh Crittenden, The Un-doing (Published in Island magazine #173) Ben Lerner, The Hatred of Poetry Ben Lerner, The Topeka School Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner, 10:04   CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans & Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans & Salome Lines-Morison Sound Engineer, John Jacobs & Anne-Marie de Bettencor Executive Producer, Rhiannon Brown

A guide to James Joyce from Irish writer Mary Morrissy, ahead of Bloomsday (16 June); New Zealand writer Becky Manawatu continues to explore howls of pain and compassion in her second novel, Kataraina; and magic realism in the boundaries between life and death, and Eastern Europe, in Helen Marshall's The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death.  BOOKS James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) Mary Morrissy, Penelope Unbound, Banshee Press Becky Manawatu, Kataraina, Scribe Helen Marshall, The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death, Titan Books (Keep scrolling for a list of all other books mentioned on the program) GUESTS Mary Morrissy, Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist and teacher of creative writing. Her books include Penelope Unbound — a speculative history of the life of Norah Barnacle, wife of James Joyce. She is currently in Australia and taking part in Bloomsday Events Claire Mabey, NZ children's author, editor and founder of the Verb Wellington readers and writers festival. Her novel, The Raven's Eye Runaways, has just been named as a finalist in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Robert Goodman, reviewer and literary judge specialising in genre fiction (he's been a judge and organiser for the Ned Kelly Awards for crime fiction since 2008; regularly reviews for the Newtown Review of Books — and is one of the most active members of the ABC Book Club Facebook Group). His website is pilebythebed.com OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Alan Hollinghurst, works James Joyce, Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake Catherine Chidgey, The Book of Guilt Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go Jennifer Trevelyan, A Beautiful Family Francesca Wade, Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars Ray Nayler, Where the Axe is Buried Luke Arnold, Whisper in the Wind Emily Tesh, The Incandescent CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Salome Lines-Morison Sound engineers, JOhn Jacobs and Roi Huberman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Fiction from all over the world, crossing genres, borders and ideas in American crime writer S A Cosby's King of Ashes, a gripping tale of family, smoke, and fire; Irish writer Sean Hewitt’s Open, Heaven, a beautifully woven story about longing, escape and memory; and, first up, The Name of the Sister, the latest from acclaimed Australian literary novelist Gail Jones. BOOKS  Gail Jones, The Name of the Sister, Text  S A Cosby, King of Ashes, Headline  Seán Hewitt, Open, Heaven, Jonathan Cape  GUESTS  Toby Schmitz, actor, playwright and author – whose historical crime novel The Empress Murders has just been released  Steve MinOn, writer whose debut novel First Name Second Name was published in March of this year  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Alan Hollinghurst, works Diana Preston, A Higher Form of Killing Martin Amis, Time's Arrow Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers Dahlia de la Cerda, Reservoir Bitches Garth Jones, Black Pills Laura Elvery, Nightingale CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie read W.A. writer Holden Sheppard's King of Dirt, a vibrant, gay coming-of-age story set in Geraldton. Plus, Australian author Jennifer Mills' new one, Salvage, in which we enter a very well drawn post apocalyptic Mad Max-ish world; and, Florence Knapp's The Names has been named one of the most anticipated fiction releases of the year, a sliding doors story leading to three different versions of one family's life. Does it live up to the hype? BOOKS Holden Sheppard, King of Dirt, Pantera Press Jennifer Mills, Salvage, Picador Florence Knapp, The Names, Phoenix GUESTS Johan Gabrielsson, documentary maker currently working on a film about architecture and modernism Seth Robinson, writer, producer, and lecturer at the University of Melbourne OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Tim Winton, Juice James Bradley, Landfall Charles Dickens, works Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales Hisham Matar: A Month in Siena; The Return: My Friends Asako Yuzuki, Butter Dominic Amerena, I Want Everything CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman and Tim Jenkins Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Live from Sydney Writers' Festival, and with an introduction by Emirate poet Afra Atiq, we bring together guests Catherine Chidgey, Mariana Enriquez and Alan Hollinghurst to discuss the most influential works in both fiction and non-fiction.  From gripping novels that have captured our imaginations to thought-provoking non-fiction that has reshaped our understanding of the world, this event will celebrate the literary achievements that have defined the past quarter-century. BOOKS MENTIONED ALAN HOLLINGHURST Alice Munro, Runaway  David Szalay, All That Man Is  Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang  Bryan Washington, Lot  Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These; Foster MARIANA ENRIQUEZ Cormac McCarthy, The Road Dennis Cooper, The Sluts Jorge Luis Borges, works Horacio Castellanos Moya, Senselessness CATHERINE CHIDGEY Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking John D'Agata and Jim Fingal, The Lifespan of a Fact   Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie  Anna Smaill, The Chime OTHERS Paul Lynch, Prophet Song Kate Grenville, The Secret River Sarah Winman, Still Life Markus Zusak, The Book Thief Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch Ann Patchett, Bel Canto Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror Robbie Arnott, Limberlost Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonder Min Jin Lee, Pachinko Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Claire Nichols Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Emrys Cronin, Hamish Camilleri, Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A live recording from Melbourne Writers' Festival as Hannah Kent and Beejay Silcox sit down with Kate Evans and Jonathan Green to discuss the latest fiction releases they’re enjoying, loving and being challenged by.  BOOKS - Hannah Kent, Always Home, Always Homesick, Picador - Eimear McBride, The City Changes its Face, Faber - Susan Choi, Flashlight, Jonathan Cape - Edward St Aubyn, Parallel Lines, Jonathan Cape - Caryl Phillips, Another Man in the Street, Bloomsbury GUESTS Hannah Kent, novelist whose books are Burial Rites, The Good People and Devotion – and whose memoir, Always Home, Always Homesick – has just been published.   Beejay Silcox, critic and writer. Festival director, literary interviewer and one of the inaugural recipients of the Frank Moorhouse Reading Room writing residency OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Eric Puchner, Dream State Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers  Emily Maguire, Rapture Mariana Enríquez, A Sunny Place for Shady People Susan Hampton, Anything Can Happen  

One day lived over and over again with humour, despair and self-improvement is what we’re up against in Danish novelist Solvej Balle’s On The Calculation of Volume, a fictional work in seven volumes, the first volume (the one we’re talking about in this episode), has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Plus, The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, the poet and novelist famous for On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous; and The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a portrait of a spiky woman's life expanding through letters. BOOKS  Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume l, (translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland), Faber   Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness, Jonathan Cape  Virginia Evans, The Correspondent, Michael Joseph  GUESTS  Sarah Holland-Batt, poet, critic and essayist. Professor of Creative Writing and Literary Studies at QUT. Her latest poetry collection The Jaguar was awarded the Stella Prize in 2023  Hilde Hinton is a writer whose books include the novels The Loudness of Unsaid Things, A Solitary Walk on the Moon and her latest, The Opposite of Lonely  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Anna Funder, Wifedom Fiona McFarlane works Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice  Bram Stoker, Dracula   Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons  Sue Townsend, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Tayari Jones, An American Marriage  Alice Walker, The Colour Purple  Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin  Annie Burrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge series Niall Campbell, The Island in the Sound Chris Whittaker, All the Colours of the Dark Inga Simpson, Willowman CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Old friends gather together on the coast in Australian writer Luke Horton’s Time Together, Kate and Cassie take a look. Plus, Jo Harkin’s The Pretender, set during the time of the Tudors' ascent it tells the story of a little-known real-life figure; and Laura Elvery’s Nightingale, a re-imagining of the life of Florence Nightingale. BOOKS  Luke Horton, Time Together, Scribe  Jo Harkin, The Pretender, Bloomsbury Circus  Laura Elvery, Nightingale, UQP  GUESTS  Jane Caro, social commentator, activist, and writer. She has written thirteen books, including three set in the Tudor period, and two crime novels – The Mother and her latest, Lyrebird  Michael Cathcart, historian and broadcaster, and host of Radio National’s Stage Show  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Cecil Woodham Smith, Florence Nightingale Sarah Wynn Williams, Careless People Eric Hoffer, The True Believer Athol Fugard, Blood Knot CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Roi Huberman, Tim Jenkins, Micky Grossman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cities that are both flooded and on alert for the next storm in James Bradley’s Landfall. The body of a saint, dreamily and weirdly listening to everyone around her in Western Australia, in Josephine Rowe’s Little World. And from Malaysia, Tash Aw's The South, in which a family has left the city to head to a failing orchard, a story of longing, promise, generations, and misunderstandings   BOOKS  James Bradley, Landfall, Penguin  Josephine Rowe, Little World, Black Inc  Tash Aw, The South, Fourth Estate  GUESTS  Tegan Bennett-Daylight, novelist, teacher, and essayist, whose books include Bombora, What Falls Away, and The Details. Her latest, How to Survive 1985, is a YA novel that will be published in May   Rosa Ellen, producer and presenter with Radio National’s Arts team  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Willa Cather, works David Szalay, Flesh Gretchen Shirm, Out of the Woods   Yuko Tsushima, Territory of Light   Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kappa  Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills   CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Isabella Tropiano Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Irish writer Niall Williams with Kate Evans at the 2025 Adelaide Writers Week — with a focus on his Faha novels, History of the Rain, This is Happiness and (his latest) Time of the Child. Williams is also a screenwriter, playwright and travel writer — and his first novel, Four Letters of Love, has just been released as a film. He also appeared onstage at AWW with Kate and Cassie, for a special edition of the Bookshelf on books, reading, and influences, with English writer Charlotte Mendelsohn and Australian writer Brian Castro.

Families, secrets, mysteries, war...Kate and Cassie read Eric Puchner’s Dream State, an American saga that spans fifty years; mysterious encounters in Katie Kitamura’s Audition, and a World War II story set in an apartment block in Brussels in Alice Austen’s 33 Place Brugmann. BOOKS Eric Puchner, Dream State, Sceptre Katie Kitamura, Audition, Fern Press Alice Austen, 33 Place Brugmann, Bloomsbury GUESTS Mark Mordue, music writer, journalist, poet – whose books include Boy on Fire: The Young Nick Cave. He’s also director of the Addi Road Writers Festival – a community festival in Sydney’s Marrickville – coming up on Saturday 17 May   Gretchen Shirm, novelist and literary critic – whose books include Having Cried Wolf, The Crying Room and her latest (published this month), Out of the Woods OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED John Irving, The World According to Garp Svetlana Alexievich, works T.S. Eliot, Gerontion Lucy Sante, I Heard Her Call My Name Han Kang, We Do Not Part James Bradley, Landfall Clinton Heylin, Behind the Shades Revisited Patrick Holland, Oblivion Bret Easton Ellis, Less than Zero CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs + Dylan Prins Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown