The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf episodes:

• 04.12.2024

  Never-before-published & new novels from Charmian Clift, Tommy Orange and Caoilinn Hughes

  Cassie and Tom Wright look at The End of the Morning, the never-before-published novel by cult Australian writer Charmian Clift, and new novels from bestselling author Tommy Orange and Irish novelist Caoilinn Hughes.

  
• 04.05.2024

  Bri Lee, Andre Aciman, Mykaela Saunders: art, ambition, parallel lives, alternate futures

  Michaela Kalowski and Cassie look at The Work by Bri Lee, plus new novels from Call Me By Your Name author Andre Aciman, and a work of speculative fiction by Mykaela Saunders.

  
• 03.28.2024

  Andrew O'Hagan, Stuart Turton, Helen Fitzgerald: some must-reads!

  Cassie and guest host Tom Wright take a look at the exceptional new novel from award-winning Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan, plus, a genre bending mystery from Stuart Turton and a clever new thriller set in Edinburgh.

  
• 03.22.2024

  Téa Obreht, Asako Yuzuki, Steven Carroll: dystopia, butter, murder

  Cassie and Jonathan read Orange Prize winner Téa Obreht’s The Morningside, a dystopian coming-of-age story, plus, a Japanese bestseller and a new post-war literary crime series.

  
• 03.15.2024

  Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, a talking fox, art and alienation

  Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, alienation and a talking fox in this edition of The Bookshelf.

  
• 03.08.2024

  Three new Australian novels! Iain Ryan, Amy Brown, Sharlene Allsopp

  Cassie and Jonathan Green review three new Australian novels with guest star Claire Nichols and novelist Graham Akhurst.

  
• 03.01.2024

  A Trans-Tasman edition: Myfanwy Jones, Anna Smaill and Sulari Gentill

  Cassie and co-host Tom Wright review two new Australian novels, and from across the ‘Dutch',

  
• 02.23.2024

  Meditations on writing: Gail Jones, Jennifer Croft and a new anthology edited by Margaret Atwood

  Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green review a literary project edited by Margaret Atwood, and new work by Gail Jones and Jennifer Croft.

  
• 02.16.2024

  Dreams and nightmares: Leo Vardiashvili, Teju Cole, Matthew Blake

  Cassie and guest host (and playwright) Tom Wright review three new works of fiction.

  
• 02.09.2024

  Mysteries and meta-physical thrillers: Kemper Donovan, Mike McCormack and Alex Michaelides

  Mysteries and twists galore in new work by Kemper Donovan and best-selling British-Cypriot author Alex Michaelides; and award-winning Irish novelist Mike McCormack's follow up to Solar Bones.

  
• 02.02.2024

  New fiction from Francis Spufford, Hisham Matar and Kiley Reid

  Cassie McCullagh and Michaela Kalowski review new novels including Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz, Hisham Matar's My Friends and Kiley Reid's Come and Get It.

  
• 01.26.2024

  We're back for 2024 featuring new novels from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem

  The Bookshelf is back for 2024 reviewing the latest from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem.

  
• 01.19.2024

  Summer Reads: history remade, futures reimagined

  Reclaiming and retelling Australian history, where time is both stilled and circular, in Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie; and commenting on the past through alternative futures, in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars, Catherine Lacey's Biography of X and Carole Hailey's The Silence...

  
• 01.12.2024

  Summer Reads: True Crime, historical injustice, NZ satire and God's Teeth

  The Bookshelf is a program for dedicated readers and those who wished they read more.

  
• 01.05.2024

  Summer Reads: from Aphra Behn to Max Porter

  Restoration political satire, Mediaeval rumour, eco-terrorism in New Zealand and a young man with a mixtape full of angst. Reading Max Porter's Shy, Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the Rose with guests Clare Mabey and Clare...

  
• 12.29.2023

  Summer reading: heists, horses, Harlem, Ireland, rage

  Looking for books to rock you back on your heels? You've come to the right place. Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor,...

  
• 12.22.2023

  Summer Reads: Impossible creatures, an Indian thriller and love in a cherry orchard

  Best books from the year, and some new interviews too. Kate and Cassie read Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice with guest crime specialist Sue Turnbull (and an extended conversation with Kapoor), and fantasy and the...

  
• 12.15.2023

  Romance, crime, adventure: Summer reading recommendations

  Melanie Saward joins Kate for a genre-filled reading recommendation discussion of romance, the pseudonymous crime fiction of Australian author George Johnston (with Derham Groves), and historical fiction of the Hundred Years War with Dan Jones. What will you read over...

  
• 12.08.2023

  Best Books of 2023: What to read now, next and over Summer

  Kate, Cassie and three reading guests (critic Beejay Silcox, Books Editor Jason Steger and kids' author Tristan Bancks) on the books they've loved, the books they'd recommend, the books to give to a friend, the books to read over Summer...

  
• 12.07.2023

  Bad Art Mother: Canberra Writers Festival Book Club pod extra

  Kate Evans onstage for the Bookshelf and Canberra Writers Festival with CWF Artistic Director and critic Beejay Silcox, and novelist Edwina Preston, on Edwina's novel Bad Art Mother . . . and art, writing, motherhood, poetry and all the rest.

  
• 12.01.2023

  The Book Club: Thrillers

  Are you a crime fiction thriller fan? Those stories that get your heart racing and keep you awake all night? Even if you only dip into the genre once in a blue moon, you'll want to join us for a...

  
• 11.24.2023

  Reading the end of the world: Naomi Alderman, Michael Cunningham, Nicholas Jose, Katherine Brabon

  Kate and Cassie read Nicholas Jose's The Idealist, Michael Cunningham's Day, Naomi Alderman's The Future and Katherine Brabon's Body Friend with guests Eugen Bacon (Serengotti) and Mireille Juchau (The World Without Us)

  
• 11.17.2023

  Lucy Treloar, Tony Birch, Paul Auster, A K Blakemore: Books to chew on

  Kate and Cassie read Lucy Treloar’s Days of Innocence and Wonder, Paul Auster’s Baumgartner, Tony Birch’s Women and Children and A K Blakemore’s The Glutton with academic Bruce Isaacs and writer Laura Elvery

  
• 11.10.2023

  Memory, history, ghosts and parrots: Richard Flanagan, Sigrid Nunez, Jayne Anne Phillips

  Kate and Cassie read Richard Flanagan's Question 7, Jayne Anne Phillips' Night Watch and Sigrid Nunez's The Vulnerables with guests novelist Eleanor Limprecht and writer Patrick Carey

  
• 11.03.2023

  The Book Club: Historical Fiction with Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend and Zadie Smith's The Fraud

  A monthly Book Club edition looking at works by two major literary names that add to the growing body of work attempting to address the past.

  
• 10.27.2023

  New novels from Christos Tsiolkas, Amanda Lohrey, David Diop and Siân Hughes

  Kate and Cassie read Christos Tsiolkas' The In-Between, Siân Hughes' Pearl, Amanda Lohrey's The Conversion and David Diop's Beyond the Door of No Return with guests critic and literary judge James Ley and novelist and podcaster Kate Mildenhall. Translation, shame,...

  
• 10.20.2023

  Jellyfish, beauty, betrayal and Camelot: new fiction

  Kate and Cassie read Victoria Gosling's Bliss and Blunder, Sophie Keetch's Morgan is my Name, Joel Deane's Judas Boys and Mona Awad's Rouge with novelist A J Betts and theatre writer Tom Wright

  
• 10.13.2023

  Melissa Lucashenko, Charlotte Wood and Bryan Washington: powerful new fiction

  Kate and Cassie read Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie, Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional and Bryan Washington's Family Meal with guests Meredith Lake (Soul Search) and writer Sam Twyford-Moore (Castmates: Australian actors in Hollywood and at Home).

  
• 10.06.2023

  Three major new works - Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller

  Three major new works to delve into in this episode, by Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller.

  
• 09.29.2023

  The Book Club - Short Stories

  In this edition of The Book Club we look at the art, and the science, of the short story with three brand new and intriguing Australian collections.

  
• 09.21.2023

  Lauren Groff, Daniel Mason and Anna Kate Blair: fables, trees, history and art

  Kate and Cassie read Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds, Daniel Mason's North Woods and Anna Kate Blair's The Modern with writer Maggie Mackellar (Graft) and the Art Show's Rosa Ellen. Survival, hunger, lush landscapes, ambition, art, history . . ....

  
• 09.15.2023

  Novels by Anne Enright, Paul Lynch and Emma Donoghue: love, pain, politics and Ireland

  Reading yet more extraordinary fiction from Irish novelists (OK Emma Donoghue actually now lives in Canada, but she's originally Irish): Kate and Cassie on Paul Lynch's Prophet Song, Anne Enright's The Wren, The Wren, and Emma Donoghue's Learned by Heart...

  
• 09.07.2023

  Bringing the Past to Life: with Geraldine Brooks, Pip Williams and Sally Colin-James

  Kate Evans discusses historical fiction onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival with Geraldine Brooks (Horse, Year of Wonders, March), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho, The Dictionary of Lost Words) and Sally Colin-James)

  
• 09.01.2023

  The Book Club: Frank Moorhouse Retrospective

  A year on from the death of Frank Moorhouse, we examine the work of  this much-loved yet troubled writer with his biographer Catharine Lumby and colleague Angelo Loukakis.

  
• 08.25.2023

  New fiction from Chris Womersley, Jenny Erpenbeck and Tan Twan Eng: Australia, Germany, Malaysia

  Kate and Cassie read Chris Womersley's Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Tan Twan Eng's The House of Doors with critic Declan Fry and novelist Nilima Rao

  
• 08.18.2023

  New fiction from Peter Polites, Angela O'Keeffe and Guy Guneratne

  Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh read Peter Polites' God Forgets About the Poor, Angela O'Keeffe's The Sitter and Guy Guneratne's Mister Mister with poet Madison Godfrey and journalist and novelist Paul Daley

  
• 08.11.2023

  New books by Ann Patchett, Naoise Dolan and Hwang Sok-yong: “Good marriages are never as interesting as bad affairs”

  Cassie and Kate read Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, Naoise Dolan's The Happy Couple and Hwang Sok-yong's Mater 2-10 with actor Angourie Rice and novelist Jock Serong

  
• 08.04.2023

  The Book Club - Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist

  Kate, Cassie and guests examine all six finalists for the 2023 miles Franklin Literary Award.

  
• 07.28.2023

  Crooked Harlem, corrupt Wellington, bereaved London: books by Colson Whitehead, Emily Perkins and Elizabeth McCracken

  Kate and Cassie read Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and Emily Perkins' Lioness with poet Miles Merrill and literary scholar Bernadette Brennan

  
• 07.21.2023

  A crying room, a road trip and blazing fury: Gretchen Shirm, Richard Ford and Claire Kilroy

  Kate Evans and Jonathan Green read Gretchen Shirm's The Crying Room, Richard Ford's Be Mine and Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor with historian Peter McPhee and writer Ashley Hay. Cassie McCullagh will be back for the next edition of The Bookshelf.

  
• 07.13.2023

  Fiction: The State of the Art

  Kate Evans onstage with writers Colson Whitehead, Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan and Tracey Lien at the recent Sydney Writers Festival, on the state of the novel.

  
• 07.07.2023

  Wifedom, hoarded memories and political road rage: New books by Anna Funder, Jen Craig and Priya Guns

  Aboriginal, Chinese-Malaysian and Muslim writer and academic Eugenia Flynn co-hosts the Bookshelf this week with Kate Evans, reading Anna Funder's Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, Priya Guns' Your Driver is Waiting and Jen Craig's Wall with novelists Max Easton (The...

  
• 06.30.2023

  The Book Club: The Greek Myths

  What is it about the Greek myths that make them so adaptable, reusable, ever popular – and up for all manner of rewrites?

  
• 06.29.2023

  Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist 2023: pod extra interview special

  Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order). The shortlist was announced on 20 June; the winner will be announced on 25 July.

  
• 06.23.2023

  Gay saunas, dog walking and an extravagant lie: new fiction from R F Kuang, Dennis Altman and Briohny Doyle

  Stealing a manuscript, walking your grief along coastal edges and underhand behaviour at an international AIDS conference: Kate and Cassie read Dennis Altman's Death in the Sauna, R F Kuang's Yellowface and Briohny Doyle's Why We Are Here with guests...

  
• 06.16.2023

  Strangers and Saints: Katherena Vermette and Benjamin Myers

  A story of wandering pilgrims, woman brewers, stonemasons and eels – in the North of England from the 7th century until now; and Métis-Michif women in Canada across the twentieth and into the twenty-first century: Kate Evans speaks with Katherena...

  
• 06.09.2023

  Politicians, ghosts and sad girls: books by Lorrie Moore, Robert Gott and Pip Finkemeyer

  Naked politicians, roadtrips with the dead, and funny-sad girls in Berlin: Kate and Cassie read Robert Gott's Naked Ambition, Lorrie Moore's I am Homeless if this is not My Home and Pip Finkemeyer's Sad Girl Novel with critics Jessie Tu...

  
• 06.02.2023

  The Book Club - Romantic Comedy

  Step aboard this Book Club edition of The Bookshelf which is hopelessly devoted to the genre of Romantic Comedy.

  
• 05.26.2023

  From the Sydney Writers Festival with Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan

  Kate and Cassie recorded this edition of The Bookshelf onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival on Friday 26 May 2023 with writers Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan

  
• 05.19.2023

  Grifters, pilgrims and scribes: new fiction from Emma Cline, Benjamin Myers and Robyn Cadwallader

  Kate and Cassie read Benjamin Myers' Cuddy, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the Rose and Emma Cline's The Guest with mediaeval historian Clare Monagle and novelist Laura McPhee-Brown