Tsundoku

Cath carries this episode with two great chats; the first with author Sophie Cunningham and the other with self-professed “book snob”, Ron Hoenig. = Ostensibly a novel about Alice, a woman who’s spent the last 20 years writing the biography of Virginia Woolf’s husband, Leonard, “This Devastating Fever” is an insightful, moving and witty tale of what it’s like to live through a time that feels like...

Peeling back the veneer of the New York art scene, Bri Lee takes readers into the background world that fuels the industry. ‘The Work’ follows the lives of two protagonists from vastly different backgrounds: gallery owner, Lally, and antiquities dealer, Patrick, as they each follow a path to success, but at what cost?  + Victoria Purman takes readers back to the golden years of radio broadcasting...

When a car veers off the road with devastating consequences, the small wheatbelt town of Garringarup is left reeling, but no one's worlds are more shattered than those of Hannah and Freya, the partners of the passengers. On a day when wedding bells should have been ringing, their lives are torn apart by the web of lies the accident has exposed. Think Jodi Picoult meets Liane Moriarty and you have...

The outwardly comfortable life of mother and wife, Winona Dalloway, has dark currents running beneath. "Thunderhead" is her interior monologue as she navigates the everyday acts of collecting the children from school, shopping and preparing for a dinner party when in fact she is a woman in peril. A homage to Virginia Woolf’s "Mrs Dalloway", "Thunderhead" is a reminder of the terror that can lurk u...

In a move away from investigative journalism and her previous deep diving non-fiction titles, Louise Milligan delves into crime fiction with debut novel, Pheasants Nest. It tells the story of Kate Delaney, a journalist who finds herself bound and gagged and being driven somewhere by a strange man. As someone haunted by the crimes she has had to report on, Kate knows her chances of survival are sli...

Miles Franklin Award winner, Shankari Chandran takes Cath to Cinnamon Gardens, an aged care home established by Tamil refugees and now run by their daughter. It’s run with love and dignity and has become an oasis for its culturally diverse residents…but the tensions of past wars and the prejudices of present day Australia which have long remained at a simmer ultimately boil over. + Associate Profe...

Poetry seems a solitary pursuit but not for well known Australian poets Peter Bakowski and Ken Bolton - they recently released two new collections ‘On Luck Street’ and ‘Waldo’s Game’ in which they have collaborated from afar, co-telling stories using a ’call and respond’ writing technique. And former ABC Radio National broadcaster Mike Ladd has made a career as a poet and also helped put poetry on...

Molly Schmidt’s "Salt River Road" is a searing account of grief and redemption set in the big sky/small town landscape of south-west WA. Racism, poverty and politics are part of life in country Western Australia in the 1970’s. Yet, for the Tetley family all that matters is they have lost their beloved mother Elena. They're falling apart and are in danger of losing the farm that is their livelihood...

Celia appears to have it all and her life is running like clockwork - and so it should because she has it planned down to the very last minute - but then along comes a challenge that could be her undoing! Celia is thrust into a process equal parts amusing and heartbreaking as she shakily charts a new path. + From falling for the boy next door to romancing a minotaur - occupational therapist turned...

Cath has admired the work of Paddy O’Reilly for some time but with her shortlisting for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, “Other Houses” looks sure to win O’Reilly many new admirers. It’s a tale of class, aspiration and the boundaries we will cross for love. + Michaela has an Anne of Green Gables doll that her mother bought on a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island in the ‘80s. She asks Associate...

Sarah Smith has been successfully writing for popular TV shows such as “McLeod’s Daughters”, “All Saints” and “Love Child” for years. Now, she’s turned her hand to fiction creating a clever and quirky murder mystery set in the Los Angeles fast lane and narrated by a young, vibrant (albeit dead) woman, hellbent on finding her killer. + Mireille Vignol is a renowned literary translator who has taken...

Trent Dalton’s new novel Lola in the Mirror travels to the dark heart of homelessness and domestic violence and yet is a love story and a love letter to his home town Brisbane. Lola has no name when this story begins. For 16 years she and her mother have been on the run through Brisbane’s underbelly, dodging dangerous men. Sit down with journalist and novelist Trent Dalton and hear him talk about...

“The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard” is loosely based on the life of Mitzah Bricard,  a woman the world remembers as the outrageous muse of Christian Dior but who was, in fact, his First Assistant Designer and enormously talented in her own right. What follows is a compelling tale of glamour, desire and intrigue. + “Summer of Blood” is set in 1960s California where two Australian detectives arriv...

Leaving the world of academia when creativity came knocking has paid off for Pip Williams. She's the bestselling author of "The Dictionary of Lost Words" and "The Bookbinder of Jericho", and speaks with Sarah about the ideas that light her up and inspire her to write.  In this conversation, Pip mentions two books that were references for her writing: "The Surgeon of Crowthorne" by Simon Winchester...

In Cronin’s “The Ferryman” the world’s elite enjoy eternal youth and deep personal satisfaction on the archipelago of Prospera but all is not as it seems and unrest is fomenting on both sides of the social divide. + Georgia Nicholls has been writing romance since she was 14 and penned a fan fiction tale about One Direction’s Harry Styles…her writing has come a long way since then but she still lov...

Let author Catherine Therese introduce you to Leslie Bird, a fictional character so caustic she’ll make your eyes water. Yet, as Michaela discovered, the story behind Leslie’s creation is more likely to bring a sympathetic tear to your eye. + The course of Australian art changed in 1971 with the formation of the Papunya Tula art movement. John Kean, was there to witness its birth and tells Cath wh...

The fates of three people from the 1940s, ‘70s and today collide in Chris Hammer’s thrilling new mystery, “The Tilt” - you won’t see it coming! + Prolific 20th century writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley wrote everything from witty and malicious novels about the British literati  to his still famous Utopian dystopia Brave New World, and later in his 50 year career went on to explore the world of...

Best-selling Australian authors, Sean Williams, Victoria Perman and Tricia Stringer, talk to Tsundoku’s Sarah Martin and Cath Kenneally about their very different paths to literary success - Tricia dabbled in self-publishing, Victoria succeeded in speed dating a publisher and Sean tried the splatter gun approach with short stories. Victoria identified the single thread common to all three quests, ...

Best selling Australian author of “rural noir”, Garry Disher hopes to be seen as novelist first and crime writer second. American Academic Saar Shahar discusses what sets literary journalism apart from the pack. Paul Gough shares the books that first made him fall for sci-fi .  Three great minds in this week’s episode, determined to rise above the throng and give us something worth reading. Guests...

In September 1883, the South Australian town of Fairly huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. A child has gone missing and the whole town is intent on finding him. More than a mystery, Fiona McFarlane explores the varied townsfolks’ relationship with the complex landscape and unsettling history of the Flinders Ranges.  Tsundoku’s Annie Hastwell loved it from start to finish and joins the critics in...

At first drawn to short stories, Louise Kennedy couldn’t resist expanding this ill-fated love story set at the peak of the Irish Troubles into a full and vividly depicted novel, “Trespasses”. + Is it too much to say that the author of Captain Cook’s “Voyages”  was “cancelled” by his contemporaries and the sexual exploits of Joseph Banks “went viral”? Not according to US literary academic Saar Shah...

“I’ve discovered an important truth and it’s all I care about, all I can depend on, the only thing that means anything, the one sure thing that will help me survive. No one can be trusted. I am on my own.” This devastating truth lies at the core of Shannon Burn’s memoir, “Childhood”. + Pandora, Jocasta, Aphrodite and Medea; these are just some of the women of Greek mythology whose stories have gro...

Hugely popular author of gritty young adult fiction, Vikki Wakefield, has turned her hand to a psychological thriller in ‘After You Were Gone’ …with resounding success. and Associate Professor Dr Kylie Cardell gives a fascinating synopsis of Blake Gopnik's mammoth biography of Andy Warhol…all 900 pages of it!. so Curl up on the couch, go for a walk or even clean out the pantry whilst you listen to...

Author, Brigid Delaney, considers whether ancient philosophers can guide us in how to live a good life, and has found the Stoic school may have the answers.  and Our classics experts consider the grim power of Angela Carter’s adult fairytales that celebrate the dark and the macabre.  Guests Brigid Delaney, author of “Reasons Not To Worry – How to be Stoic in Modern Times” (plus two other non ficti...

Literary raconteur, Geoff Dyer, isn’t getting any younger and it’s got him contemplating The End; not death so much as “last times”, the likes of which can strike at any time in a person’s life. “The Last Days of Roger Federer and other endings” skilfully ducks and weaves through the life and creative work of writers, painters, philosophers, musicians, sports stars and, indeed, Geoff himself and r...