World Book Club

World Book Club episodes:

• 04.01.2024

  Charlotte Wood: The Weekend

  Award-winning Australian novelist Charlotte Wood joins Harriett Gilbert to answer questions from readers around the world about her novel, The Weekend. It's a story of grief and friendship; three women meet to clear their deceased friend’s beach house and...

  
• 03.01.2024

  Ann Patchett: The Dutch House

  Multi award-winning novelist Ann Patchett will be discussing The Dutch House. A dark modern fairytale set against the very real world of post-WWII Philadelphia, tracing the love between a brother and sister, their vanishing mother, distant father and...

  
• 02.10.2024

  Madrid

  World Book Café heads to Madrid to talk to writers about a new boom in feminist fiction. A few month after the resignation of President of the Spanish Football Federation over a non-consensual kiss of footballer Jenni Hermoso at the...

  
• 02.01.2024

  Carlo Rovelli: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

  Presenter Harriett Gilbert and readers around the world talk to acclaimed Italian physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli about his runaway bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. A compact and engaging exploration of some of the most fundamental ideas in modern...

  
• 01.01.2024

  Antonio Muñoz Molina: In the Night of Time

  Antonio Muñoz Molina answers questions from around the world on his novel In the Night of Time. The panoramic portrait of Spain on the brink of civil war follows the life of Ignacio Abel, master builder and architect, as he...

  
• 12.01.2023

  Shehan Karunatilaka: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

  Harriett Gilbert and readers around the globe talk to acclaimed Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka about his Booker Prize-winning novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Almeida, a gay war photographer, recently deceased, with secrets aplenty, awakes to find himself...

  
• 11.17.2023

  AS Byatt - Possession

  English author A. S Byatt talks to an audience about her novel 'Possession'. First broadcast in March 2004 (Photo: A S Byatt. Credit:BBC)

  
• 11.03.2023

  Xiaolu Guo: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

  Xiaolu Guo talks about her novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. The book was her first written in English and made prestigious fiction shortlists on publication in 2007. Twenty-three year old Zhuang – or Z as she’s called in...

  
• 10.02.2023

  Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

  American writer Michael Chabon talks about his 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. From Jewish mysticism to Houdini to the Golden Age of Comic Books and WWII, Chabon’s immersive novel deals with escape and transformation...

  
• 09.01.2023

  Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife

  American writer and visual artist Audrey Niffenegger talks about her bestselling novel The Time Traveler’s Wife - a magical love story with a twist. Funny, quirky, and occasionally heartbreaking, this is the story of a relationship lived in the moment...

  
• 08.01.2023

  Pilar Quintana: The Bitch

  Colombian writer Pilar Quintana talks about her acclaimed novel The Bitch which explores themes of motherhood, loss, and the impact of violence on women's lives. Set against the backdrop of the Pacific coast, the story revolves around Damaris, a...

  
• 07.01.2023

  Sofi Oksanen: Purge

  Bestselling author Sofi Oksanen answers readers' questions about her novel Purge. It's a harrowing story of sexual violence, betrayal and retribution which charts the troubled history of Estonia during and after the Second World War. Told through the lives...

  
• 06.05.2023

  Judith Kerr: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

  On the centenary of her birth another chance to hear much-loved author Judith Kerr discussing her memorable young adults' novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit with Harriett Gilbert and readers around the world. Set during the Second World War, this...

  
• 05.05.2023

  Curtis Sittenfeld: Prep

  Best-selling American author Curtis Sittenfeld discusses her acclaimed debut novel, Prep. Set in an exclusive boarding school in north-eastern America, Prep is an insightful, caustic and funny coming-of-age story and a savage dissection of class, race, and gender. Clever, aspirational...

  
• 04.01.2023

  Paul Theroux: Deep South

  Presenter Harriett Gilbert and readers around the world talk to acclaimed American author Paul Theroux about his bestselling travel book Deep South. After fifty years crossing the globe, seeking adventure and stories to tell about places far from home,...

  
• 03.18.2023

  World Book Cafe: Paris

  World Book Café travels to Paris to meet some of the French capital’s newest writers. Authors Mahir Guven, Blandine Rinkel, Laurent Petitmangin and Capucine Delattre discuss taking on the literary establishment and finding new ways to express themselves. Like many...

  
• 03.04.2023

  Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales

  This month World Book Club visits Paris, France to be guests of the iconic bookshop on the Left Bank of the River Seine, Shakespeare & Co. There Harriett Gilbert and a bookshop audience talk to acclaimed French writer Marie Darrieussecq...

  
• 02.04.2023

  Ayelet Gundar-Goshen: Waking Lions

  Driving too fast through Israel’s Negev desert in his SUV after a long day in the hospital, Dr Eitan Green accidentally hits a lone Eritrean man on the empty moonlit road, killing him instantly. Panic stricken he drives off instead...

  
• 01.07.2023

  Anuk Arudpragasam: A Passage North

  A Passage North explores the impact of the vicious Sri Lankan civil war between Tamil and Sinhalese which tore Sri Lanka apart for two and a half decades before a fragile ceasefire was finally reached in 2009. When Krishan learns...

  
• 12.03.2022

  Sunjeev Sahota - The Year of the Runaways

  World Book Club travels to The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in England, as guests of The Off the Shelf Festival and talks to local prize-winning Sheffield writer Sunjeev Sahota about his compelling novel, The Year of the Runaways. Voyaging from...

  
• 11.05.2022

  Tahmima Anam: A Golden Age

  This month as World Book Club continues its year-long season celebrating the Exuberance of Youth it also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the programme. To mark this happy occasion World Book Club are guests of the London Literature Festival at...

  
• 10.01.2022

  Brit Bennett: The Vanishing Half

  This month, in the next in our season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth, we talk to American writer Brit Bennett about her unputdownable novel, The Vanishing Half. The Vanishing Half charts the rollercoaster parallel lives of estranged twin sisters...

  
• 09.03.2022

  Ben Lerner: Leaving the Atocha Station

  Next in the series exploring The Exuberance of Youth World Book Club talks to the award-winning American author Ben Lerner about his beguiling debut novel Leaving the Atocha Station. Brilliant, unreliable, young American poet Adam Gordon is on a fellowship...

  
• 08.06.2022

  Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing

  In this year-long celebration of The Exuberance of Youth, World Book Club revisits the multi-prize-winning debut novel Homegoing by the acclaimed Ghanaian author Yaa Gyasi. The story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery,...

  
• 07.02.2022

  Mohsin Hamid: Exit West

  In the season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth, World Book Club talks to Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid about his compelling novel, Exit West. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Exit West features Nadia and Saeed, two ordinary young people, attempting...

  
• 06.18.2022

  World Book Cafe: Brooklyn

  World Book Café, the programme where writers reveal the secrets of their home cities, goes to Brooklyn. In a lively and engaging conversation from the heart of the neighbourhood, Asian American authors will share insights into their creative lives, the...

  
• 06.04.2022

  Jennifer Egan: A Visit from the Goon Squad

  Jennifer Egan answers audience questions about her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. It is a dazzling, exciting book, which plays with form and storytelling traditions. Goon Squad is made up of connected short stories circling around...

  
• 05.07.2022

  Bryan Washington: Memorial

  This month, in the next in our season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth, Harriett Gilbert and readers around the world talk to award-winning American writer Bryan Washington about his moving novel Memorial. Benson, a Black day-care teacher and Mike, a...

  
• 04.02.2022

  NoViolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names

  In the latest in World Book Club's season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth, Harriett Gilbert talks to Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo about her extraordinary novel, We Need New Names. A remarkable literary debut shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize...

  
• 03.05.2022

  Kiley Reid: Such a Fun Age

  A remarkable debut from an exhilarating young new voice, Such a Fun Age is a big-hearted page-turner of a story about race and privilege, centring on a young black babysitter, her well-meaning employer, and a chance encounter that threatens to...

  
• 02.08.2022

  Isabel Allende: Eva Luna

  In the second in our season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth in this centenary year of the BBC, Harriett Gilbert talks to world-famous Chilean writer Isabel Allende about her extraordinary novel, Eva Luna. Eva Luna is the story of an...

  
• 01.01.2022

  Naoise Dolan: Exciting Times

  The first of our season of celebrating The Exuberance of Youth in this the centenary year of the BBC, World Book Club talks to Irish writer Naoise Dolan about her dazzling novel Exciting Times. Psychologically astute and dryly funny, Exciting...

  
• 12.04.2021

  Monique Roffey: The Mermaid of Black Conch

  Harriett Gilbert talks to the multi-award-winning Trinidadian-British author Monique Roffey about her enchanting novel The Mermaid of Black Conch, which won the 2020 Costa Book of the Year. Roffey spins the mesmerising tale of a cursed mermaid and the lonely...

  
• 11.06.2021

  Burhan Sönmez: Istanbul, Istanbul

  Continuing our month-long season to celebrate the English PEN centenary, World Book Club talks to multi-award-winning Turkish-Kurdish writer and activist Burhan Sönmez about his unforgettable novel Istanbul, Istanbul. At once powerfully political and intensely personal, Istanbul, Istanbul is the story...

  
• 10.05.2021

  Wole Soyinka

  This month, to kick off a mini-season to celebrate a very special centenary World Book Club talks, for a second time, to the Nobel Prize-winning giant of world literature, Professor Wole Soyinka, about one hundred years of the writers’ organisation...

  
• 09.04.2021

  Maylis De Kerangal: Mend the Living

  World Book Club this month talks to the award-winning French writer Maylis de Kerangal about her remarkable and haunting novel Mend the Living. After a horrific car accident on the Normandy coast surfer Simon Limbeau is rushed to hospital where...

  
• 08.09.2021

  Crime and Punishment: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  To mark the bicentenary of the birth of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky World Book Club revisits Crime and Punishment in an edition recorded at the elegant Pushkin House, London’s Russian cultural hub, in 2016. To help us explore...

  
• 07.07.2021

  Jane Harper: The Dry

  World Book Club this month talks to the world-renowned Australian author Jane Harper at her home in Melbourne, Australia, about her internationally garlanded thriller, The Dry. Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, tensions in a small...

  
• 06.10.2021

  Manu Joseph: Serious Men

  Serious Men tells the intertwined stories of wily Ayyan Mani - who tries to pass off his son as a mathematical genius - and life at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai, where Ayyan works, and where veteran...

  
• 05.01.2021

  Louise Penny: Still Life

  This month World Book Club talks to acclaimed Canadian writer Louise Penny about the very first in her astonishingly successful series of Inspector Gamache crime novels. When a much-loved inhabitant of the village of Three Pines in the Eastern Townships...

  
• 04.03.2021

  Robert Seethaler: A Whole Life

  Spanning much of the twentieth century and told with an elegant simplicity which belies the harshness of the tale it tells, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is the story of one man's relationship with an ancient landscape. Andreas Egger knows...

  
• 03.08.2021

  Tsitsi Dangarembga: Nervous Conditions

  A modern classic in the African literary canon and voted in the Top Ten of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, Nervous Conditions is the coming-of-age story of two Shona girls, Tambudzai and Nyasha, both trying to find...

  
• 02.06.2021

  Bill Bryson: Notes from a Small Island

  This month World Book Club discusses Bill Bryson’s hugely acclaimed travelogue Notes from a Small Island with the author and his readers around the world. After two decades as a resident of the United Kingdom, Bryson took what he thought...

  
• 01.04.2021

  Sjón - Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was

  On this month’s World Book Club, Icelandic literary superstar Sjón will be answering questions from readers around the world about his novel Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was. Set in Reykjavik in 1918, it’s the story of sixteen year old...

  
• 12.05.2020

  Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing

  A novel of breathtaking sweep revealing the devastating impact of slavery through history. This month World Book Club discusses the multi-prize-winning debut novel Homegoing with its acclaimed Ghanaian author Yaa Gyasi and her fans around the world. The story of...

  
• 11.09.2020

  Yiyun Li: The Vagrants

  Life or death choices in a bid to survive the horrors of 1970s Communist China This month in the penultimate edition of a year celebrating the globe’s greatest women writers World Book Club talks to acclaimed Chinese author Yiyun...

  
• 10.05.2020

  Ali Smith: How to Be Both

  A fast-moving, passionate, genre-bending work of art that both dazzles and entertains. This month, World Book Club discusses the much garlanded novel How to Be Both with its acclaimed British author Ali Smith and her fans around the world. Still...

  
• 09.07.2020

  Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge

  This month’s World Book Club is the ninth in our series celebrating the greatest women writers at work across the globe. Harriett Gilbert and listeners from around the world talk to the world-renowned American author Elizabeth Strout at her home...

  
• 08.01.2020

  Helen Garner: The Spare Room

  The Australian writer Helen Garner joins Harriett Gilbert as World Book Club continues its celebration of women writers. She’ll be talking about her 2008 novel The Spare Room. It’s the story of two women: Nicola, who has cancer, and...

  
• 07.06.2020

  Bernardine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other

  This month, for the seventh World Book Club edition celebrating International Women writers, Harriett Gilbert is joined by the remarkable British writer Bernardine Evaristo from her home in east London to talk about her Booker-Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other. Although...