# Parties, scandals, sex, love: new novels by Nell Zink, Amy Bloom and the controversial James Frey

An episode of [The Bookshelf](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/499762704), 24 Jul 2025, 54 min.

Audio: https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/bl/Z/2j.mp3

Parties, scandals, sex, love, families, friendship, death – these books have, as they say, all the things. Nell Zink’s Sister Europe moves through one night in Berlin, while Amy Bloom’s I’ll Be Right Here sweeps through 80 years of history, and in James Frey’s Next to Heaven, the beautiful and rich fall apart rather spectacularly. BOOKS Nell Zink, Sister Europe, Penguin Viking Amy Bloom, I’ll Be Right Here, Granta James Frey, Next to Heaven, Swift GUESTS Shannon Burns, writer and member of the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide. His memoir, Childhood, was published in 2022 Suzanne Leal, writer and literary interviewer. She writes for both adults and children, and her novels include Deceptions, The Watchful Wife and The Teacher’s Secret. Her latest, The Year We Escaped, was published last month OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED • James Frey, works • Raynor Winn, The Salt Path • Colette, works • Yuan Yang, Private Revolutions • Lenora Thaker, The Pearl of Tagai Town • Peter Grose, A Good Place to Hide • Pablo Neruda, The Captain's Verses • Robert Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony • Brian Castro, Chinese Postman JANE AUSTEN EVENT Still Turning Heads at 250: Jane Austen’s Enduring Charm ABC Radio National's The Bookshelf & The Minefield join forces with a literary scholar & the State Library of NSW on Austen the professional. Book your spot here CREDITS • Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh • Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett • Sound engineer, Tegan Nicholls and Emrys Cronin • Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

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