Michelle de Kretser began reading Shirley Hazzard well before she herself would become a writer, but she felt an early kinship, and two decades later it exploded into a full obsession. This week, Michael speaks with Michelle and Hazzard's biographer Brigitta Olubas about one of Australia's most underrated and underread authors.

Reading list:

The Evening of the Holiday, Shirley Hazzard, 1966

The Bay of Noon, Shirley Hazzard, 1970

The Transit of Venus, Shirley Hazzard, 1980

Greene on Capri, Shirley Hazzard, 2000

The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard, 2003

On Shirley Hazzard: Writers on Writers, Michelle de Kretser, 2019

Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life, Brigitta Olubas, 2023

Prophet Song, Paul Lynch, 2023

So Close to Home, Mick Cummins, 2023

In Praise of Veg, Alice Zaslavsky, 2020

You can find these books and all the others we mentioned at your favourite independent book store. Or if you want to listen to them as audiobooks, you can head to the Read This reading room on Apple Books.

Socials: Stay in touch with Read This on Instagram and Twitter

Guest: Michelle de Kretser & Brigitta Olubas

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