VERONICA SULLIVAN – director of the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival (May 8th – 11th) – returns to discuss a seminal piece of art from her life: C.S. Lewis’s Narnia novel THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW (1955). How has this multiversal prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe mirror impacted fiction in the decades since its release?

This bonus episode was released half a year earlier than it became available on Spotify. To get access to all bonus episodes like this one upon initial release, become a paid subscriber to 5AM StoryTalk at Apple or Substack:

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Be sure to listen to the first part of my chat with Veronica, too: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/veronica-sullivan-director-of-the-melbourne/id1807437928?i=1000703524927

VERONICA AND I DISCUSS (amongst so many other things):

·       The Magician’s Nephew’s unique place in the Narnia series, and why she thinks its place in the publication order (Book 6 of 7) makes it so special — even establishing the kind of narrative world-building that has become commonplace in the decades since its publication

·       The multiversal aspect of the novel, which mirrors, Veronica argues, the act of reading

·       How The Magician’s Nephew inspired many other kinds of authors over the years — including literary fiction author Susanna Clarke, whose novel Piranesi enjoys a deep connection to Lewis’s story

·       The rumors that Greta Gerwig’s first Narnia adaptation for Netflix will be The Magician’s Nephew

·       The fallacy of a divide between “literary” and “commercial” fiction such as fantasy, which connects back to Veronica’s approach to curating the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival

LINKS:

·      Description of The Magician’s Nephew: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magician%27s_Nephew

·      Veronica Sullivan’s website: https://veronicasullivan.com/about/

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