Kobo in Conversation

Nathan spoke with novelist Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of the 2012 international bestseller Secret Daughter. Her new book is A Great Country. It's about the Shah family, recently moved to the well-to-do neighbourhood of Pacific Hills. While Ashok and Priya catch up with friends at a dinner party one Saturday evening, their children are each, separately, experiencing things that will leave their family forever changed.

Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of A Great Country

Michael spoke with journalist Michael Finkel, author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, and The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit as well as numerous articles about extreme places and unlikely people for Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, GQ, and the New York Times Magazine. His latest book The Art Thief is the story of Stéphane Breitwieser, a man whose theft of over 200 artworks from the sleepy museums of central Europe showed a singular obsession for possessing works of art that grab his attention—and the talent to bring them home.

Journalist Michael Finkel on seeing through the eyes of The Art Thief

Nathan spoke with novelist Kiley Reid, author of the 2020 novel, Such a Fun Age. Her new book, Come and Get It is set on the campus of the University of Arkansas, specifically at a dormitory called Belgrade, and it follows Millie Cousins, a 24-year-old Resident Advisor or RA to folks familiar with dorm life, who's launching a second run at the final year of her degree after taking time off to look after her mother, while quietly inching towards buying a little house.

Kiley Reid on writing realistically about people and money

Nathan spoke with Dr Jen Gunter, OB/GYN and bestselling author of several books on health, anatomy, and medicine: The Vagina Bible, The Menopause Manifesto, and most recently a new book called Blood: The science, medicine, and mythology of menstruation.

Dr. Jen Gunter on writing books about bodies for people

Nathan spoke with R. F. Kuang, author of the epic historical fantasy trilogy The Poppy War, as well as the 2022 novel, also a work of historical fantasy called Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution.

R. F. Kuang's latest novel is Yellowface. It's the story of June Hayward and Athena Liu, a pair of writers on the rise—one of whom is rising significantly faster than the other, until a fatal freak accident leaves the survivor holding an unfinished manuscript and facing a very tempting proposition.

R. F. Kuang on seeing herself in Yellowface

Michael spoke with R.H. Thomson: actor, director, playwright, and author of By The Ghost Light: Wars, Memory, and Families. Part memoir, part travelogue, part history, it's a thoughtful and impassioned consideration of war and the stories we tell one another about it

R.H. Thomson on viewing wars by the light of family history

In January of 2023 our host and producer Nathan Maharaj spoke with Kai Thomas, author of the novel In the Upper Country. It's a story set in the fictional Canadian town of Dunmore, a place where people fleeing slavery in the southern United States build new lives.

In our roundup of the best books we read in 2023, Nathan called out In the Upper Country as the book that stayed with him the whole year and which he most wants to read again. And this past November, In the Upper Country won the 2023 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. So for all of those reasons, plus it's Black History Month, we're replaying that conversation for you.

We'll be back with all-new episodes soon.

Nathan spoke with novelist Ashley Audrain, author of the 2021 international bestseller The Push. Her new book The Whispers is a story about marriage, mothers and motherhood and parenthood generally, and also women's rage.

Ashley Audrain on bringing rage from the group chat to the page

You can't possibly need more reading recommendations after our last episode featuring the best books read by the staff of Kobo in 2023 but we've never let the height of anybody's TBR pile stop us from singing the praises of our favourite books. Here are a few more, including one you absolutely must read ASAP—plus co-hosts Michael and Nathan talk about what made 2023 a different kind of year in books and why they're optimistic about what's coming next. The best books we read in 2023

We connected with the staff of Kobo over Zoom and in our brand new studio in our new office to ask them about the best books they read in 2023. We learned what made Rebecca Ross a must-read author this year, how one staff member found the right book for remembering his rockstar friend, and what well-known series of thrillers one of our best-read colleagues wishes they'd gotten around to years ago. The best books we read in 2023