What does the 2024 Miles Franklin shortlist tell us about our shared imagination? Bernadette Brennan and Geordie Williamson join Kate and Cassie to examine the winner, Alexis Wright's epic novel Praiseworthy, and all the finalists for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.

BOOKS

WINNER:

Alexis Wright, Praiseworthy (Giramondo)

REST OF SHORTLIST:

Hossein Asgari, Only Sound Remains (Puncher & Wattmann)Jen Craig, Wall (Puncher & Wattmann)André Dao, Anam (Hamish Hamilton)Gregory Day, The Bell of the World (Transit Lounge)Sanya Rushdi, Hospital, (Giramondo)

GUESTS

Bernadette Brennan, literary scholar, biographer, and former judge of the Miles Franklin

Geordie Williamson, literary critic and publisher

CREDITS

Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls and Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Bruce Isaacs on weird fiction novelist China Mievelle's The Book of Elsewhere, a genre-bending epic written in collaboration with Hollywood star Keanu Reeves. Plus, guest critic Ailsa Piper on The Echoes by Miles Franklin winning author Evie Wyld...set between London and rural Australia it's part love story, part ghost story, and Kate and Cassie discuss Choice by Booker-shortlisted author Neel Mukherjee, a bleak, powerful and viciously funny novel about a publisher at war with his industry and himself. 

BOOKS

Neel Mukherjee, Choice, Atlantic Books

Evie Wyld, The Echoes, Vintage

Keanu Reeves & China Miéville, The Book of Elsewhere, Del Rey

GUESTS

Ailsa Piper, writer and performer whose latest book is For Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying – and Flying

Bruce Isaacs, Associate Prof of Film Studies at the University of Sydney; and co-host of the podcast Film Versus Film

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

Sarah Winman, Still LifeEdna O'Brien, Girls in Their Married BlissThomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49Alfred Bester, The Stars My DestinationTed Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Tegan Nicholls and Nathan Turnbull
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown 

Award-winning U.S. author Willy Vlautin's The Horse is his poignant new novel about the life of a lonely country musician in Nevada and his chance encounter with a half blind horse. Plus, bookseller David Gaunt reviews Ammar Kalia's A Person Is a Prayer, one family's story of migration from Kenya and India to the UK; and Wellington based critic and curator Claire Mabey looks at Laurence Fearnley's At The Grand Glacier Hotel, which follows a stormy family holiday set on New Zealand's South Island.

BOOKS

Willy Vlautin, The Horse, Faber

Ammar Kalia, A Person is a Prayer, Oldcastle Books

Laurence Fearnley, At the Grand Glacier Hotel, Penguin

GUESTS

David Gaunt, co-owner, Gleebooks, Sydney – independent bookshop [and one of the founding board members of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation]

Claire Mabey, NZ based books editor and critic; founder of Verb Wellington readers and writers festival, co-curator of the writers program at the Aotearoa Festival of the Arts – and she has just written her first novel for children, The Raven’s Eye Runaways

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDPatrick O'Brian, Aubrey–Maturin seriesAnita Brookner, Hotel du LacEvie Wyld, The EchoesKatherine Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John DonneSinead Gleeson, Hagstone

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans  + Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Russell Stapleton
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate Evans and Jonathan Green with guests Pip Williams and Sarah Bailey read Dylin Hardcastle's A Language of Limbs, Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword, Valeria Usala's A Woman in Sardinia and Jean-Baptiste del Amo's The Son of Man. Australian fiction, novels in translation, secrets and violence, cities and regions, queer love and emotional truths, and a hint of fantasy.

BOOKS

Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs, Picador

Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword, Del Ray

Valeria Usala, A Woman in Sardinia (trans from the Italian by Katherine Gregor), Text

Jean-Baptiste del Amo, The Son of Man (trans from the French by Frank Wynne), Text

GUESTS

Pip Williams, writer whose novels include The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho [Adelaide studios]

Sarah Bailey, crime writer whose books include The Dark Lake, The Housemate and – her latest, released in February this year – Body of Lies [Melb studios]

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED:

Shubnam Khan, The Djinn Waits 100 Years

Italo Calvino, If On a Winter's Night a Traveller

J P Pomare, Seventeen Years Later

Frederick Backman's Beartown

Arthuriads (an incomplete list)

Thomas Mallory, Le Morte D'Arthur

Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy (The Crystal Cave etc)

T H White's Once and Future King + series

Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon

Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Guy Gavriel Kay, Fionavar Tapestry/ The Darkest Road trilogy

M K Hume's Merlin Emrys trilogy

Victoria Gosling, Bliss and Blunder

Sophie Keetch, Morgan is my Name

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans + Jonathan Green

• Producer, Kate Evans + James Pattison

• Sound engineer, Roi Huberman + Simon Branthwaite

• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Money, kidnapping, reality TV, politics, corruption, families, love, and betrayal in all three books on this edition of The Bookshelf. Kate Evans and Jonathan Green, with guests Farz Edraki and Johan Gabrielsson, read Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise, Porochistaa Khakpour's Tehrangeles and Patrick Holland's Oblivion. Awfully rich, richly awful.

BOOKS

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Long Island Compromise, Wildfire

Porochistaa Khakpour, Tehrangeles: A Novel, Ultimo Press

Patrick Holland, Oblivion, Transit Lounge

GUESTS

Farz Edraki, Iranian-Australian writer and producer. Presenter of the ABC audio series, 'Days Like These'

Johan Gabrielsson, Swedish-born, Sydney-based filmmaker – and Bookshelf regular

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

Hossein Asgari, Only Sound Remains

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman is in Trouble

Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!

James Joyce, Ulysses

Graham Greene, The Quiet American

Graham Greene, A Burnt-Out Case

Claire Keegan, Walk the Blue Fields

Claire Keegan, Antarctica

James Salter, works

Jonathan Franzen, works

Philip Roth, works

Miranda July, All Fours

Clive James, Poetry Notebook

Niklas Turner Olovzon, Iceberg

The band is back together! Join Cassie and Kate as they head to an island off North America in Julia Phillips’ Bear, plus two Australian novels – Jessie Tu’s The Honeyeater and Finegan Kruckemeyer’s The End and Everything Before It.

BOOKS

Julia Phillips, Bear, Scribe

Jessie Tu, The Honeyeater, Allen & Unwin

Finegan Kruckemeyer, The End and Everything Before It, Text

GUESTS

Tom Wright, theatre writer and literary adaptor; Artistic Associate at Belvoir Theatre

Nicole Abadee, books writer for the Good Weekend, interviewer at festivals, and Board Member, Indigenous Literacy Foundation 

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJulia Phillips, Disappearing EarthJessie Tu, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous ThingBen Okri, The Freedom ArtistRobbie Arnott, Limberlost; The Rain HeronWillem Frederik Hermans, Beyond Sleep Catherine Newman, Sandwich; We All Want Impossible ThingsClare Lombardo, Same as it Ever Was

​CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Russell Stapleton + Beth Stewart
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate Evans is joined by guest host Richard Aedy to discuss Catherine McKinnon's To Sing of War, a novel of love, war and friendship. Plus, two debut novels... Big Time by Jordan Prosser, set in a not-too-distant future Australia where pop music is propaganda, and Evenings and Weekends by Oisin McKenna, set during a heatwave in London as tensions and secrets come to a head over one life-changing weekend.BOOKS

Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War, Fourth Estate

Jordan Prosser, Big Time, UQP

Oisín McKenna, Evenings and Weekends, Fourth Estate

GUESTS

Mark Mordue, poet and music writer/ rock journalist. His books include Boy on Fire – the Young Nick Cave, and the poetry collection Darlinghurst Funeral Rites. He’s also co artistic director of the Addison Road Writers Festival in Sydney

Patrick Carey, writer and digital producer; manages content at the Sydney Theatre Company

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDPaul Lynch, Prophet SongCatherine McKinnon, StorylandKai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, American PrometheusGeorge Orwell, 1984Charles Dickens, Bleak HouseVirginia Woolf, Mrs DallowayAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian RoadJon Fosse, Aliss at the Fire; SeptologyKarl Ove Knausgaard, The Wolves of Eternity J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the RyeMischa Berlinski, Fieldwork Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers; The Mars RoomEric Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans + Richard Aedy
• Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Nathan Turnbull + Beth Stewart
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate Evans returns with guest reviewers to discuss Bruce Pascoe’s Imperial Harvest, an epic of brutality and imperialism; along with Jenny Ackland’s Hurdy Gurdy, a circus saga set in a near-future Australia; and Miranda July’s All Fours, which looks at one woman's quest for a very unique kind of freedom.

BOOKS

Bruce Pascoe, Imperial Harvest, Melbourne Books

Jenny Ackland, Hurdy Gurdy, Allen & Unwin

Miranda July, All Fours, Canongate

GUESTS

Beejay Silcox, writer, critic and literary judge. Artistic Director, Canberra Writers Festival; chair of the Stella Prize 2024

Kate Mildenhall, writer whose latest novel is The Hummingbird Effect

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDMargaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale; Oryx and CrakeJane McGonigal, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything Emily St John Mandel, Station ElevenClaire G. Coleman, Terra NulliusAlexis Wright, PraiseworthyCharlotte Wood, The Natural Way of ThingsNaomi Alderman, The PowerLisa Taddeo, Three WomenDavid Owen Kelly, Host CityScott Alexander Howard, The Other ValleyCatherine McKinnon, To Sing of WarRichard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North Sharlene Allsopp, The Great Undoing

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans
• Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Russell Stapleton + Beth Stewart
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Kate discuss Jenny Erpenbecks' Kairos (winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize) with critic Declan Fry - originally broadcast August 2023 when the book was first published; and interviews with writers A K Blakemore (The Glutton), Daniel Mason (North Woods) and Gretchen Shirm (The Crying Room) by Kate Evans.

BOOKS

• Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann, Granta
• A K Blakemore, The Glutton, Granta
• Daniel Mason, North Woods, John Murray
• Gretchen Shirm, The Crying Room, Transit Lounge.

GUESTS

• Declan Fry, poet, essayist and critic – who regularly reviews for the Age/ SMH, the Guardian and ABC Arts online.
• A K Blakemore, English poet and writer whose novels are The Manningtree Witches and The Glutton
• Daniel Mason, American writer, physician and academic, whose novels include The Piano Tuner, The Winter Soldier, A Registry of my Passage Upon the Earth and North Woods
• Gretchen Shirm, Australian essayist, critic, novelist and shortstory writer whose books are Having Cried Wolf, Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room

CREDITS

• Presenter/ Producer: Kate Evans
• Sound Engineer: Ann-Marie De Bettencor
• Executive Producer: Rhiannon Brown

Cassie and Tom Wright read The Parade by Rachel Cusk, her first since 2018’s Kudos, the final part of the acclaimed Outline trilogy. Once again, Cusk questions the very nature of truth.

James Ley joins to discuss Ceridwen Dovey’s new collection of short stories, Only the Astronauts, which takes us off-planet and into the “lives” of the objects that humans have sent into space.

Gretchen Shirm reviews Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti, constructed of sentences culled from 10 years of her journal writing and arranged, yes, alphabetically.

GUESTS

• Gretchen Shirm, critic and writer whose books include the short story collection Having Cried Wolf and the novels Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room

• James Ley, critic and literary judge. Deputy Books and Ideas Editor at The Conversation; former editor, Sydney Review of Books; one of the judges of the Miles Franklin Literary Award

BOOKS

• Rachel Cusk, Parade (Allen and Unwin)

• Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts (Penguin)

• Sheila Heti, Alphabetical Diaries (Allen and Unwin)

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• John Milton, Paradise Lost 
• William S. Burroughs, works
• Vladimir Sorokin, works
• Salmon Rushdie, Knife
• Adele Dumont, The Pulling

CREDITS

• Presenter, Cassie McCullagh + Tom Wright
• Producer, Cassie McCullagh + Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Simon Branthwaite + Beth Spencer
• Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown