For the final book club of the year Andrew sat down after listening to Xmas music to reflect on the way we tell Xmas stories.

Whether you celebrate the holiday or just need a break after the year that was, Xmas stories celebrate our survival and our coming together.

However you are spending the holiday, we wish you happy reading and and a safe denouement to the year!

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Omar Musa discussing Killernova

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Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian author, poet and hip hop artist. His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was longlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin award. Omar is celebrated for his Slam Poetry and spoken word and today joins us with a unique new collection.

Killernova combines poetry and woodcarving allowing Omar to explore his heritage and the ongoing tension that exists within Australia and around the world, between indigenous peoples and colonialism.

Join me as we discover Omar Musa ’s Killernova...

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We are absolutely at the book end of the year. And I don’t mean that simply as a kind of fun book pun (although it did inadvertently turn out that way). No I meant that this is the time of the year when you finally have the time to do a little reading, our best of lists are coming out (does anyone want a book club best of btw?) and we are buying and reading Xmas stories.

Now ghosts and tiny tims are all well and good, but we have a plethora of Xmas tales to contend with and when the book I’ve selected for this week ended up with a little bit of December in it I got to thinking; could this be a Xmas story?

What even is a Xmas story?

A quick Google pointed me in the direction of nostalgia and holiday hijinks. There has to be a complication but it all gets resolved, and much like Austen, a wedding at the end (or at least a heretofore unlikely snog) doesn’t hurt.

And so I present you Michelle Kalus and Ali Berg's Fancy Meeting You Here

Ali and Michelle are the authors of the international hits The Book Ninja and While You Were Reading. They’re also founders of Books on the Rails which puts books on public transport, just in case your phone battery is on 5%!

Fancy Meeting You Here is the epic tale of Evie Berry. Evie thought she would have found romance by thirty. I mean it’s practically her job; she’s the co-host of Pasta-la-Visita, the go-to podcast for fans of romance movies (and carbonara carbs).

But Evie’s hung up on Hugo Hearst, the gorgeous auteur of her favourite novel and film. Possibly it was never meant to be. But when a psychic medium helps Evie hurtle ten years into her own past, she has everything she needs to find Hugo and win his heart before he hits the big time.

Ok, so far we’ve got some great page turning traits but not a lot of Xmas.

The central mcguffin of time travel is simultaneously over the top and just perfect as it sets up the real question of the book; can you manufacture love?

And I mean this is relevant. Evie is basically using her knowledge of the past to do what thousands of apps are trying to do by algorithm. She swiping right on Hugo in a big way using info from his yet to exist Wiki!

But can you make a love like this last?

Well Evie is going to try and she’s going to tweak all the other bits of her life she didn’t get right the first time. It’s a fascinating look at the way we process regret and ambition whilst considering what we really need from life.

Evie’s temporally adjusted prescience super charges hers and Hugo’s world but she’s feeling the strain of getting everything she ever dreamed of. Her ability to hold it all together will of course be challenged during the festive season because, well the festive season can be really stressful.

So amidst the snow dusted streets of London and fireside chats of the latter part of the novel, could this in fact be a Xmas novel?

Whatever your reason Fancy Meeting You Here is a fun and thoughtful novel that might also just pair perfectly with some nog and a mince pie!

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today on the show we feature part two of Jennifer Down discussing her new novel Bodies of Light

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Holly has a simple, but happy life. It’s uncomplicated for a reason and Holly would prefer it stay that way.

When a message out of the blue drags Holly into her past, she is shaken. She felt she had escaped, buried the ghosts and become a new person. No one should know who Maggie is but now Holly is faced with the woman she used to be.

Trauma is rarely far from the surface and we are thrown into Maggie’s life to revisit all the events that have brought her to where she is today and once caused her to disappear.

Join me as we discover Jennifer Down ’s Bodies of Light...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Jennifer Down discussing her new novel Bodies of Light

Today on the show...

Holly has a simple, but happy life. It’s uncomplicated for a reason and Holly would prefer it stay that way.

When a message out of the blue drags Holly into her past, she is shaken. She felt she had escaped, buried the ghosts and become a new person. No one should know who Maggie is but now Holly is faced with the woman she used to be.

Trauma is rarely far from the surface and we are thrown into Maggie’s life to revisit all the events that have brought her to where she is today and once caused her to disappear.

Join me as we discover Jennifer Down ’s Bodies of Light...

Jennifer Down is the award winning author of Our Magic Hour and Pulse Points. Jennifer is one of my favourite Australian authors and so there was quite a bit of anticipation around her new novel Bodies of Light.

Suffice to say it’s a complex and moving story. This is the sort of book that takes you on a journey and really, if it’s not too much of a cliche to say, you wonder if you’re the same at the end of it.

Maybe I should give you a bit of an idea…

Holly has a simple, but happy life. It’s uncomplicated for a reason and Holly would prefer it stay that way.

When a message out of the blue drags Holly into her past, she is shaken. She felt she had escaped, buried the ghosts and become a new person. No one should know who Maggie is but now Holly is faced with the woman she used to be.

Trauma is rarely far from the surface and we are thrown into Maggie’s life to revisit all the events that have brought her to where she is today and once caused her to disappear.

Bodies of Light is a complex and painstakingly realised portrait of a woman. While it is true for any life, in Maggie we see the myriad tragedies and small joys that have dragged up from childhood, through adolescence to become an adult.

I barely feel I can talk about these events. There is certainly an element of spoiling the narrative, but really what we are privy to in Bodies of Light is so personal, so complex that it doesn’t feel like my story to just blurt out on air.

Maggie’s story and the road she has taken to become Holly; far from her beginnings and without a shred or the person she once was, is more than we would ever wish to know about a friend or acquaintance. In giving us such detail Jennifer Down is inviting us to look at Maggie’s world, her actions and their consequences and understand that people always have their reasons.

I’ll admit there were times while reading that I wanted to look away. But then we live in a world that makes it easy to get distracted, to look away when the trauma gets too much.

In fictionalising a life Down has provided the reader space to inhabit the world. Into this space she explores the world of out-of-home, the impacts of childhood trauma and the ways these formative experiences impact our adult selves.

I remember reading early reviewers and social media responses to Bodies of Light and Jennifer Down responding that maybe this book was a heavy outing while we were all going through, or gradually coming out of lockdowns. But I think that this is just the sort of book to shake us after we’ve all had the time to explore (or avoid) ourselves at such a granular level.

This is a book I’ll need to come back to. Not everything can, or should be quick and simple to understand. I started off saying there was some anticipation for me in the arrival of Bodies of Light and I think best ending by replying that the anticipation was worth it ...

Dr Denise Chapman is a counternarrative storyteller, digital media-creator, and spoken word artist who lectures in children’s literature and early literacy at Monash University.

Here on Final Draft each week I speak with Australian writers and we explore the ways their stories reflect, explode or are just in conversation with our everyday world. A central thesis is that stories play an integral role in the ways we make sense of our world.

Dr Denise Chapman joins us to discuss why representation in literature matters and challenge us to think about what it means when you can't see yourself in the books you read.

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You can hear the full audio for this and many more conversations from Final Draft on 2ser 107.3. Just search for Final Draft 2ser on social media and wherever you get your podcasts.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Inga Simpson discussing her new novel The Last Woman in the World

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Rachel leads a reclusive life on the land. She has an art studio where she blows exquisite collectors pieces. Her daily needs are delivered to her and the isolation is both a boon and a protection from a world that has become too overwhelming.

Rachel has cut herself from the daily news cycle of fire, flood and disease. It’s an unchanging litany of destruction that she cannot bear and while the world seemed hellbent on destruction she didn’t expect anything to suddenly change.

Rachel is content in her isolation until one night a young mother and her child come knocking. They shouldn’t be there and their mere presence shatters Rachel’s peace. When Hannah reveals they are on the run that it is all gone, Rachel realises the world has seemingly self-destructed…

Join me as we discover Inga Simpson ’s The Last Woman in the World...

Today I’ve brought you in a novel that completely surprised me. There’s just something about the concept and the realisation... I ultimately came to view the narrative as… well maybe I won’t tell you too much just yet, suffice to say it skirted through so many ideas and narrative twists that the true nature of Inga Simpson’s The Last Woman in the World really crept up on me

Inga Simpson's first novel Mr Wigg came out in 2013. Her second novel Nest was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize. Inga’s latest novel is The Last Woman in the World and it takes us to a place both familiar and shockingly different.

Rachel leads a reclusive life on the land. She has an art studio where she blows exquisite collectors pieces. Her daily needs are delivered to her and the isolation is both a boon and a protection from a world that has become too overwhelming.

Rachel has cut herself from the daily news cycle of fire, flood and disease. It’s an unchanging litany of destruction that she cannot bear and while the world seemed hellbent on destruction she didn’t expect anything to suddenly change.

Rachel is content in her isolation until one night a young mother and her child come knocking. They shouldn’t be there and their mere presence shatters Rachel’s peace. When Hannah reveals they are on the run that it is all gone, Rachel realises the world has seemingly self-destructed…

First off I’d say that Rachel’s retreat may seem very familiar to all of us who have experienced lockdown recently. It surprised me a little when I interviewed INga that this story came from before Covid and was seeking to explore the destruction of the fires as much as any pandemic chaos.

Rachel and Hannah must somehow come together to save Hannah’s baby Isaiah who is sick and far from medical help.

As the three venture out into the world they find the landscape of the high country relatively untouched. It is only when they are around populated areas that they feel the true horror of what the world has become.

When I spoke with Inga Simpson for this week’s Final Draft she told me about the pleasure of the unseen and its ability to truly terrify us by reflecting our own fears…

Inga Simpson’s The Last Women in the World is many things. The untouched landscapes of the early novel are something of a travelogue for the Snowies and set up a strange state of calm. Rachel’s unfolding story offers insight into the toll the world can have on our mental health. As we approach the towns though the true horror emerges and grips the reader with the terror of unknown possibility

But perhaps it is in showing us a world that may just be that the Last Woman in the World serves as a warning and an opportunity to glimpse how close we have come to catastrophe.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features part two of the conversation with Mark Smith discussing his new novel If Not Us and just a warning there are some spoilers for the plot of If Not Us coming up

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The beautiful coastal town of Shelbourne is full of contradictions.

For seventeen year old Hesse it’s the only home he knows. Hesse lives for the waves that break off the myriad banks and reefs along the coast. Hesse works at the local surf shop and doesn’t need much else.

But just outside the town is the Hadron open cut mine and power station. Hadron employs most of the town and they fund all the local sports teams and the surf club.

Hesse hadn’t given much thought to the power station and what it’s putting into the air. His mum’s a nurse and she knows that there’s more than the usual amount of respiratory disease in the local area. Imogen’s also a part of the local climate action group and Hesse is about to learn first hand the dangers to his beloved coast.

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

https://2ser.com/final-draft