The Bookshelf

Kate Evans is joined by Bernadette Brennan and Beejay Silcox to talk three striking new releases: Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s Said the Dead, a haunting, archive-rich exploration of a derelict Irish asylum; Chloe Wilson’s The Thornbacks, a darkly comic debut of morticians, dating apps and unsettling female entanglements; and Deborah Levy’s My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein, a playful meditation on literary life in Paris. 

~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Amitav Ghosh, Ghost-Eye
• Susan Choi, Flashlight
•  S.A. Cosby, works
• Doireann Ní Ghríofa, A Ghost in the Throat
•  Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
• Angela Carter, Wise Children
• Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides
• Daisy Johnson, Sisters
• Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects
• Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister the Serial Killer
• Deborah Levy, works
• Kim Scott, Benang
• Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
• Francesca Wade, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
• Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas 
• Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain, Bone Horn
• Erin Vincent. Fourteen Ways of Looking
• Claire Thomas, On Not Climbing Mountains
• Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House
• Chloe Wilson, Hold Your Fire
• Robin Robertson, The Long Take
• Joseph Furphy, Such is Life
• Elizabeth Jolley, works

~ CREDITS

• Presenter: Kate Evans
• Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett
• Sound: Antonia Gauci
• Arts editor: Rhiannon Brown

The Bookshelf comes to you from a sold out session at Sydney Writers’ Festival, for a conversation that brings together an exceptional line-up: acclaimed novelist and poet Tony Birch, Miles Franklin Award-winning author Siang Lu, and internationally celebrated writer Lily King. Together, with Cassie, Kate and special guest Claire Nichols from The Book Show, they mark the launch of ABC Radio National’s 2026 Top 100 Books countdown, this year turning the spotlight on the very best of Australian writing, fiction and non-fiction, across all time.

~ ABC RADIO NATIONAL TOP 100 AUSTRALIAN BOOKS COUNTDOWN

~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY LILY KING

• Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds
• Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus; The Evening of the Holiday
• Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection
• Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children

~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY TONY BIRCH

• William Dick, A Bunch of Ratbags
• Ruth Park, works
• Colin Johnson, Wild Cat Falling
• Kenneth Cook, Wake in Fright
• Frank Hardy, Power Without Glory
• Peter Carey, American Dreams; Crabs
• Pi O, 24 Hours: Ulysses in Fitzroy

~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY SIANG LU

• Nam Le, The Boat
• Michael Winkler, Grimmish
• Peter Carey, The True History of the Kelly Gang
• Helen Garner, Monkey Grip
• Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional

~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY CASSIE MCCULLAGH

• Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career
• Peter Temple, Broken Shore
• Peter Carey, The Fat Man in History

~  BOOKS MENTIONED BY KATE EVANS

• Ethel Turner, Seven Little Australians
• Florence James and Dymphna Cusack, Come in Spinner
• Peter Carey, Illywhacker; Oscar and Lucinda

~ BOOKS MENTIONED BY CLAIRE NICHOLS

• The Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book
• Mem Fox, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald
• Kim Scott, works
• Tim Winton, works
• Josephine Wilson, Extinctions

~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED 

• Tim Winton, Cloudstreet
• Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe
• Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore
• Sally Morgan, My Place
• Archie Roach, Tell Me Why
• Jimmy Barnes, Working Class Boy
• Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don’t Take Your Love to Town
• Thea Astley, works
• Helen Garner, The Children's Bach; The Spare Room
• Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
• Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North; Question 7
• Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black
• Shankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens
• Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow
• Andrew McGahan, Praise
• Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
• Robbie Arnott, Limberlost
• Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
• Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding
• A.B. Facey, A Fortunate Life
• David Malouf, Johnno 
• Jane Harper, The Dry

~ CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Claire Nichols
• Producer, Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett
• Sound, Harvey O'Sullivan
• Arts Editor, Rhiannon Brown

We head by rackety ferry to Scotland in John of John, the latest, quietly devastating novel from Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart. Henry Lawson reimagined - brawling poets, strange tunnels, time loops, and a warped tussle between city and bush in Wayne Marshall’s Henry Goes Bush, reviewed by You Am I's Tim Rogers. From there, novelist Madeleine Gray turns her eye to Lena Dunham’s sharp, self‑aware memoir Famesick, before moving to Ellena Savage’s The Ruiners, which shifts between a Melbourne lobster shack and a smoke‑wreathed Greek island.

~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Norman Lindsay, Bohemians of the Bulletin
• Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow
• Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist: Essays
• Lena Dunham, Not That Kind of Girl
• Joan Didion, works
• Eve Babitz, works
• Ellena Savage, Blueberries
• Charles Dickens, works
• Charmian Clift, works
• George Johnston, works
• Michael Winkler, Griefdogg
• Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch
• Colum McCann, Apeirogon
• Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name
• Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• James Bailey, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark
• Lee Lai, Cannon

~ CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Roi Huberman
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

This week’s Bookshelf features the latest from Elizabeth Strout, creator of Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, returning with a stand‑alone novel called The Things We Never Say. We’re also reading an ambitious, genre‑bending novel that moves from 1980s gaming culture to far‑future space travel, and Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director, a German novel in translation that explores film, power and propaganda. Joining us to review are Geordie Williamson - critic, publisher and writer; and Robert Forster - singer‑songwriter, founding member of The Go‑Betweens, memoirist and brand new novelist with Songwriters on the Run.

~ REVIEWERS

• Robert Forster and Geordie Williamson

~ BOOKS

• Daniel Kehlmann, The Director (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin), Riverrun
• Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say, Viking Penguin  
• Portia Elan, Homebound, Chatto & Windus
• Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear, Fourth Estate 

~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Daniel Kehlmann, works
• Elizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy Barton
• The Boundless Deep, Richard Holmes
• Johnno, David Malouf
• Keeley Jobe, The Endling
• Ana Paula Maia, On Earth as It Is Beneath

~ CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound, Craig Tilmouth and Roi Huberman
• Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

In this episode, superstar reviewer Hannah Kent tackles the rugged terrain of a journey that edges towards the Tibetan border in Deepa Anappara's The Last of Earth, and theatre writer Tom Wright ponders extraterrestrial encounters in Amanda Lohrey's new one, Capture. Plus, Kate and Cassie take a look at two titles on the International Booker Prize shortlist, from France and Bulgaria, one follows a not‑very‑successful witch who weeps tears of blood; and the other is the story of a woman in Albania who switches genders through an ancient ritual.

~ BOOKS 

• Marie NDiaye, The Witch, translated from the French by Jordan Stump, MacLehose Press 
• Rene Karabash, She Who Remains, translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel, Peirene Press 
• Deepa Anappara, The Last of Earth, One World 
• Amanda Lohrey, Capture, Text

~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• David Malouf, works
• Chloe Dalton, Raising Hare
• Laura McPhee Brown, Worry Doll 
• Ranginui Walker, Struggle Without End 
• Patricia Walker, Potiki 
• Cameron Sullivan, The Red Winter

~ CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Bella Tropiano and Hamish Camilleri
• Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown 

This week The Bookshelf leans into the wild as Kate Evans and guests are circled by stories of wolves, wild boar and witches, along with the final year of celebrated poet Sylvia Plath and a sensual story of food and obsession from Japan. Kate is joined by regular guests, the novelist, poet and Professor of Australian literature Tony Birch; and critic Beejay Silcox, who arrives fresh from the U.K. ready to talk literary pilgrimages and bookish souvenirs. Plus, a bonus discussion on this year's Stella Prize shortlist.

~ BOOKS REVIEWED

• Inga Simpson, Once We Were Wildlife: Stories, Hachette
• Sarah Walker, The Water Takes, Summit Books
• Asako Yuzuki, Hooked, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton, Fourth Estate
• Helen Bain, The Daffodil Days, Bloomsbury
• Sally O’Reilly, Hagtale, Scribe

~ 2026 Stella Prize shortlist

• Evelyn Araluen, The Rot, UQP
• Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days, Hachette
• Miranda Darling, Fireweather, Scribe
• Lee Lai, Cannon, Giramondo
• Marika Sosnowski, 58 Facets: On violence and the Law, Melbourne University Press  
• Tasma Walton, I am Nannertgarrook, Simon & Schuster

NOTE: the winner will be announced on 13 May 

~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Ian McEwan, What We Can Know
• Cormac McCarthy, The Road
• Kim Scott, Dead Man Dance
• John Higgs, Lynchian: The Spell of David Lynch
• Asako Yuzuki, Butter
• Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs
• Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman; Earthlings
• Emi Yagi, Diary of a Void
• Colum McCann, works
• Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13
• Guillaume Lecasble, Lobster 
• Lucie Rico, Fowl Eulogies
• Robin Robertson, The Long Take
• Jenni Fagan, The Delusions
• James Alistair Henry, Pagans
• Laurie Colwin, Shine On Bright and Dangerous Object
• Tracy Chevalier, Burning Bright 

~ CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound, Roi Huberman and Tegan Nicholls
• Arts Editor, Rhiannon Brown

In this episode, Kate and Cassie are joined by celebrated novelist Madeleine Gray and rock icon Tim Rogers for a wide-ranging discussion looking at three works of contemporary fiction: Indian writer Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost Eye, a meditation on reincarnation and climate change; Australian writer and musician Edwina Preston’s Sororicidal, a sharp novel of sisterhood and rivalry; and English stylist Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House, a disquieting portrait of modern life in London.

BOOKS

• Amitav Ghosh, Ghost-Eye (John Murray)
• Edwina Preston, Sororicidal (Picador)
• Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House (Picador)

REVIEWERS

• Madeleine Gray — writer and critic, author of Green Dot and Chosen Family
• Tim Rogers — singer‑songwriter, actor and writer; frontman of You Am I and the Hard‑Ons, currently on a solo tour

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Britney Spears memoir
• Sinéad O'Connor, memoir
• Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
• Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
• Edwina Preston, Not Just a Suburban Boy; Bad Art Mother
• Simon Mason, DI Wilkins Mysteries
• Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs
• Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore
• Wayne Marshall, Henry Goes Bush
• Larry McMurtry, works
• Joe Boyd, And The Roots of Rhythm Remain

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound, Antonia Gauci and Micky Grossman
• Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Memory, lost conversations and almost-fathers-and sons in Ben Lerner's Transcription; children divided by the throw of a dice, and that's just the start of it, in Steve Toltz's A Rising of the Lights; no such thing as unskilled labour, in Siân Hughes' No Such Thing as Monday, where a woman works as a drycleaner, trying desperately to rid herself of the stains of her childhood; new crime releases, and an Australian in Hollywood is reconsidered. Kate and Cassie with reviewers Michael Robotham and Geordie Williamson.

BOOKS

Ben Lerner, Transcription, Granta

Steve Toltz, A Rising of the Lights, Penguin

Siân Hughes, No Such Thing as Monday, Penguin

Tana French, The Keeper, Viking Penguin

Candice Fox, Redbelly Crossing, Penguin

Patricia A. O'Brien, Errol Flynn: The true story of Australia's Hollywood Icon, Allen & Unwin

[Keep scrolling for other books and writers mentioned in the discussion]

GUESTS

Michael Robotham is an internationally-acclaimed crime writer whose books include the Joseph O'Loughlan and Evie Cormac series. His latest novel is The White Crow — and his next one, Tell Me Something True, will be his first to be set in Australia

Geordie Wiliamson is a literary critic, writer and publisher at Picador, whose books include a critical study of Alexis Wright in the Black Inc Writers on Writers series; and The Burning Library — on neglected Australian writers

Other books mentioned in the discussion

Karl Ove Knausgård, works

Rachel Cusk, works

W G Sebald, works

Alexander Kluge, works

David Foster Wallace, works

Jonathan Franzen, works

Wallace Stevens, works

Les Murray, works

Saul Bellow, works

Philip Roth, works

P D James, works

Agatha Christie, works

Sam Twyford-Moore, Cast Mates: Australian Actors in Hollywood and at Home

CREDITS

• Presenters: Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producers: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett, Tracey Trompf
• Sound Engineers: Craig Tilmouth, Roi Huberman
• A/ Arts Editor: Sarah Corbett

What does it mean to write using an 'ethical imagination'? Colum McCann onstage with Kate Evans at the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival, on his novels Twist, Apeirogon, TransAtlantic, Let the Great World Spin and many more; and his work with the social justice storytelling movement, Narrative Four.

• Presenter/ Producer: Kate Evans
• Sound Engineers: Simon Branthwaite, Antonia Gauci
• Acting Arts Editor: Sarah L'Estrange

This week The Bookshelf revisits the Trojan War from the ground up in Yann Martel’s Son of Nobody, moves through friendship and loss in Debra Adelaide’s When I Am Sixty‑Four, and dives into queer Sydney in the 1940s with Fiona Kelly McGregor’s The Trap. 

BOOKS

• Fiona Kelly McGregor, The Trap, Picador
• Debra Adelaide, When I Am Sixty-Four, UQP
• Yann Martel, Son of Nobody, Text

GUESTS

• Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Artistic Associate, Belvoir Theatre
• Hannah Kent, novelist, scriptwriter and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, Devotion and Always Home Always Homesick

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet
• Delia Falconer, works
• Peter Cornell, The Ways of Paradise 
• Ingrid Horrocks, All Her Lives: Nine Stories

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound, Craig Tilmouth and Hamish Camilleri
• Arts editor, Sarah L'Estrange