The Book Show

Mar 09 2025 244 ep. 48 mins 657
The Book Show Podcast artwork

Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.

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Rachel Kushner on writing spies, anarchists and Neanderthals

Mar 09 2025 54 mins  
American writer Rachel Kushner joins Claire Nichols on the stage at Adelaide Writers Week for a conversation about the Booker-shortlisted Creation Lake, her latest philosophical and darkly funny novel involving French eco-activists, a bold and ruthless infiltrator, and a cave-dwelling idealist. Recorded at Adelaide Writers Week 2025.

Colum McCann, Robert Lukins and Jane Yang on repair, the ultra-rich and bound feet

Mar 02 2025 55 mins  
In his latest book Twist, New York-based Irish writer Colum McCann dives into the digital age, travelling deep under the ocean into a tangled world of ruptured fibrous connections, its human cost, and repair. And Robert Lukins' Somebody Down There Likes Me takes an acerbic look at the downfall of a rich Connecticut family. Also, Jane Yang tells a story of female empowerment in her

Morgan Talty on family, blood and belonging

Feb 23 2025 17 mins  
Penobscot writer Morgan Talty's Fire Exit is a story of family bonds that go beyond bloodlines. Charles is a white man who must not only confront his past but decide whether to reveal his identity to the daughter he watches from across the river that borders the Native American Reservation of the Penobscot people. A compassionate account of family, love, and connections, it also

My Biggest Book 06 | Markus Zusak on The Book Thief

Feb 22 2025 37 mins  
In this final episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors reflect on their defining books, Markus Zusak reminisces about the literary phenomenon that is The Book Thief. The story of Liesel, a feisty German girl who finds power in stealing books in a world where words and ideas can both save and destroy lives is full of unforgettable characters and magic moments. Markus Z

When Makassar and Yolnu peoples met, a long history told in A Piece of Red Cloth

Feb 16 2025 21 mins  
The Yolnu people of the Northern Territory had a fruitful trading relationship with the Makassar people from Indonesia long before Australia was colonised. Yolnu people would even visit Makassar, some never returned. In A Piece of Red Cloth, Arnhem Land writer Leonie Norrington, who has collaborated with three elders from the region, including Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, evokes

My Biggest Book 05 | Roddy Doyle on The Commitments

Feb 15 2025 34 mins  
In this episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors reminisce about the book that defined their career, Roddy Doyle reflects on the times and difficulties of publishing The Commitments. A comic novel about a group of Irish youth who form a soul band, it's a brash and honest portrayal of working-class Dublin. It was rejected by numerous publishers, but Roddy persisted by se

Eowyn Ivey on Alaska, bears and magic

Feb 09 2025 20 mins  
Eowyn Ivey is best known for her magical debut novel, The Snow Child, a book set in her home state of Alaska. Her new book, Black Woods Blue Sky is also set in the beautiful and rugged wilds of Alaska, with magic and an unusual love story at its core, featuring a single mother finding tenderness in the unexpected. But does this love come at a cost?

My Biggest Book 04 | Nikki Gemmell on The Bride Stripped Bare

Feb 08 2025 34 mins  
For journalist and writer Nikki Gemmell her Biggest Book was a huge commercial success, but it had a sensational effect on her life and work. The Bride Stripped Bare delves into the secret life of a married woman, her frustrations, longings and sexual fantasies with graphic details of her encounters. The woman in her 30s has mysteriously disappeared and her body never found. Like

Juhea Kim: City of Night Birds

Feb 02 2025 20 mins  
Claire speaks to Juhea Kim about her latest novel which centres around an elite Russian ballet dancer returning to the stage after a serious injury. The City of Night Birds is a meditation on the purity and pain of artistic expression but also investigates its purpose in a fractured world.

My Biggest Book 03 | Emma Donoghue on Room

Feb 01 2025 35 mins  
In this episode of My Biggest Book, where prominent authors ponder their breakthrough novels, Emma Donaghue recalls her 2010 novel Room. Inspired by the famous Fritzl case, it's about a boy and his mother held captive in a small room, the only world the child, Jack, has ever known. The book was shortlisted for the Booker and in 2015 the film version was released. That adaptation