The Bookshelf

Novelist Hannah Kent and literary academic Stephen Knight join Cassie and Kate as they discuss four new novels: Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again, Peter Goldsworthy's Minotaur and Alvydas Šlepikas's In the Shadow of Wolves

Bookseller Jon Page and historian Clare Corbould join Cassie and Kate as they discuss Deborah Levy's The Man Who Saw Everything, the late Andrew McGahan's The Rich Man's House and Claire G Coleman's The Old Lie

Guests Susan Wyndham, Krissy Kneen and Catherine du Peloux Menagé join Kate and Cassie as they travel across America with Salman Rushdie, onto a crumbling island with Lucy Treloar, through women's desire with Lisa Taddeo and toward coastal-western-noir as they ponder crime fiction

Katherine Rundell makes the case for Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are so Old and Wise, and Meg Keneally and Johan Gabrielsson join Cassie and Kate to talk new fiction from Ben Hobson, Carolina Setterwall and Kate Forsyth

A Western, a war saga and a plate of dumplings. Téa Obreht's Inland, Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad, Wai Chim's The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling and writer Julia Phillips with 'Me Myshelf and I.'

Writer Bri Lee and broadcaster Joey Watson join Kate and Cassie to talk new fiction by Alix Nathan, David Nicholls and Lisa See, while novelist Lenny Bartulin reveals 'Me Myshelf and I'

Three music writers and a whole lotta books.

Writers Luke Carman and Laura Elizabeth Woollett join Kate and Cassie to review new novels from Australia, the USA and the Netherlands.

Critic and digital producer Patrick Carey joins Kate and Cassie as they discuss Joyce Carol Oates' My Life As a Rat and Peter Polites' The Pillars, while crime writer Sulari Gentill reveals the books that have influenced her in our newly-named segment, 'Me Myshelf and I'

Literary monsters with gothic writer Sarah Perry, an over-the-top monster in Thomas Harris' new novel Cari Mora, and a monstrous system in Philip Kerr's Metropolis

Incarceration, possibility and punishment in fiction. Historian Ethan Blue and commentator Mark Sutton join Cassie and Kate to discuss new fiction from Colson Whitehead (The Nickel Boys), Ocean Vuong (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous) and Sarah Hopkins (The Subjects)

Novelists Malla Nunn and Aoife Clifford join Cassie and Kate to review new novels from Tara June Winch, Tony Birch and Julia Phillips

Musician and writer Robert Forster (solo artist, ex-Go Betweens), and novelist and performance artist Fiona McGregor (A Novel Idea) join Kate and Cassie to talk books, reading, reviews and (in a surprising confluence of fictional themes) silent film in the first decade of the twentieth century

Bonus interviews and book recommendation from novelists Damian Barr, Andrea Goldsmith, Simon Cleary and Emma Ashmere and poet and filmmaker Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Novelists Emma Ashmere and Simon Cleary join Kate and Cassie to discuss new fiction by Damian Barr, Chip Cheek and Alex Landrigan; and Damian Barr himself comes along to talk about the books that have shaped him

Cassie and Kate are joined by literary academic Rodney Taveira and historian and RN colleague Meredith Lake as they discuss new fiction from the noir-ish James Ellroy, the biblical Elizabeth Cook and the dog-obsessed Tishani Doshi

Brett Evans and Anthea Taylor join Cassie and Kate to discuss new novels by Susan Choi, Elizabeth Gilbert and Richard Anderson, and Irish writer Caolinn Hughes reveals the books that have shaped her.

Kate and Cassie are joined by writers Lee Kofman and Rozanna Lilley as they discuss Jeanette Winterson's playful homage Frankissstein, Guzel Yakhina's Russian epic Zuleikha and Annaleese Jochems' dark New Zealand debut, Baby

What does it mean if reading becomes an endurance test in the face of trauma? Critic Beejay Silcox asks what it means to read books that are pointlessly distressing. Also, gothic Australian writer Chris Womersley on the bookshelf that made him, an extended interview with Julianne Schultz and reading recommendations from Sarah Kanowski, Justine Hyde and Catherine Keenan

Kate Evans is joined by broadcaster Sarah Kanowski, writer Justine Hyde and Catherine Keenan from The Story Factory to discuss new fiction from Ali Smith, Mark Haddon and Laila Lalami; and Julianne Schultz from the Griffith Review reflects on reading for 'digital natives'.

In this podcast extra edition of The Bookshelf, Kate Evans talks to English fantasy writer Samantha Shannon about the bookshelf that made her and Shannon's latest novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree; while authors of Aurora Rising Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, speak about the practicalities of writing collaboratively and why laughter matters.

Fictionalising both the future and the past, with the help of Antony Funnell and the dystopian novel Daughter of Bad Times by Rohan Wilson, the YA SF Aurora Rising by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff (#loveOzYA) and the battle between history and fiction with historian Hallie Rubenhold and The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

On Friday 3 May Kate and Cassie present the Bookshelf live onstage from the Sydney Writers Festival with guests English novelist Max Porter, American writer Alexander Chee and Nigerian novelist Oyinkan Braithwaite.

A podcast only edition of the Bookshelf, in which Kate Evans talks to Suzanne Leal about this week's NSW Premier's Literary Awards, to Chinese acquisitions editor Li Kangqin about reading in China, and novelist Holly Throsby reveals the bookshelf that made her.

Crime writer Andy Muir and cultural historian Catie Gilchrist join Kate Evans and Mark Sutton as they discuss T C Boyle's Outside Looking In, Don Winslow's The Border and Simon Cleary's The War Artist