FaberBooks

Exclusively for the Faber website, Norman Lebrecht talks us through Why Mahler?, his fascinating celebration of one of the most important classical composers, and one of the most enduringly popular.

In our latest podcast Louise Doughty, with her sixth novel Whatever You Love, tells us how she managed to explore the darkest territory imaginable - dealing with the death of a child. We also talk to science writer Marek Kohn about climate change and the implications it has for all of us - in the UK and beyond - which is the subject of his new book, Turned Out Nice.

Whatever You Love is Louise Doughty's sixth novel, and her first to be published by Faber. Its subject matter is dark - the central story deals with the death of a child and the subsequent fall-out. In an interview for the Faber Podcast Doughty explains how novelists put themselves in the necessary mindset to explore such raw territory.

The UK has seen its wettest January for more than a century, whilst California is suffering its worst drought for the same amount of time. And whilst the band of climate change deniers seems only to grow, the general consensus is that global warming is causing irreversible damage to all parts of the globe. In 'Turned Out Nice', Marek Kohn presents a stark and authoritative vision of the future. He...

There's glamour and drama in both books featured in this month's Faber Podcast. In his new novel The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe, Andrew O'Hagan gives us a canine's eye-view of the whirlwind final years in the life of the Hollywood icon. Meanwhile, in Lucy Worsley's Courtiers, the milieu is the Georgian Royal Household, where life below-stairs goes hand-in-ha...

In his new novel The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend Marilyn Monroe Andrew O'Hagan takes the very real Maltese terrier (a gift from Frank Sinatra in 1960), and makes him the philosophical commentator on the final years of the Hollywood icon's life.

In this interview recorded exclusively for the Faber Podcast, historian, broadcaster and Chief Curator at the Royal Palaces Lucy Worsley takes us through Courtiers, her guided tour of the lives of the members of the Georgian Royal Household - both above- and below-stairs.

This month, George Miller interviews scholar James Shapiro and novelist Maria McCann, both of whom have explored historical themes in their recent work. In Professor James Shapiro's latest work Contested Will: Who Really Wrote Shakespeare? he delves into a subject that has divided scholars and historians for centuries. In new novel, The Wilding, Maria McCann brings to life a tumultuous family stor...

James Shapiro discusses Contested Will: Who Really Wrote Shakespeare? an investigation into a much-debated subject.

Maria McCann discusses her new novel, The Wilding, a passionate family story set in seventeenth-century England.

Our guests this month are Robin Dunbar and Alex Preston. Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford and in How Many Friends Does One Person Need? he tackles aspects of human nature, taking in Twitter, Facebook and Dunbar's Number. Alex Preston is the author of This Bleeding City, his debut, cautionary tale of a City insider caught amidst a personal and professional boom and b...

Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, tells us more about his new book, How Many Friends Does One Person Need? and explains 'Dunbar's number'.

Alex Preston discusses his acclaimed debut novel, This Bleeding City, his timely fictional account of one man's rise and fall amongst the turbulence of the economic boom and bust.

America looms large in the new novels by Jonathan Lethem and Peter Carey, the interviewees in February 2010's Faber Podcast. George Miller discusses modern-day Manhattan - both real and unreal - as portrayed by Lethem in Chronic City, a book rich in metaphors. Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America goes back a couple of centuries, but as Carey makes clear, there are clear parallels between an...

Recorded in January 2010, when he paid a visit to Faber's offices in London, Brooklyn author Jonathan Lethem spoke to us about his new novel, Chronic City.

On his short trip to the UK in February 2010, Peter Carey dropped by the Faber offices to speak to us about his new novel, Parrot and Olivier in America, which was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

In our latest podcast George Miller speaks to two crime novelists - to Tobias Jones who, with a new series of cases featuring Inspector Castagnetti, follows in the footsteps of the late Michael Dibdin, and to Nicola Upson, whose second Archie Penrose / Josephine Tey case (Angel with Two Faces), takes us back to the Golden Age of Crime.

With The Salati Case, Tobias Jones has created a new Italian detective on the block, Inspector Castagnetti. In an interview for the Faber website he describes his leading man, and gives a quick preview of book two ...

Recorded for the Faber website, here is Nicola Upson discussing Angel with Two Faces, featuring another outing for Inspector Archie Penrose and the very real (although in fictional circumstances) Golden Age crime writer Josephine Tey.

In our November 2009 podcast our host George Miller speaks to renowned biographer and historian Jenny Uglow about Charles II at the height of his powers in her new book A Gambling Man, and to Marcus Chown about We Need to Talk About Kelvin and various cosmic wonders in the everyday.

After years in exile, Charles II returned to England in May 1660 to become King. Click here to hear Jenny Uglow telling us more about A Gambling Man, in which she recounts the King's triumphant return, and the hopes and expectations which it gave rise to.

From the New Scientist's cosmology consultant Marcus Chown comes a fantastic exploration of the science of the world around us. Making it all very accessible, the author explains more about We Need to Talk About Kelvin, and shows us what everyday things might tell us about the Universe.

In our latest podcast, we talk to two biographers about their new books, and their subjects - William Golding and Arthur Ransome. John Carey's insightful study of Golding was called a 'model of its kind' by Robert Harris, whilst Roland Chambers' study of the Swallows and Amazons author is no less impressive, and equally revelatory.

Long before Swallows and Amazons was published, there had been another Arthur Ransome, famous for different reasons. MI6? Bolshevism? All is revealed in Roland Chambers' gripping biography of the very British writer, The Last Englishman.

Celebrated writer and critic John Carey delves into the life of one of the foremost novelists of the twentieth century in a revelatory biography of William Golding.