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

Today's episode features Madeleine Watts discussing her debut novel The Inland Sea.

The unnamed narrator of The Inland Sea, has recently left the comfort of university with barely a vague plan for what comes next in her life. She falls into a job as an emergency call centre operator. There she listens day in and day out as disasters befall callers around the country. As she jots down these moments in her notepad she becomes fascinated with the kinds of tragedies that fill her world, little realising the impending climate cataclysm awaiting us all.