In this episode, we feature the beloved Irish novelist Emma Donoghue, in conversation with OPB’s Crystal Ligori, from the 2025 Portland Book Festival. 

Emma Donoghue has extraordinary range, writing for the screen, and the stage, as well as authoring many acclaimed novels. Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes, and it is what brought her fame and readers all over the world.  

She joined us on stage to discuss The Paris Express, a novel based on an 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs.  It’s a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.  

Emma Donoghue is the author of sixteen novels, including the award-winning national bestseller Room, the basis for the acclaimed film of the same name. Her latest novel is The Paris Express. She has also written the screenplays for Room and The Wonder and nine stage plays. Her next film (adapted with Philippa Lowthorpe from Helen Macdonald’s memoir) is H Is for Hawk. Born in Dublin, she lives in Ontario with her family. 

As one of the local hosts of OPB’s “All Things Considered”, Crystal Ligori seeks out unique stories from diverse communities, often focusing on food systems, pop culture, and LGBTQ+ communities. She also narrates OPB’s Emmy-award winning documentary food series “Superabundant” and was the longtime producer/editor for Literary Arts’ weekly radio program and podcast “Literary Arts: The Archive Project”. Before joining OPB, Crystal was a host at KUFO in Portland, OR, KZZU in Spokane, WA and KBGA in Missoula, MT. Her work has been heard nationally on NPR Newscasts, APM’s “Marketplace”, PRX’s “Living on Earth,” and NPR’s “All Things Considered”. 

An alumna of the School of Journalism at the University of Montana, she has three SPJ awards for television feature reporting and LGBTQ+ Equity Reporting in audio, a Hearst Journalism Award for broadcast news radio features, and shares three regional Emmy awards for her work on Superabundant.