Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, speaks this week to the award-winning writer, Elif Shafak, about her new novel - There Are Rivers In The Sky - and explores its connections to three other literary works. The new book spans centuries and moves from London to Turkey to Iraq as it follows three characters all connected by a single drop of water that once fell as rain in the ancient "land between rivers" that was Mesopotamia. For her three influencing texts Elif chose: the ancient odyssey believed to be around four thousand years old, The Epic of Gilgamesh; Orlando by Virginia Woolf from 1928; and The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness by Amy-Jane Beer from 2023.

Recorded at the Hay-on-Wye Books Festival, the supporting contributor for this episode was the first ever national poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis, whose latest works include the memoir Nightshade Mother, and a new poetry collection entitled First Rain In Paradise.

Producer: Dom Howell

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, speaks to the writer Andrew Miller about his novel, The Land In Winter, and explores its connections to three other literary works. Recorded in front of an audience at the Hay-on-Wye books festival, the supporting contributor for this episode is the writer Joanne Harris. Andrew's new novel centres on two married couples recently relocated to the farmlands of the West Country as the record-breaking British winter, known as The Big Freeze of 1963, takes hold. For his three influencing texts Andrew chose: The Light Years by James Salter (1975); Gerald's Party by Robert Coover (1986); and Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer (1958).

Producer: Dom Howell

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Take Four Books presents Open, Heaven, the debut novel from Seán Hewitt - an award-winning poet renowned for his critically acclaimed 2022 memoir of heartbreak and queer identity, All Down Darkness Wide.

Open, Heaven is a tale of suppressed adolescent desire set in the pastoral surroundings of rural northern England. In this episode, Seán reflects on three literary influences that shaped his novel: The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley, Maurice by E. M. Forster, and The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien.

The supporting contributor is author and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton, Dr Bea Hitchman.

There is also an extract from The Go-Between audiobook, narrated by Sean Barrett and published by Naxos AudioBooks.

Producer: Rachael O’Neill

In this episode of Take Four Books James Crawford is joined by the multi-award winning  Vietnamese-American poet and author, Ocean Vuong. Together with the writer and editor Heather Parry, they discuss Ocean’s latest novel - ‘The Emperor of Gladness’ - and three key influences behind its creation.

Set in the fictional town of East Gladness Connecticut in the early years of the 21st century, the ‘Emperor of Gladness’ is centred on nineteen-year-old Hai, and the unlikely bond he forms with with Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. This vivid, poetic epic explore loss, hope, class and the power of human connection in the post-industrial opioid infused margins of the American Dream.

Ocean’s literary influences include, 'The Brothers Karamazov'by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 'The Town and the City' by Jack Kerouac, and 'Class Fictions' by Pamela Fox.

Producer: Elizabeth Ann Duffy

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production, made in Glasgow.

Booker-prize winning writer and poet Ben Okri talks to Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, about his new novella - Madame Sosostris & the Festival for the Broken-Hearted - and its three key influences. Ben's new book takes us to a forested chateau in the South of France for a special, one-night-only event – a fevered fancy dress ball attended by anyone, and everyone, who has been wounded by love. His three literary influences for this episode are: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot from 1922 ; Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare from 1600; and The Outsider by Albert Camus from 1942. Our rule-breaking bonus book, was Alain-Fournier’s Les Grand Meaulnes, known as The Lost Estate in English and originally published in 1913.

The supporting contributor for this episode was the Oxford academic and writer Emma Smith.

Producer: Dominic Howell

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, speaks to the writer Vincenzo Latronico on his new novel Perfection - which has been shortlisted for the International Man Booker prize - and explores its connections to three other literary works. Perfection (translated by Sophie Hughes) follows the lives of millennial expat couple Anna and Tom, who work as digital creatives, and seek to live out, what should be, their dream existence in a chic flat in Berlin filled with flea market furniture and house plants, and yet an undefinable feeling of unfulfillment gnaws away. For his three influences Vincenzo chose: Things: A Story Of The Sixties by Georges Perec from 1965; Wilful Disregard by the Swedish author Lena Andersson from 2013; and No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood from 2021.

The supporting contributor for this episode was the Italian writer and translator Claudia Durastanti, author of Strangers I Know.

Producer: Dominic Howell

This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

This week, Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, talks to the British-Chinese writer Xiaolu Guo about her new novel - Call Me Ishmaelle - which reinterprets Herman Melville's mighty Moby Dick story and follows the protagonist of Ishmaelle, a woman who sneaks onto a whaling ship disguised as a man. For her three influencing texts Xiaolu chose: Moby Dick by Herman Melville from 1851; Philip Hoare's Leviathan from 2009; and Othello by William Shakespeare (first performed in 1604).

The supporting contributor for this episode was the literary editor and founder of the independent publisher thi wurd - Alan McMunnigall.

Producer: Dom Howell

Three-times Booker nominated Scottish author Andrew O’Hagan tells us about his novel, Caledonian Road, and reveals three other works that inspired its creation.

This state-of-the-nation novel follows 60 characters over the course of a chaotic, post-pandemic year, focussing on protagonist Campbell Flynn as his life slowly unravels before his eyes.

Andrew O’Hagan’s chosen influences were The Princess Casamassima by Henry James; The Idea of Order at Key West by Wallace Stevens; and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.

The supporting contributor is contemporary novelist Katie Ward.

Producer: Rachael O’Neill

This week on Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, the Northern Irish writer Eoin McNamee talks about how he fictionalised elements of his own life for his new novel - The Bureau - which centres around a backstreet Bureau de Change that becomes a money laundering operation, frequented by rogue lawyers, crooked policemen, criminal gangs and two doomed lovers – Paddy and Lorraine. The book fictionalises real characters and events including a kidnapping that took place in Eoin's own family. During the course of the episode Eoin explores his new book's connections to three other literary works. His choices were: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote from 1966; The Glass Essay by Anne Carson published in 1995; and Milkman by Anna Burns from 2018.

The supporting contributor for this episode was the award-winning writer Louise Kennedy.

Producer: Dominic Howell

Booker-shortlisted writer David Szalay talks to presenter James Crawford on Take Four Books this week about his new novel, Flesh, and the three other works that inspired its creation in some way. In a pared back style, Flesh, follows the life of its protagonist, István, who at fifteen years old has an affair with an older woman, the consequences of which leave a lasting impression on his life. After finishing up in the army, István leaves Hungary and moves to London, where he ends up becoming accustomed to a vast amount of wealth and luxury, but circumstances change yet again, and he returns to the place where it all began, unable to shake off the emotional weight of his experiences. For his three influences David chose: Ultraluminous by Katherine Faw published in 2017; Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf from 1922; and Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad from 1900.

The supporting contributor for this episode was the writer and creative writing lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, Andrew Meehan.

Producer: Dominic Howell

This is a BBC AUDIO SCOTLAND production.