The Book Show

Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Kate Mildenhall break the mould with their new books about fraying families, frightening futures and creepy animals in Seed, Chosen Family and The Hiding Place. These three authors have made a splash with their previous books and they joined each other in Perth with The Book Show host, Claire Nichols, to share the joy — and angst — of writing fiction and the challenge o...

Why is Jane Austen endlessly adaptable? After all, her Pride and Prejudice character, Elizabeth Bennett, has fought zombies, investigated murders, been a video blogger and has performed Bollywood dance numbers. Is it the brilliant plotting, the wonderful characters or the humour that makes her work so readily transplanted to the screen, stage and page in so many different variations? American auth...

For Jeanette Winterson, reading has been her liberation but she's worried about its future. She asks what AI means for storytelling in her new book One Aladdin Two Lamps. American author Lily King shares the surprising origin of her tear-jerker love-triangle novel, Heart the Lover and we consider the parallels between Regency England and Pakistan in our next instalment of Dear Jane. For British au...

Jane Austen's influence has spread well beyond the Anglosphere 250 years after her birth and today we consider the the parallels between Austen's Regency England and contemporary Pakistan.  Laleen Sukhera is the founder of the Jane Austen Society of Pakistan (which has expanded to the Jane Austen Society MENAP - Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan ) and grew up reading Jane Austen. Now based i...

Megha Majumdar's A Guardian and a Thief asks what a billionaire, a manager and homeless person have in common, Sally Hepworth reveals the dramatic confession that led to her latest novel Mad Mabel and in the third episode of Dear Jane we are swept off our feet by the romance in Austen's Persuasion. Indian novelist Megha Majumdar's high stakes second novel, A Guardian and a Thief , drills into the...

Jane Austen's novel Persuasion was the last she completed before her death and it is considered a more mature, sombre romance, and in Dear Jane, we ask what makes it so special? Persuasion follows the ever dependable Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth's rekindled romance after an eight year hiatus when it was deemed unsuitable. Australian comedian Alice Fraser describes it as the original second-...

British comic Ben Elton on the Aussie inspiration for writing fiction, and Miles Franklin winner Sofie Laguna on the collision of puberty and Roman mythology in her novel The Underworld. Plus the rules for reading Austen's Pride and Prejudice with Irish writer Colm Tóibín. It seems Ben Elton can do anything. Since his first writing gig at 21 for the BBC sitcom The Young Ones, he's been a stand-up...

In a Jane Austen novel, what does it mean if a character is in the Navy? What role do aunts and silly characters play? And what's the significance of the lavish balls?  Irish author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Tóibín, has the answers and shares some "rules" for reading Austen including her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice.  This is the second episode in The Book Show's Dear Jane series...

The British-Hungarian author David Szalay restrained novel Flesh has won the 2025 Booker Prize .  The prize was presented to Szalay by Samantha Harvey, winner of the previous year's prize.  Flesh follows the dramatic life of István from his teens in Hungary to being a social climber in England to a somewhat dejected middle-age. Szalay says that while the book was a risk to write he enjoyed the pro...

Patricia Lockwood's latest book is the third exploring her inner state, just don't call it a trilogy. A call to all Jane Austen lovers with the beginning of our new series Dear Jane, and Markus Zusak on the wonder of books. Chronically online American author Patricia Lockwood blurs the lines between fiction and memoir in her latest book, Will There Ever Be Another You. Patricia is best known for h...

We're celebrating Jane Austen's 250th birthday with Dear Jane, a brand-new series about her life, her books and her legacy.   In the first instalment, Roller Derby Austen fanatic and academic Devoney Looser busts some myths and explains why she believes Jane Austen was wild, not mild. Devoney's new book is Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane .

Become a Booker Prize expert and meet the shortlisted authors before the winner is announced in a ceremony featuring classic British pomp and fanfare. These are the shortlisted books: Flashlight by Susan Choi The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Audition by Katie Kitamura Flesh by David Szalay The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits. The Booker Prize...

The American elegy, Dream State by American author Eric Puchner is one of Claire's favourite books of the year, Australian crime novelist Jane Harper explores grief and loss in Last One Out , and we revisit Paul Murray's The Bee Sting which made it into the Top 100 Books countdown. Set under the vast Montana sky, American author Eric Puchner traverses time, changing landscapes and the sometimes gr...

The Top 100 Books of the 21st Century countdown is complete and now it's time to find out the inspiration behind some of Australia's favourite books with the authors: Trent Dalton, Hannah Kent and Barbara Kingsolver. Trent Dalton's debut novel Boy Swallows Universe was voted in as your number one read of the 21st century. A coming of age story, it follows the young boy, Eli Bell, who has a missing...

Heather Rose found writing her latest novel challenging because it's partly based on some murky family secrets. The author of The Museum of Modern Love and Bruny Island among other award winning novels, has now written A Great Act of Love: an historical saga of murder, migration, transformation and enduring familial bonds. It has a surprising effervescent setting;  making French style champagne in...

It's 25 years since True History of the Kelly Gang came out and while Peter Carey might not be writing fiction anymore he says he's proud of his books. My Sister, The Serial Killer's Oyinkan Braithwaite on not writing the same book twice in Cursed Daughters and Tanya Scott's debut thriller, Stillwater.  When it comes to Australia's great novelists, few loom larger than Peter Carey . He's won the B...

Trent Dalton's new novel Gravity Let Me Go is about a middle aged journalist who can't let go of a good story, and David Malouf reflects on a life of writing and the hold of Brisbane on his imagination. Trent Dalton is the bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, All Our Shimmering Skies and Lola in the Mirror. His new novel Gravity Let me Go , is about a Brisbane crime journalist with a big s...

Ian McEwan's futuristic novel What We Can Know is about rising sea levels and a lost poem. Plus, Randa Abdel-Fattah's response to the crisis in Gaza in her novel Discipline and Vogel Award winner Murray Middleton on the despair of being an artist. Ian McEwan is the British author of over 20 books including Atonement, Saturday, Lessons and his Booker Prize-winner, Amsterdam. His new novel, What We...

God of Small Things author Arundhati Roy remembers her difficult mother and how she was shaped as a writer, and Mick Herron on the success of Slow Horses and his repellent but memorable creation, Jackson Lamb. Arundhati Roy is a giant of literature. She's published two novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things and is a prolific author of non-fiction, much of which confront...

Australian author of Addition, Toni Jordan, goes gambling with greyhounds in Tenderfoot, Richard Osman digs up the background to The Thursday Murder Club and critically acclaimed writer, Gail Jones on why she wrote the crime novel, The Name of the Sister. Toni Jordan is the Australian author of eight books including Addition, The Fragments and Dinner with the Schnabels. Her new novel, Tenderfoot ,...

Discover the favourite books from the 21st century of Colum McCann, Kate Grenville and Kaliane Bradley who share their best reads for ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books.   The Book Show producer Sarah L'Estrange spoke to three acclaimed authors at Melbourne Writers Festival in the lead up to ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books countdown. Go here to vote for your favourite book of the last 25 years....

Yellowface author R.F. Kuang returns to speculative fiction with her latest novel Katabasis, a campus novel set in hell. Plus Australian author Moreno Giovannoni's second novel The Immigrant challenges the idea that Italian immigrants of his parent's generation had better lives in Australia. While R.F. Kuang had a global hit with Yellowface — her 2023 satirical novel about race and publishing — Re...

Russian born US writer Gary Shteyngart imagines a future America with strong parallels to Russia in Vera, or Faith, Adelaide based author Jennifer Mills' latest novel Salvage rockets into space after ecological collapse, and Geelong author Rhett Davis on Aborescence about people who want to become trees. Gary Shteyngart is the Russian-born, American-based author of novels including Absurdistan, Su...

Florence Knapp's debut novel The Names is a sliding doors story about the naming of a child and has been a surprise success (for her). Plus Brandon Jack, former Aussie Rules Football player on his novel Pissants about the players who don't win glory on the field and how they get their nicknames. Florence Knapp 's hugely popular debut novel The Names explores the power of a name. Starting in 1980s...

Amy Bloom on her latest novel I'll Be Right Here about an unconventional chosen family, Ben Markovits goes on the road with his Booker Prize longlisted novel The Rest of Our Lives and Barbara Truelove's bonkers book about Dracula in space, Of Monsters and Mainframes.  Amy Bloom is the American author of ten books (including White Houses) and her new historical novel, I'll Be Right Here , begins in...