Podcasts · The Bookshelf

Michael Robotham & Geordie Williamson review: Steve Toltz/Ben Lerner/Siân Hughes

10 Apr 2026 · 1 h 01 min

Memory, lost conversations and almost-fathers-and sons in Ben Lerner's Transcription; children divided by the throw of a dice, and that's just the start of it, in Steve Toltz's A Rising of the Lights; no such thing as unskilled labour, in Siân Hughes' No Such Thing as Monday, where a woman works as a drycleaner, trying desperately to rid herself of the stains of her childhood; new crime releases, and an Australian in Hollywood is reconsidered. Kate and Cassie with reviewers Michael Robotham and Geordie Williamson.

BOOKS

Ben Lerner, Transcription, Granta

Steve Toltz, A Rising of the Lights, Penguin

Siân Hughes, No Such Thing as Monday, Penguin

Tana French, The Keeper, Viking Penguin

Candice Fox, Redbelly Crossing, Penguin

Patricia A. O'Brien, Errol Flynn: The true story of Australia's Hollywood Icon, Allen & Unwin

[Keep scrolling for other books and writers mentioned in the discussion]

GUESTS

Michael Robotham is an internationally-acclaimed crime writer whose books include the Joseph O'Loughlan and Evie Cormac series. His latest novel is The White Crow — and his next one, Tell Me Something True, will be his first to be set in Australia

Geordie Wiliamson is a literary critic, writer and publisher at Picador, whose books include a critical study of Alexis Wright in the Black Inc Writers on Writers series; and The Burning Library — on neglected Australian writers

Other books mentioned in the discussion

Karl Ove Knausgård, works

Rachel Cusk, works

W G Sebald, works

Alexander Kluge, works

David Foster Wallace, works

Jonathan Franzen, works

Wallace Stevens, works

Les Murray, works

Saul Bellow, works

Philip Roth, works

P D James, works

Agatha Christie, works

Sam Twyford-Moore, Cast Mates: Australian Actors in Hollywood and at Home

CREDITS

• Presenters: Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh • Producers: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett, Tracey Trompf • Sound Engineers: Craig Tilmouth, Roi Huberman • A/ Arts Editor: Sarah Corbett

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)