Kobo in Conversation

Nathan Maharaj spoke with journalist Carol Off. She was the long-running cohost of CBC Radio's award-winning program, As it Happens . She is also the author of The Lion, The Fox, and the Eagle , The Ghosts of Medak Pocket , and 2024's At a Loss For Words: Conversations in the Age of Rage . Her new book is True Patriot Love: Reporting from the Frontlines of Canadian Sovereignty .  Carol Off on why...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with Marc Bendavid, winner of the 2026 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction for his novel The Sapling . It's a love story, but unlike any love story you've ever read. Klara Bloem is an art teacher, and Marc—yes, there is autobiography woven through this work of fiction—he's a thoughtful boy who's drawn to Klara's encouraging, lively presence. They forge a friendship...

This bonus episode comes courtesy of our friends at the Kobo Writing Life Podcast. Co-hosts Vanessa Salemi and Laura Granger interviewed Audrey Niffenegger , author of  The Time Traveler's Wife and the long-awaited sequel: Life Out of Order . That's a book that came up a couple weeks ago in another bonus episode we had with Deandra Lalonde, all about the biggest books coming out this fall 2026 sea...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with Jamaluddin Aram, 2024 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize-winner and author of the novel Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday about his new collection of essays called The Blood of Things: A Love Letter to Afghanistan .  Jamaluddin Aram on writing beyond lines of division

Producer and Kobo in Conversation co-host Nathan Maharaj enlisted the help of Kobo's Deandra Lalonde to guide readers through this overwhelming fall 2026 season of new books. Here are all the books Deandra and Nathan covered in this episode. Series A Court of Splintered Harmony - Sarah J. Maas Threshing Day - Rebecca Yarros Dead Beat - Leigh Bardugo Victorious - VE Schwab Literary The Disappearers...

Michael Tamblyn spoke with TJ Klune, author of The House in the Cerulean Sea , Under the Whispering Door , and the Extraordinaries YA series, to name just a few of his many books. TJ's latest book is We Burned So Bright . It's a story about a couple, Don and Rodney, who set out on a road trip to lay their shared pain to rest while all around them, people are dealing with the very imminent end of t...

Michael Tamblyn spoke with novelist Shari Lapena. Since her 2016 novel The Couple Next Door , she's been known as one of the masters of domestic noir. In her newest book Getting Away With Murder , her 10th suspense novel in as many years, we get financial precarity, unlikeable yet relatable characters, mistrust mixed with intimacy, and all the page-turning qualities that readers have come to expec...

Nadia Odunayo didn't set out to create the leading competitor to social reading app GoodReads. But somewhere along the way while building her website & app  The StoryGraph she discovered that for a lot of folks that's exactly what she'd done. In this episode of our Booktalking series,  Kobo in Conversation  hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj are joined by Nadia to find out about StoryGraph's...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with Anita Rau Badami, author of novels including the Commonwealth Prize winning  The Hero's Walk . Her new book is  Asha in Her Garden . It's the story of a woman named Asha, who lives now in Montreal, but left Bangalore, India many years ago. We learn about her childhood, her children, her friends, and the life she's made for herself.  Anita Rau Badami on writing a character...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with musician and novelist David Baerwald, author of The Fire Agent . It's a story spanning the world wars of the 20th century viewed through the eyes of Ernst Baerwald, a bright and idealistic young man who finds himself at the frontiers of chemistry and war. David Baerwald on feeling his way through history

In the spirit of "Christmas in July," we're presenting a special live episode of  Kobo in Conversation  from the Toronto International Festival of Authors' inaugural Ever After, the romance book festival. This was recorded back in November 2025, and though it deals with some extremely seasonal themes, we don't mind a little Christmas in July and we thought you might be into it as well.  For a sess...

Michael Tamblyn spoke with Patrick Radden Keefe, who has been writing for the New Yorker since 2006 and is the author of nonfiction bestsellers including Empire of Pain and Say Nothing . His latest book is London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth . They were joined by an intimate studio audience. Patrick Radden Keefe on London's dark descent

Nathan Maharaj spoke with the novelist and journalist Jowita Bydlowska about her new book Unshaming: A Memoir of Recovery, Relapse, and What Comes After . It's a frank, unflinching recounting of the years following the publication of her first book, the memoir Drunk Mom . And it's a thoughtful, fearless meditation on the concept of shame.  Jowita Bydlowska speaks about her accidental expertise in...

For this special bonus episode of Kobo in Conversation , producer and co-host Nathan Maharaj was joined by one of Kobo's booksellers (and frequent Staff Picks contributor), Deandra Lalonde. They sort through the buzziest books to take along to the beach, the books landing in the next few weeks that you won't want to miss, and how best to bring a little Hollywood into your summer reading this year....

Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Sharon Bala , author of the award-winning 2018 novel,  The Boat People .  Her  new book is called  Good Guys .  It's  about  a  nearly bankrupt  international aid charity  called Children of the World , and how  their  stumbling  into the good graces of an A-list celebrity   raises a lot of money, and a lot of questions about who the good guys really are. You can...

This week we're bringing you a conversation Michael Tamblyn had in 2021 with Natalie Zina Walschots about her extremely fun novel called Hench . It's about a world where superheroes are out there saving the day in super ways, while villains, who are a lot like you and me, run organizations bent on taking over the world while also trying to keep scores up on Glassdoor. Natalie's just released a seq...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of the 2021 book The Disordered Cosmos , a highly personal reflection on the human and inherently flawed practice of scientific inquiry and her career as a Black Jewish scientist. Her new book is The Edge of Space-Time: P articles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie . In it she explains to readers, what's really going on with qu...

Hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj dove deep on the controversy around the book  Shy Girl, which was cancelled by its publisher who alleged it was largely AI-generated. Links on  Shy Girl : The video from January 2026 that seems to have led to  Shy Girl 's cancellation: i'm pretty sure this book is ai slop - YouTube Publishing news journalist Alexandra Alter on the controversy over the cance...

Michael Tamblyn spoke with novelist Heather Marshall. She is a writer of historical fiction, including her 2022 debut bestselling novel Looking for Jane and 2024's with The Secret History of Audrey James . Heather Marshall's new book is Liberty Street . It's the story of a young journalist's quest to expose the cruelty and corruption of the Mercer Women's Prison from the inside, the women she meet...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Rainbow Rowell. She's the author of books including  Eleanor & Park ,  Fangirl , as well as the novel  Slow Dance , which she discussed on the show in 2024. Rainbow Rowell's new book is the novel  Cherry Baby . It's about a woman named Cherish, who everybody calls Cherry, at a moment in her life when her marriage seems to have ended and she's figuring out what co...

Nathan Maharaj spoke with Tara Gereaux, author of the novel Saltus and the novella Size of a Fist . Her new book is called Wild People Quiet . Set in 1946, it's the story of Florence, or Mrs. Banks as she's known down at Pratt's Insurance, the company where she's worked diligently for years. While out for lunch with her colleagues one day, Florence encounters a man whose mere presence threatens to...

Michael Tamblyn spoke with Eliana Ramage ,  author of  To the Moon and Back .  It's  a  novel about Steph, a young Cherokee woman who from the earliest age is obsessed with space and space travel, dreaming about one day becoming a NASA astronaut.   How Eliana Ramage set her sights on the stars for her debut novel

Nathan spoke with George Newman, psychologist and associate professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His new book is  How Great Ideas Happen: The Hidden Steps Behind Breakthrough Success . It's a guide to generating ideas, hopefully great ideas, and learning about mental habits that often get in the way, and how creativity is a skill you can train and exercise.  G...

Joined by a live audience in Kobo's intimate event space, Michael Tamblyn spoke with novelist Leanne Toshiko Simpson, author of Never Been Better and winner of the 2025 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize . Never Been Better is the story of a group of three friends who met in a psych ward, but time has passed and now two of whom are about to get married while the third tries to figure out whether t...

Hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj caught up on the latest private equity-fueled mergers & acquisitions, what we're not talking about when we're talking about the money made from books, plus a whole lot more. This episode covers: Rosetta Books acquired by Open Road Media Why private equity is (still) interested in the book business, most recently in German companies Bookwire and Zebralution...