The Book Show

Booker Prize-winning Nigerian author Ben Okri on his novella Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Australian journalist Jana Wendt on turning to fiction with her short story collection, The Far Side of the Moon and Australian writer Thomas Vowles shares why he's drawn to challenging stories in Our New Gods. Ben Okri is a Nigerian born, UK based writer who won the1991Booker Pri...

“Shimmering” and “strikingly new”—Siang Lu takes out the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award with Ghost Cities, his razor-sharp satire of the film world. With humour and absurdity as his tools, Lu boldly tackles race, racism, and the stories we tell (and sell) on screen.

John Boyne concludes his challenging series The Elements with Air, US writer Maggie Stiefvater takes you to a luxury hotel for enemy diplomats in The Listeners and Laura Elvery imagines Florence Nightingale on her deathbed in Nightingale. John Boyne is the prolific Irish author of over 20 books including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The History of Loneliness and The Heart's Invisible Furies. Hi...

From Miles Franklin prize veteran Michelle de Kretster to debut novelist Winnie Dunn, we bring you all six of the shortlisted authors in this round-up of their celebrated books. This year's shortlist features a book set in an Ancient Chinese dynasty, a collection of linked short stories and a debut by the first ever published Australian Tongan novelist. The works traverse topics of migration, home...

US poet, Ocean Vuong says when he was growing up "being a writer was like being a unicorn" but now he's published his second novel The Emperor of Gladness. Plus, Esperance based author Fleur McDonald reinvents herself in the harsh WA landscape of Kalgoorlie with her novel, The Prospect. The Emperor of Gladness is the latest novel from the Vietnam born, American-based writer Ocean Vuong who made hi...

Esther Freud mines her family story to discover new truths in My Sister and Other Lovers, Dominic Amerena asks what is the price of ambition in I Want Everything and Madeleine Watts returns to a story of water and climate catastrophe in her road trip novel Elegy, Southwest. Esther Freud is a novelist known for her famous family as the daughter of the painter Lucien Freud and great grand-daughter o...

Fresh off her 2025 Women’s Prize win, Yael van der Wouden talks The Safekeep—the novel that’s got everyone buzzing. It caps a stellar run for Yael, who also made the Booker shortlist last year with her debut.

New Zealand author Catherine Chidgey asks, what if World War II had ended differently in her latest novel The Book of Guilt. Plus Kevin Wilson sends his characters on an American road trip in Run for the Hills and Australian author Josephine Rowe on her moving and slender novel, Little World. What if the second world war had ended differently? This idea and more are explored in Catherine Chidgey's...

Samantha Harvey didn’t mean to write a space novel—but Orbital won the Booker. At the 2025 Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, she talks dreams, insomnia, and crafting a plotless “space pastoral” that’s anything but ordinary.

Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst reflects on writing about gay lives and Booker Prize shortlisted author Charlotte Wood explains what it's like to not win the prestigious prize. British writer Alan Hollinghust won the 2004 Booker Prize for his novel The Line of Beauty about a gay man living in 1980s Britain. His latest novel, Our Evenings , is about another queer man but this story spans a mu...

From Sydney Writers Festival , two bestselling writers, David Nicholls and Liane Moriarty, reveal what it's like to see their stories go from the page to the screen. The British writer David Nicholls is best known for his novel One Day , which has been adapted to film and to television. While Australia's Liane Moriarty has seen every one of her books optioned for the screen and hit the big time wi...

Kaliane Bradley shares the serious side to her obsession with muttonchops and time travel, with her book The Ministry of Time, and Rumaan Alam reflects on the success of his novels, Entitlement and Leave the World Behind which was adapted to the screen starring Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke. British Cambodian author Kaliane Bradley shares the inspiration behind her hit 2024 debut The Ministry of T...

Irish writer Marian Keyes, the queen of commercial fiction, explains why she fetishes family, the getting of wisdom and writing books she wants to read.    Marian joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival and they spoke about how Marian became a writer when she was in the depths of despair. Marian also acknowledged the wisdom she's gained in a sometimes tumultuous li...

Irish writer Eimear McBride revisits favourite characters on a rainy night, actor-turned-writer Tasma Walton dredges up a family story of abduction and James Bradley's crime novel about climate catastrophe. Irish writer Eimear McBride is a past winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction whose writing is celebrated for its originality and inventive use of language. In her latest novel, The City Change...

Palestinian American playwright Betty Shamieh turns to fiction in Too Soon, a nuanced and lusty story of three generations of Palestinian women and the times that shape them. Australian author and TV screen writer Debra Oswald follows the eventful life of a gritty, strong woman in One Years of Betty . And in her biting satire Mother Tongue , Naima Brown asks, if you could change your life, could y...

Booker Prize shortlisted Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma joined Claire Nichols at Byron Writers Festival to discuss his latest novel The Road to the Country about civil war in Nigeria. Now based in the US, Chigozie Obioma's first two novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were shortlisted for The Booker Prize. His third novel The Road to the Country is about the Biafran...

American writer Gregory Maguire joins Claire Nichols in a rare and revealing conversation about the evolution of his Wicked series that inspired the popular musical and movies. Once again, with Elphie: A Wicked Childhood , Gregory draws on the iconic Wizard of Oz characters and settings, this time concentrating on the childhood years of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Also, meet Nuzo Onoh,...

A small family lives on a remote island, the father a caretaker for the world's seeds. Then in the rising seas, a woman is washed up to shore. Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore is a mystery, a story of love, and a warning. Melbourne-based writer Sean Wilson offers an empathetic glimpse into the fractured mind of an elderly woman with dementia in his novella, You Must Remember This . And Chris...

A mother escapes a controlling husband. But that is just the beginning. Nesting, the debut novel from award-winning Irish writer Roisin O'Donnell takes us to the next step, finding a safe home.  Also, English Ghanaian author Maame Blue, who now lives in Melbourne, on the struggles of uncovering memories in her novel The Rest of You , and in Love Unedited Australian author Caro Llewellyn explores a...

Award-winning Moroccan American author Laila Lalami imagines a world where the most intimate aspects of life are mined for data in her speculative fiction, The Dream Hotel . Australian Chinese writer Steve MinOn goes on a generational discovery tour with a corpse in his debut novel First Name Second Name . And Madeleine Ryan's The Knowing reflects on the anxieties of modern life and ambition.

A story of finding family, Bernhard Schlink's latest novel The Granddaughter , examines the lingering impact of a divided Germany and the rise of the far right. Italian author and translator Vincenzo Latronico chronicles an expat couple living in Berlin and their search for authenticity in an age of social media in his novella Perfection . Also, Diana Reid's Signs of Damage, is a gripping psycholo...

American writer Rachel Kushner joins Claire Nichols on the stage at Adelaide Writers Week for a conversation about the Booker-shortlisted Creation Lake , her latest philosophical and darkly funny novel involving French eco-activists, a bold and ruthless infiltrator, and a cave-dwelling idealist. Recorded at Adelaide Writers Week 2025.

In his latest book Twist , New York-based Irish writer Colum McCann dives into the digital age, travelling deep under the ocean into a tangled world of ruptured fibrous connections, its human cost, and repair. And Robert Lukins' Somebody Down There Likes Me takes an acerbic look at the downfall of a rich Connecticut family. Also, Jane Yang tells a story of female empowerment in her historical nove...

Penobscot Indian Nation writer Morgan Talty's Fire Exit is a story of family bonds that go beyond bloodlines. Charles is a white man who must not only confront his past but decide whether to reveal his identity to the daughter he watches from across the river that borders the Native American Reservation of the Penobscot people.  A compassionate account of family, love, and connections, it also exp...

In this final episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors reflect on their defining books, Markus Zusak reminisces about the literary phenomenon that is The Book Thief . The story of Liesel, a feisty German girl who finds power in stealing books in a world where words and ideas can both save and destroy lives is full of unforgettable characters and magic moments.  Markus Zusak reflects on...