The Bookshelf
ABC Australia
300 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.
Episodes page 3 of 6
-
Summer Reading from Australia and the World
Books you might have missed: from England, Turkey and within the Australian Tongan community Cassie and critic Beejay Silcox agree to disagree over David Nicholls' You Are Here – from a conversation first broadcast on…
-
Summer Reading: Fiction for a new year
Time to reassess your TBR pile – To Be Read, that is – ready for 2025. To help, some of the best books and literary discussions from the past year. Kate and Cassie's review of Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot was first…
-
Summer Reading: Books to get your teeth into
Ready for some Big Books? Ambition, money, philosophy, bodies and history – all explored through history. Cassie and Tom Wright's review of Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonian Road was first broadcast on 28 March 2024 Kate…
-
Summer Reading: What did you miss?
Catch up on the best books and discussions about them from the last year. A songwriter, a plaintive guitar, time travel and a motel are all in the mix. Kate and Cassie's review of Willie Vlautin's Horse was originally…
-
Crime fiction and why we keep coming back: The repeat protagonist
Detectives, tea ladies, journos, psychologists – what's the appeal of the crime series and repeat protagonist? Kate Evans with crime writers Michael Robotham, Tim Ayliffe and Amanda Hampson onstage at the BAD Sydney…
-
Best Books of 2024
The best books of 2024 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Jason Steger, Lev Grossman and Michaela Kalowski. Keep scrolling for a full (and somewhat idiosyncratic) list. GUESTS Jason Steger, literary…
-
The much anticipated new novel by Haruki Murakami, and plenty more...
What do Kate and Cassie make of Will Self’s Elaine, a portrait of a frustrated fifties housewife, based on his mother's own diaries. Plus, The City and its Uncertain Walls, the much anticipated new novel by Haruki…
-
Literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur + Yu Shi
A focus on literature in translation with special guests Bora Chung and Anton Hur, both of whom are South Korean authors and translators, who translate each others' work, and write outside the system of…
-
The Case for Critics - on stage at Canberra Writers' Festival with Christos Tsiolkas, Beejay Silcox and James Jiang
Derided, disparaged and cursed to the heavens, book critics are depicted as literature’s grand villains – as frustrated creators and gleeful wreckers. But what do critics really do? And why are they necessary for a…
-
Niall Williams’ Time of the Child might just be the big ‘feel-good book of the year’
At 2025 Adelaide Writers’ Week, Irish author Niall Williams joins Kate Evans to talk Faha, fiction, and Time of the Child—his latest novel. Also a playwright and screenwriter, Williams celebrates the film release of…
-
Dark Skies, a quest and nature writing in Inga Simpson’s The Thinning
The Dressmaker’s backstory, a universe of stars to expand our ideas about nature writing, and fragments and tricks galore: Kate and Cassie read Inga Simpson’s The Thinning, Brian Castro’s Chinese Postman and Rosalie…
-
Matricide, the (Virginia) Woolfmother, Norwegian woods: Graeme Macrae Burnet, Michelle de Kretser, Karl Ove Knausgaard
The latest from double Miles Franklin Award winner, Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice, a novel that evokes the 1980s and Virginia Woolf. Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet plays a French literary game in A…
-
Melanie Cheng's The Burrow: can a pet rabbit heal a family dealing with tragedy?
Kate and Cassie read Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow, a pandemic-set novella that details the healing powers of a pet rabbit for a family dealing with tragedy. Plus, Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, a…
-
Twins, pumas and a colonial western in Robbie Arnott’s Dusk
Twins, pumas and a colonial western in Robbie Arnott’s Dusk; gay lives, racial politics, class, theatre and exquisite writing, in Alan Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings; and writing between the myths, rumours and religious…
-
Tim Winton and the ruined future of his novel Juice
The Bookshelf is a program for dedicated readers and those who wished they read more.
-
What's the verdict on Sally Rooney's new novel Intermezzo?
Many people have been awaiting the release of Intermezzo, the latest book by Irish writer Sally Rooney, which explores love, grief, growing up, playing chess, understanding and misunderstanding family...Kate and Cassie…
-
French provocateur Michel Houellebecq + Olga Tokarczuk's health resort horror
Novels from France, Poland and India – with politics, sanatoriums, automata and horror in the mix too. Kate and Cassie read French writer (and provocateur) Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation (but can they get to the end…
-
The rich and entitled are back but so are Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton
Sex parties, corruption and dark dark deeds in not-quite-Nigeria, in Akwaeke Emezi’s Little Rot; aspiration, real estate and misguided philanthropists in New York, in Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement, and ordinary people…
-
Malcolm Knox's The First Friend: a black comedy set in Stalin's Soviet Union
A peripatetic hotel, a paddle steamer of dreams and a dastardly law firm, in Jock Serong’s Cherrywood; one of the 20th century’s top 10 all-star ‘leading’ murderers, and what it might mean to be close to him, in…
-
2024 mid-year review
An overview of the books of the year so far, what’s coming up for the rest of the year, and the 'to be read' book pile of regret as Kate and Cassie confess all with bookseller Jon Page and literary interviewer and…
-
Vortex: a new novel from Rodney Hall, twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award
Stories of Northern Soul, pigs trotters in performance art and politics in the subtropical 1950s come to life in three new works of fiction including Vortex, the new novel from 88 year old Rodney Hall, twice winner of…
-
Rita Bullwinkle's Headshot: a luminous debut that steps into the boxing ring
Kate and Cassie read Rita Bullwinkle's Headshot, a luminous debut that follows eight teenage girl boxers in Reno, Nevada. Crime writer Michael Robotham discusses Chris Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark – a story…
-
Miles Franklin Literary Award 2024
What does the 2024 Miles Franklin shortlist tell us about our shared imagination? Bernadette Brennan and Geordie Williamson join Kate and Cassie to examine the winner, Alexis Wright's epic novel Praiseworthy, and all…
-
Weird fiction writer China Miéville's surprising collab with Keanu Reeves
Bruce Isaacs on weird fiction novelist China Mievelle's The Book of Elsewhere, a genre-bending epic written in collaboration with Hollywood star Keanu Reeves. Plus, guest critic Ailsa Piper on The Echoes by Miles…
-
Willy Vlautin's The Horse: drenched in twangy music and heartbreak
Award-winning U.S. author Willy Vlautin's The Horse is his poignant new novel about the life of a lonely country musician in Nevada and his chance encounter with a half blind horse. Plus, bookseller David Gaunt reviews…
-
Dylin Hardcastle's A Language of Limbs: emotionally true, structurally complex
Kate Evans and Jonathan Green with guests Pip Williams and Sarah Bailey read Dylin Hardcastle's A Language of Limbs, Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword, Valeria Usala's A Woman in Sardinia and Jean-Baptiste del Amo's The…
-
Awfully Rich: Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise and more
Money, kidnapping, reality TV, politics, corruption, families, love, and betrayal in all three books on this edition of The Bookshelf. Kate Evans and Jonathan Green, with guests Farz Edraki and Johan Gabrielsson, read…
-
Fairytales are at play in Julia Phillips' Bear
The band is back together! Join Cassie and Kate as they head to an island off North America in Julia Phillips’ Bear, plus two Australian novels – Jessie Tu’s The Honeyeater and Finegan Kruckemeyer’s The End and…
-
Catherine McKinnon's To Sing of War takes us to PNG during WW ll
Kate Evans is joined by guest host Richard Aedy to discuss Catherine McKinnon's To Sing of War, a novel of love, war and friendship. Plus, two debut novels... Big Time by Jordan Prosser, set in a not-too-distant future…
-
A new fiction title from bestselling author Bruce Pascoe
Kate Evans returns with guest reviewers to discuss Bruce Pascoe’s Imperial Harvest, an epic of brutality and imperialism; along with Jenny Ackland’s Hurdy Gurdy, a circus saga set in a near-future Australia; and…
-
Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize
Cassie and Kate discuss Jenny Erpenbecks' Kairos (winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize) with critic Declan Fry - originally broadcast August 2023 when the book was first published; and interviews with writers…
-
In Parade Rachel Cusk blurs reality and fiction
Cassie and Tom Wright read The Parade by Rachel Cusk, her first since 2018’s Kudos, the final part of the acclaimed Outline trilogy. Once again, Cusk questions the very nature of truth. James Ley joins to discuss…
-
Kaliane Bradley's extraordinary time travel love story
Cassie and Jonathan Green review The Ministry of Time by debut British-Cambodian novelist Kaliane Bradley, a heads up, it's brilliant. Michael Brissenden reviews Crooked Seeds by South African writer Karen Jennings, a…
-
Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch joins an all-star panel from SWF
Cassie and Claire Nichols team up on stage at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival to grill some huge literary stars on their reading lives: Irish Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, U.S. bestseller Celeste Ng, and…
-
A new novel from Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran
Cassie and Jonathan Green review Safe Haven by 2023 Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran, Table For Two by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman In Moscow), and Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan of Crazy Rich Asians…
-
Claire Messud's epic family odyssey
Cassie and guest host Tom Wright discuss Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History, about a family torn apart by war, geography, politics and religion, over the course of three generations. Plus, guests Claire…
-
Colm Tóibín's long awaited sequel to Brooklyn
Cassie and Jonathan Green discuss Colm Tóibín's eagerly awaited new novel Long Island. Star reviewers Madeleine Gray and Benjamin Law discuss buzzy new fiction from Siang Lu (Ghost Cities), and Rachel Khong (Real…
-
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's lost novel
Cassie and Jonathan Green look at Until August, the lost novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and guest reviewers Hannah Kent and Roanna Gonsalves discuss powerful new fiction out of Iceland and the UK.
-
One Day author David Nicholls is back
Cassie and guest host Beejay Silcox read new work by One Day sensation David Nicholls.
-
A never before published novel from Charmian Clift
Cassie, Tom Wright and guests look at The End of the Morning, the never-before-published novel by the Australian writer Charmian Clift, who died in 1969. Plus, The Alternatives by Ireland’s Caoilinn Hughes, and…
-
Bri Lee's The Work explores art, ambition, privilege and power
Michaela Kalowski and Cassie look at The Work by Bri Lee, plus new novels from Call Me By Your Name author Andre Aciman, and a work of speculative fiction by Mykaela Saunders.
-
Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonian Road is "majestic"
Cassie and guest host Tom Wright take a look at the exceptional new novel from award-winning Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan, plus, a genre bending mystery from Stuart Turton and a clever new thriller set in Edinburgh.
-
Téa Obreht, Asako Yuzuki, Steven Carroll: dystopia, butter, murder
Cassie and Jonathan read Orange Prize winner Téa Obreht’s The Morningside, a dystopian coming-of-age story, plus, a Japanese bestseller and a new post-war literary crime series.
-
Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, a talking fox, art and alienation
Reimagining Huckleberry Finn, alienation and a talking fox in this edition of The Bookshelf.
-
Three new Australian novels! Iain Ryan, Amy Brown, Sharlene Allsopp
Cassie and Jonathan Green review three new Australian novels with guest star Claire Nichols and novelist Graham Akhurst.
-
A Trans-Tasman edition: Myfanwy Jones, Anna Smaill and Sulari Gentill
Cassie and co-host Tom Wright review two new Australian novels, and from across the ‘Dutch',
-
Meditations on writing: Gail Jones, Jennifer Croft and a new anthology edited by Margaret Atwood
Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green review a literary project edited by Margaret Atwood, and new work by Gail Jones and Jennifer Croft.
-
Dreams and nightmares: Leo Vardiashvili, Teju Cole, Matthew Blake
Cassie and guest host (and playwright) Tom Wright review three new works of fiction.
-
Mysteries and meta-physical thrillers: Kemper Donovan, Mike McCormack and Alex Michaelides
Mysteries and twists galore in new work by Kemper Donovan and best-selling British-Cypriot author Alex Michaelides; and award-winning Irish novelist Mike McCormack's follow up to Solar Bones.
-
New fiction from Francis Spufford, Hisham Matar and Kiley Reid
Cassie McCullagh and Michaela Kalowski review new novels including Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz, Hisham Matar's My Friends and Kiley Reid's Come and Get It.
More in Arts
Fresh Air
NPR
The Moth
The Moth
The MOOD Podcast
Matt Jacob · Not checked: its host turns away this site's checks
99% Invisible
Roman Mars
Spooked
KQED and Snap Studios
The Poetry Cafe
thepoetrycafe
Eating History
Level Media Inc.
The Magnus Archives
Rusty Quill
Stories of Art
HENI Talks
Fantasy Fangirls
Fantasy Fangirls
The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast
Forrest Kelly
Walk-In Talk Podcast
Carl Fiadini
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.