The Book Show

You voted, we counted and now we know: Tim Winton's Cloudstreet is our favourite-ever Australian book. In this Top 100 Australian Books afterparty we relive the highs, the lows and the controversies of the countdown. Claire Nichols and Hilary Harper take a deep dive into conversations from The Book Show with your favourite Top 100 Books authors. Tim Winton reflects on how Cloudstreet saved him, Ma...

Before Knives Out, escape rooms and true-crime podcasts, there was Agatha Christie. The 'Queen of Crime' perfected the murder-mystery format and, 50 years after her death, we still can't get enough of her trailblazing take on cosy crime. Each episode we solve a case together. What made her mysteries so propulsive? What happened when she was the star of her own missing-persons case? And would The T...

The surprising Australian links in Min Jin Lee's latest novel American Hagwon. And Bonnie Garmus stresses the importance of poetry in Peck and Peck, the follow up to Lessons in Chemistry.   Why did it take ten years to write American Hagwon, the third novel exploring the Korean diaspora after Pachinko? Find out as Korean American author Min Jin Lee describes to Claire Nichols the ideas behind this...

Conservative politician and bestselling author, Jeffrey Archer has died at 86. In one of the final interviews of his life, he recounts how his changing financial, personal and political fortunes propelled his writing career. Jeffery Archer's own life story was just as colourful as those in the pages of his books. He was a British MP until he went bankrupt, then in 1976 he published the novel Not a...

Why Shaun Micallef's latest novel DeAth Takes a Holiday features a cast of gothic characters including a vampire suffering from ennui, zombie slaves and the resurrection of the skeletal remains of Queen Victoria's husband. What happens when you have to step in to a gig at the last minute?  With almost zero preparation Claire Nichols had to draw on all her skills to fill in as host at the Margaret...

Geraldine Brooks explains how she stumbled across the story that inspired her 17th century plague novel, Year of Wonders and Zoe Foster Blake channels her favourite getaways and strong female friendships in her latest novel Group Chat . For Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote, Geraldine Brooks takes Claire Nichols back to the beginnings of her beloved debut Year of Wonders and reflects...

Kim Scott was so disturbed by how Noongar people were depicted in the Western Australian archive that he wrote Benang: From the Heart . Plus Kate Grenville explains the origins of her latest genre-bending book and how The Secret River became a novel.   In 2000, Kim Scott's Benang won the Miles Franklin Literary Award making him the first Indigenous author to win the prestigious prize (shared with...

Tim Winton explains why his beloved Cloudstreet is not a nostalgic novel, while Holly Ringland admits she was "nostalgia sick" for the 1990s while writing The World Beneath Her Feet. Cloudstreet  follows the Lamb and Pickles families, who live under the same roof but move in very different circles. Loosely based on the two sides of Tim Winton's family, the novel's distinctive vernacular grew from...

Helen Garner finds it painful to think back to the time when she wrote her autobiographical novel, Monkey Grip, about a young mum and her love affair with a heroin addict. Monkey Grip was published in 1977 and was famously inspired by her own life in 1970s inner-city Melbourne. It recounts the turmoil of living in share houses and being in love but also revels in the joys of bike riding and swimmi...

Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Nadine Garner share the Australian books that shaped their reading life. Find out what they want to do with problematic classics like My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. The event was recorded with The Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange at Melbourne Writers Festival for ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote which is now open. In the Top 100 Australian...

Liane Moriarty reveals why she finally wrote the Big Little Lies sequel after being very resistant. And Garth Nix combines mystery with science fiction in his latest novel, Massif.  After the success of the Big Little Lies TV adaptation starring Reece Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, Liane Moriarty brings the story back home to Sydney with the sequel Big Little Truths . Set ten years after the event...

Indian author Vikas Swarup explains the key to his success with Slumdog Millionaire; he believes his new book has a winning premise too. Plus venture capitalist turned novelist Jessy Wu's Good Intentions. Former Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup 's debut novel Q&A was a hit with with readers around the world and was adapted into the blockbuster film Slumdog Millionaire. His fourth novel, The Girl W...

In Sophie, Standing There bestselling author Meg Mason channels the good and bad of writers' festivals and author fandom. Plus, Bobuq Sayed's journey from Afghanistan to the US via Perth; their novel No God But Us is about two gay men in Istanbul and their dreams of a better life. Meg Mason 's third novel Sophie, Standing There is an exploration of a lonely book lover who develops an obsession wit...

Discover why the forests sing in Fierceland , Omar Musa's Miles Franklin Literary Award winning novel. Poet, visual artist, hip-hop musician and author Omar Musa finds magic in Italian beads, vengeful ghosts and the sound of the Borneo forest in his award winning novel, Fierceland. The Miles Franklin judges described Fierceland as "a psychologically layered and storied reckoning with the world we...

Why American author Dave Eggers' new novel Contrapposto has taken over 20 years to write. Plus Australian writer Maria Takolander explains the link between Elon Musk, her son and her novel The End of Romance.  Firstly, Dave Eggers is the celebrated author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and his many novels, including The Circle and You Shall Know Our Velocity! There are als...

From hopping zombies to singing forests and a lot of queer characters, we break down the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist and pick our favourites from strong contenders including Randa Abdel-Fattah, Omar Musa and more.  The Miles Franklin is Australia's most prestigious literary award. It carries a cash prize of $60,000 and the winning author goes in to the history books alongside prev...

Mick Herron reveals how the first of his Slow Horses series almost didn't get published. He joined Claire Nichols and a packed audience at the State Library of Western Australia, to discuss this famous series and his latest thriller. The now hugely successful series is about a batch of failed MI5 operatives, led reluctantly by Jackson Lamb, a grumpy, unkempt former cold-war era super spy. The mism...

Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer makes the case for the 'charm novel' with his latest, Villa Coco , about an eccentric Italian baroness and a young American in rural Tuscany.  And, as Naomi Ishiguro tells Claire Nichols she channels Japanese folklore, anime, Pokémon as well as themes of migration, slavery and corruption in Rainshadow Orphans , the first of a fantasy trilogy.     Andrew Sean...

Holden Sheppard grew up gay and closeted in the regional town of Geraldton, WA and now he writes characters like himself into his award winning books — Invisible Boys and Yeah the Boys. Plus for NAIDOC week, Kalkadoon writer John Morrissey tells Claire Nichols about his debut science fiction Bird Deity. Holden Sheppard's bestselling novel Invisible Boys was adapted to the screen and now its sequel...

Settle in for some classic storytelling with actor Bryan Brown who's written his third novel, Hidden. Plus Angela O'Keefe tells Claire Nichols about Phantom Days, a book about a book. Bryan Brown has been a fixture of our screens since the 1970s but he recently became a writer too. In 2021 his first book of short stories, Sweet Jimmy came out and he's now penned two novels including his latest, Th...

How Susan Choi took her own family — and dialled up the tension — in her Booker shortlisted novel, Flashlight. Flashlight traces the fallout from the disappearance of Serk, a Japanese born Korean on his family, including his American wife and daughter. In the process, the novel powerfully traverses the intersecting 20th century histories of Japan, Korea and the US.  Susan Choi joined Claire Nichol...

Fresh from the Oscars for Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell joins Claire Nichols to discuss her book Land. Plus, Robert Forster of iconic indie band The Go-Betweens shares the musical influences behind his debut novel Songwriters on the Run. Maggie O'Farrell is best known for her novels Hamnet , The Marriage Portrait and her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am. Her new novel Land takes place soon after the 19th centur...

In Son of Nobody , Yann Martel tells Claire Nichols how he reimagines The Iliad, shifting the epic from heroic legend to life as an ordinary foot soldier. Twenty-five years after Life of Pi changed his life, he also reflects on the enduring power of myth, storytelling, and why animals continue to resonate in fiction. Yann spoke to Claire Nichols at the Sydney Writers Festival .

Bestselling author Ann Patchett joins Claire Nichols to discuss her novel Whistler and its unexpected take on step-parents, while Romy Ash unpacks her intimate, sexy and strange new book, Mantle. American author Ann Patchett is the bestselling author of Commonwealth, Bel Canto and Tom Lake. She tells Claire Nichols how her own experience of growing up in a large, blended family influenced her new...

Why Booker Prize winner David Szalay once thought Flesh was a vulgar title and why he's glad he kept it. He joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival to discuss his award winning novel and its complicated relationship to masculinity. With the fall of the USSR, the novel charts István's changing fortunes from his humble beginnings in Hungary to a lavish life in the UK...