The Book Show

Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle returns to the character Paula Spencer who first appeared in his fiction in the 1990s, we visit author of The Wedding Forecast Nina Kenwood in her seaside childhood home and Michelle de Kretser pushes the boundaries of fiction in Theory and Practice.   

Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist and Booker Prize winner (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha). His latest novel is the last in a trio of books that he began almost 30 years ago. In 1996 he published The Woman Who Walked into Doors, where he introduced the character of Paula Spencer. Paula was a young woman living with a violent husband. He brought her back in the 2006 novel, named, Paula Spencer. Now she and her daughter Nicola are back in The Women Behind the Door. Roddy speaks about why writing difficult conversations is so satisfying as a novelist.

Australian rom-com author Nina Kenwood takes The Book Show to her childhood home in the Victorian seaside village of Queenscliffe where her love of reading and writing was fostered. Nina explains why the main character in her latest novel, The Wedding Forecast is also a writer and how Nina focuses as much on getting the comedy right as the romance in her fiction.

Michelle de Kretser is a two-time winner of the Miles Franklin literary award and is one of our country's most celebrated authors. Lately, Michelle has been set on redefining what exactly a novel can be. Theory and Practice is advertised as a novel but its narrator bears a strong resemblance to the author. Is it a novel, a memoir or something else altogether?

This year's winner of the Booker Prize is British author Samantha Harvey for her fifth novel, Orbital. The Booker judges were unanimous in their decision.

Orbital is set in the International Space Station and takes a bird's eye view of the earth as it orbits the world over a 24 hour period. The reader meets six astronauts and cosmonauts as they grapple with big questions of family, faith and grief, as well as mundane matters of domestic life in the space station.

Samantha Harvey spoke to The Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange about her long running interest in space and how she wanted to write about it "as our one remaining wilderness".

Here is more information about the award winning book. 

Australian crime writer Garry Disher has been writing for almost 50 years but has only recently been able to make a living and now he's published his 60th book, Sanctuary. Emily Maguire explores the medieval urban legend of a female pope in Rapture and in his novel, This Kingdom of Dust, David Dyer imagines what might've happened if the Apollo 11 mission didn't go to plan.

Australian crime-writing legend, Garry Disher has just published his 60th book in a career that ranges over four decades and began at a time when the cultural cringe towards Australian crime fiction meant it wasn't as popular as it is today. His latest novel Sanctuary draws on a side character, Grace, from his Peninsula Crime novels, that he couldn't let go. Garry shares how his love of writing began in childhood when his father told nightly bedtime stories with cliff hangers.

David Dyer's first novel, The Midnight Watch, was about the tragedy of the Titanic, and his second novel takes up another iconic event of the 20th century, the 1969 moon landing. In This Kingdom of Dust David imagines an alternative ending for the Apollo 11 mission. 

Australian author Emily Maguire's latest novel, Rapture, is a work of historical fiction and is a sharp turn for Emily, who has made her name with contemporary novels, including Love Objects and her Miles Franklin shortlisted novel, An Isolated Incident. Rapture takes up the story of Joan, the female Pope. According to the legend, Pope Joan disguised herself as a man, followed a lover to a monastery and ended up rising to the throne of St Peter.

For the first time in a decade, an Australian writer, Charlotte Wood has made the Booker Prize shortlist with her novel Stone Yard Devotional. Hear from Charlotte and the other shortlisted writers, including Rachel Kushner and Percival Everett, and find out who we think will win.

The Booker Prize is the most prestigious writing prize in the English speaking world and is open to books written in English, and published in England or Ireland in the last year. The winner takes home £50000 and expect a life-changing increase in book sales.

Claire Nichols and Sarah L'Estrange speak to all of the shortlisted authors:

James by Percival Everett

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Held by Anne Michaels

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

The winner of the Booker Prize will be announced on November 13, Australian time.

A wild puma stalks through Robbie Arnott's haunting new novel, Dusk, Fiona McFarlane's homage to true crime podcasts in Highway 13 and Malcolm Knox raises the stakes in a Soviet era political thriller, The First Friend.

Australian author Robbie Arnott has published four novels, and two of them — The Rain Heron and Limberlost — have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. His latest novel, Dusk, is a Western and it's about two siblings who are on the trail of a wild puma that's been terrorising local graziers. Robbie tells Claire about his fascination with the natural world and why he aims to capture animals "as they are, not what we want them to be".

Highway 13 is a crime novel with a difference, it's about the ripple effects of a serial killer's crimes - but not the crime itself - and is the fourth book by Australian born, US based author Fiona McFarlane. It's loosely based on the case of Australian serial killer Ivan Milat but is structured as interlinked stories about the murderer's former neighbours, the sister of his former wife and the brother of one of his victims. There's even a story written in the style of a true crime podcast. 

Malcolm Knox is an award winning Australian journalist and novelist and his latest book The First Friend is a Soviet era satirical thriller. It draws on Malcolm's own interest in Russian fiction and history. It's a lesson in how to raise the literary stakes for fictional characters. 

Tim Winton explains his urgency for writing about climate change in his new novel Juice, beware the evil eye in Matia, the debut novel of West Australian writer Emily Tsokos Purtill and singer-songwriter turned novelist, Nardi Simpson, explains the ambition of her second novel The Belburd.

Tim Winton shares the anger and frustration that compelled him to write his latest novel Juice. It's set in a future north Australia where resources are scarce and people are scarred by the sun and spend months living underground to escape the heat. He reflects on the sense of urgency he feels around climate change and the role of fiction to address big topics. This is what Radio National critics had to say about Juice.

From a West Australian literary veteran to a debut novelist, Claire Nichols visits Emily Tsokos Purtill in Perth. Emily's novel Matia tracks four generations of Greek-Australian women, and the dark prophecy that hangs over all of them.

Nardi Simpson is a singer-songwriter turned novelist. Her award winning debut was Song of the Crocodile and her new book The Belburd is similarly ambitious. In one story strand there's a young poet in modern-day Australia and in the other is a sprite swimming through a cosmic ocean with the mythical Mother Eel.

Former Booker Prize winner Pat Barker grapples with the lot of Cassandra in her latest Ancient Greek novel, The Voyage Home and Life After Life author, Kate Atkinson, returns to her famous character Jackson Brodie in Death at the Sign of The Rook. Plus debut novelist Raeden Richardson on the importance of Melbourne's iconic Degraves Street in The Degenerates.

Booker Prize winner Pat Barker is renowned for her World War One Regeneration trilogy. Her latest series draws on the mythology of the Ancient Greek Trojan War (Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy) to re-imagine the lives of the women often sidelined in these myths. The latest, The Voyage Home, inhabits the plight of prophetess Cassandra, who's destined to never be believed. Pat reflects on the urgency she feels to write and why she's drawn to the tragedy of Clytemnestra.

Kate Atkinson is another legend of British fiction who's celebrated for her books Life After Life, A God in Ruins and Transcription. Kate also writes crime fiction and has released the sixth novel in her Jackson Brodie series, Death at the Sign of The Rook. It's set at a manor house where a murder mystery show is underway. She tells Claire how a character she imagined 20 years ago finally made it into this book. 

Melbourne author Raeden Richardson describes his debut novel The Degenerates as a love letter to the city. It's about a woman known as Mother Pulse who gives new life to the stories of social outcasts. Raeden takes The Book Show to the iconic Degraves Street, one of the key landmarks in the book and explains how its multi layered history influenced the story.

British author Onyi Nwabineli explores the scars of a child influencer in Allow Me to Introduce Myself, Ella Baxter writes back to her stalker in Woo Woo, and Melanie Cheng's The Burrow, a gentle novel about grief and a rabbit. 

Onyi Nwabineli is a British novelist who tackles the minefield of mumfluencers and child stars in her second novel, Allow Me to Introduce Myself. It's about former child influencer, Anuri, who's now 25 and still dealing with the legacy of her childhood being shared on social media.

Australian visual artist and author Ella Baxter writes back to her stalker in her second novel Woo Woo (her first was New Animal), about a visual artist who confronts her stalker in the most powerful way she knows, through her art.

The Burrow is the latest novel by Melbourne writer and GP Melanie Cheng, and follows her award winning books Australia Day and Room for a Stranger. The Burrow is about a grieving family who bring a rabbit into their home. Will it be a witness to a family healing or to a family falling further apart?

Today we take to you to two writers festivals: In Perth, Laura Jean McKay, Laurie Steed and Chemutai Glasheen reflect on what it means to bring their convictions to the page, and by the seaside in Sorrento, Victoria, poet, essayist and short story writer Nam Le retraces his roots as a storyteller.

At the Perth Festival Writers Weekend, Claire Nichols spoke to three authors whose recent short story collections unapologetically focus on their respective passions. Laura Jean McKay writes about non-human animals in her collection Gunflower and in her Miles Franklin shortlisted novel The Animals in That Country. Kenyan born, WA based writer Chemutai Glasheen's collection of young adult short stories, I Am the Mau, explores human rights and life in Africa. And Perth based author, Laurie Steed focuses on relationships and male vulnerability in his collection Greater City Shadows.

And at the Sorrento Writers Festival, Sarah L'Estrange spoke to writer Nam Le about his collection of poetry 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem as well as his writing journey and how he wrote his celebrated short story collection, The Boat (2008).

Bestselling author of Leave the World Behind, Rumaan Alam explores money obsession in his novel Entitlement, plus Jock Serong gets magical in Cherrywood and writer-doctor Jumaana Abdu's debut novel, Translations.

American author, Rumaan Alam's bestselling last book, Leave the World Behind, was adapted to the screen starring Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke. His new book is Entitlement and while it explores themes of power, race and class it also begs us to ask ourselves "does money really buy happiness?" Set in New York, it's about a young, middle class black woman, who's hired to help an old rich white man give away his billions. Rumaan also reflects on what the success of Leave the World Behind has given him as a writer.

Australian author Jock Serong's seventh novel Cherrywood is a mystery touched with a hint of magic and is a divergence from his previous, heavily researched fiction about Bass Strait and Australia's colonial past (The Settlement, Perseverance and The Burning Island). Cherrywood is a story about trees, love and grand follies and is a braided narrative about an early 20th century Scottish industrialist and a successful (but miserable) lawyer in 1990s Melbourne.

Doctor-turned-writer, Jumaana Abdu's debut novel, Translations, is about a woman who wants a small, quiet life but who discovers life doesn't always work out as planned. Jumaana explains how she wrote the novel while she was studying medicine and also, how Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was an inspiration.