ABC Australia

The Bookshelf

Arts EN ↓ 520 episodes

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

Author

ABC Australia

Category

Arts

Podcast website

www.abc.net.au

Latest episode

Jul 10, 2026

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Episodes

Melissa Lucashenko, Charlotte Wood and Bryan Washington: powerful new fiction 13.10.2023

Kate and Cassie read Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie, Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional and Bryan Washington's Family Meal with guests Meredith Lake (Soul Search) and writer Sam Twyford-Moore (Castmates: Australian actors in Hollywood and at Home).

Three major new works - Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller 06.10.2023

Three major new works to delve into in this episode, by Trent Dalton, Paul Harding and Suzie Miller.

The Book Club - Short Stories 29.09.2023

In this edition of The Book Club we look at the art, and the science, of the short story with three brand new and intriguing Australian collections.

Lauren Groff, Daniel Mason and Anna Kate Blair: fables, trees, history and art 21.09.2023

Kate and Cassie read Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds, Daniel Mason's North Woods and Anna Kate Blair's The Modern with writer Maggie Mackellar (Graft) and the Art Show's Rosa Ellen. Survival, hunger, lush landscapes, ambition, art, history . . . with a surprising side of beetles, apples, wedding dresses and frozen fish.

Novels by Anne Enright, Paul Lynch and Emma Donoghue: love, pain, politics and Ireland 15.09.2023

Reading yet more extraordinary fiction from Irish novelists (OK Emma Donoghue actually now lives in Canada, but she's originally Irish): Kate and Cassie on Paul Lynch's Prophet Song, Anne Enright's The Wren, The Wren, and Emma Donoghue's Learned by Heart with guests critic and novelist Gretchen Shirm and poet Beth Spencer

Bringing the Past to Life: with Geraldine Brooks, Pip Williams and Sally Colin-James 07.09.2023

Kate Evans discusses historical fiction onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival with Geraldine Brooks (Horse, Year of Wonders, March), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho, The Dictionary of Lost Words) and Sally Colin-James)

The Book Club: Frank Moorhouse Retrospective 01.09.2023

A year on from the death of Frank Moorhouse, we examine the work of  this much-loved yet troubled writer with his biographer Catharine Lumby and colleague Angelo Loukakis.

New fiction from Chris Womersley, Jenny Erpenbeck and Tan Twan Eng: Australia, Germany, Malaysia 25.08.2023

Kate and Cassie read Chris Womersley's Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Tan Twan Eng's The House of Doors with critic Declan Fry and novelist Nilima Rao

New fiction from Peter Polites, Angela O'Keeffe and Guy Guneratne 18.08.2023

Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh read Peter Polites' God Forgets About the Poor, Angela O'Keeffe's The Sitter and Guy Guneratne's Mister Mister with poet Madison Godfrey and journalist and novelist Paul Daley

New books by Ann Patchett, Naoise Dolan and Hwang Sok-yong: “Good marriages are never as interesting as bad affairs” 11.08.2023

Cassie and Kate read Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, Naoise Dolan's The Happy Couple and Hwang Sok-yong's Mater 2-10 with actor Angourie Rice and novelist Jock Serong

The Book Club - Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist 04.08.2023

Kate, Cassie and guests examine all six finalists for the 2023 miles Franklin Literary Award.

Crooked Harlem, corrupt Wellington, bereaved London: books by Colson Whitehead, Emily Perkins and Elizabeth McCracken 28.07.2023

Kate and Cassie read Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto, Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of this Book and Emily Perkins' Lioness with poet Miles Merrill and literary scholar Bernadette Brennan

A crying room, a road trip and blazing fury: Gretchen Shirm, Richard Ford and Claire Kilroy 21.07.2023

Kate Evans and Jonathan Green read Gretchen Shirm's The Crying Room, Richard Ford's Be Mine and Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor with historian Peter McPhee and writer Ashley Hay. Cassie McCullagh will be back for the next edition of The Bookshelf.

Fiction: The State of the Art 13.07.2023

Kate Evans onstage with writers Colson Whitehead, Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan and Tracey Lien at the recent Sydney Writers Festival, on the state of the novel.

Wifedom, hoarded memories and political road rage: New books by Anna Funder, Jen Craig and Priya Guns 07.07.2023

Aboriginal, Chinese-Malaysian and Muslim writer and academic Eugenia Flynn co-hosts the Bookshelf this week with Kate Evans, reading Anna Funder's Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, Priya Guns' Your Driver is Waiting and Jen Craig's Wall with novelists Max Easton (The Magpie Wing) and Amy Taylor (Search History)

The Book Club: The Greek Myths 30.06.2023

What is it about the Greek myths that make them so adaptable, reusable, ever popular – and up for all manner of rewrites?

Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist 2023: pod extra interview special 29.06.2023

Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order). The shortlist was announced on 20 June; the winner will be announced on 25 July.

Gay saunas, dog walking and an extravagant lie: new fiction from R F Kuang, Dennis Altman and Briohny Doyle 23.06.2023

Stealing a manuscript, walking your grief along coastal edges and underhand behaviour at an international AIDS conference: Kate and Cassie read Dennis Altman's Death in the Sauna, R F Kuang's Yellowface and Briohny Doyle's Why We Are Here with guests Benjamin Law and Lee Kofman

Strangers and Saints: Katherena Vermette and Benjamin Myers 16.06.2023

A story of wandering pilgrims, woman brewers, stonemasons and eels – in the North of England from the 7th century until now; and Métis-Michif women in Canada across the twentieth and into the twenty-first century: Kate Evans speaks with Katherena Vermette about The Strangers (recorded at the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival) and Benjamin Myers about Cuddy

Politicians, ghosts and sad girls: books by Lorrie Moore, Robert Gott and Pip Finkemeyer 09.06.2023

Naked politicians, roadtrips with the dead, and funny-sad girls in Berlin: Kate and Cassie read Robert Gott's Naked Ambition, Lorrie Moore's I am Homeless if this is not My Home and Pip Finkemeyer's Sad Girl Novel with critics Jessie Tu and Madeleine Gray.

The Book Club - Romantic Comedy 02.06.2023

Step aboard this Book Club edition of The Bookshelf which is hopelessly devoted to the genre of Romantic Comedy.

From the Sydney Writers Festival with Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan 26.05.2023

Kate and Cassie recorded this edition of The Bookshelf onstage at the Sydney Writers Festival on Friday 26 May 2023 with writers Shehan Karunatilaka, Jason Reynolds and Grace Chan

Grifters, pilgrims and scribes: new fiction from Emma Cline, Benjamin Myers and Robyn Cadwallader 19.05.2023

Kate and Cassie read Benjamin Myers' Cuddy, Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and the Rose and Emma Cline's The Guest with mediaeval historian Clare Monagle and novelist Laura McPhee-Brown

History, identity, doppelgangers: new fiction from Deborah Levy, André Dao and Catherine Lacey 12.05.2023

Kate and Cassie read Deborah Levy's August Blue, André Dao's Anam and Catherine Lacey's Biography of X with guests writer and curator Sheila Ngọc Phạm and theatre writer Tom Wright. Histories, family stories, identities, doppelgangers, secrets and lies.

Poetry, jumpers, islands: new fiction from John Kinsella, Justin Cronin, Jente Posthuma 05.05.2023

Kate and Cassie read John Kinsella’s Cell Night: A Verse Novel, Jente Posthuma’s What I’d Rather Not Think About and Justin Cronin’s The Ferryman with poet and novelist Omar Sakr and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson

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