A Good Read

Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel A Visit From The Goon Squad. Her new book Manhattan Beach is set largely during the Second World war, her heroine is the first ever female diver employed to mend warships. She talks to Mariella Frostrup about turning her hand to historical fiction, and her literary interest in twins. Also on the programme, Jen Campbell calls for better depiction of people with disabilities in fiction; biographer Helen Smith talks about Edward Garnett - man of letters and supportive editor to DH Lawrence and Joseph Conrad among others and Adam Haslett reveals the book he'd never lend.

Writers Cathy Rentzenbrink and Jon McGregor join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Amy Leach, Penelope Lively and Alan Johnson.

Things That Are by Amy Leach

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

This Boy by Alan Johnson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2017.

Mariella Frostrup talks to celebrated American novelist Celeste Ng, whose new book Little Fires Everywhere explores what happens when a calm and ordinary suburb is disrupted by the arrival of a new residents - a teenage girl and her artistic mother. Ian Rankin shares his passion for Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow and we hear from the Sharjah Book Fair which has just closed its doors in the UEA. While the Icelandic crime writer novelist Lilja Sigurdardottir explains why the financial crash of 2008 inspired many authors to explore the society's underbelly.

Presenters Rick Edwards and George Lamb join Harriett Gilbert to talk about their favourite books by Dave Eggers, Jane Gardam and Yvon Chouinard.

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers

Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2017.

Author Jenny Colgan and writer/performer Steven Camden (Polarbear) join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Jon Krakauer, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Jim Carroll.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Graeme Macrae Burnet joins Alex Clark to discuss his novel The Accident on the A35, a new literary crime thriller. He describes the book as 'a fiction within a fiction', claiming to be not the author but the translator.

Also on the programme, the life and work of South African writer Olive Schreiner, literary news from Chile and Lucy Hughes-Hallett, one of this year's judges, discusses the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer Award of the Year Award.

Comedy writer Andrew Hunter Murray and writer, actress and filmmaker Alice Lowe join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Winifred Watson, Miranda July and Margaret Drabble.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

The First Bad Man by Miranda July

The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2017.

Mariella Frostrup celebrates the 40th anniversary of the classic travel book In Patagonia. She's joined by the Observer theatre critic Susannah Clapp, who edited the book, and travel writer William Dalrymple who both admire its ground breaking mix of memoir, history and reportage.

Also on the programme, Nathan Englander talks about his new novel Dinner at the Centre of the Earth. Best known for his short story collections this is a spy thriller and a love story based around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sandi Toksvig discusses her tale for children set in the American Midwest in the mid nineteenth century, and Dennis Glover on the difficulties of fictionalizing George Orwell, a larger than life character who seems to have been misrepresented in fiction.

Journalist Georgia Lewis Anderson and writer Owen Jones join Harriett Gilbert to discuss favourite books by Alan Hollinghurst, Sybille Bedford and Naomi Alderman.

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover by Sybille Bedford

The Power by Naomi Alderman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2017.

Omar El Akkad's debut novel American War has won rave reviews in the states. In it he imagines a future America where the country has been ravaged by climate change and a second Civil War breaks out over fossil fuels. He talks to Mariella Frostrup about his dystopian vision.

Also on the programme, Icelandic writer Sjon, and Ted Hodgkinson discuss their new anthology of short stories from the Nordic region, and best selling writer novelist Elizabeth Kostova reveals the book she'd never lend.