Pulitzer Prize winning Libyan author Hisham Matar on friendship in political exile and British author Ela Lee on the power of friendship at times of personal crisis.

Kiley Reid's follow up to Such a Fun Age in a campus novel that she says isn't a campus novel, Rachael Johns' love story about a woman called Bridget Jones and Iain Ryan's hardboiled take on Gold Coast corruption in the 1980s.

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham's latest novel Day explores a bromance, Madeleine Gray on writing a funny "sad girl novel" and Jessica Zhan Mei Yu on Sylvia Plath and up-ending the coming of age story.

My Own Sweet Time was a memoir said to be written by Wanda Koolmatrie, a member of the Aboriginal stolen generations. But it was a hoax and this episode of Fakes and Frauds explores the long lasting impacts of the hoax particularly on Aboriginal Australian writers.

Pip Williams' follow up to her bestselling novel The Dictionary of Lost Words, Josh Kemp on how bushwalking helps his writing and the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner, Shankari Chandran.

The Helen Demidenko scandal tore the Australian literary community apart in the 1990s. This episode of Fakes and Frauds charts the rise and downfall of Helen Demidenko and the impacts on the book world.  

Is there such thing as an Irish voice in fiction? 

Cannibalism, telepathy and celibacy are just some of the false claims about Australian Aboriginal people that Marlo Morgan made in her 1990s new age hit, Mutant Message Down Under, and this episode of Fakes and Frauds exposes the lies. 

Booker winner Ian McEwan explores his 1960s childhood in his latest novel and reigning Booker winner Paul Lynch on his unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland.

Find out how to catch a con-artist in this episode of Fakes and Frauds that delves into the fake memoir Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri 20 years after the book was first published. 

The two winners of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction are both about money but at opposite ends of the spectrum — Barbara Kingsolver's is about poverty while Hernán Diaz's is about astronomical wealth. 

Fakes and Frauds is a new series that unpacks famous Australian literary scandals. The first and most recent controversy was the discovery of plagiarism in the work of award winning Australian writer John Hughes. Find out how the plagiarism was uncovered and why it matters.

Australian writers Anna Funder and Paul Jennings on what it takes to be a writer.

Naomi Alderman takes on tech giants and survivalists in a novel that imagines the end of the world, and an atheist joins a monastery in Charlotte Wood's meditative new book.

Miles Franklin winner Amanda Lohrey asks where we find community in our secular world, Matthew Reilly's latest adventure and the restorative power of the pool with Katherine Brabon.

Paul Lynch is the 2023 Booker Prize winner for his novel Prophet Song. Prophet Song (Bloomsbury) is an unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland where a populist government has taken control and becoming increasingly authoritarian. Activists are being disappeared and the main character Eilish Stack is trying to keep her family together. Paul Lynch spoke to the Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange about the writer's responsibility to truth and how to craft a novel that resembles myth. 

Booker winner Richard Flanagan on why writing his latest book Question 7 "felt like a strange dream". Also, the artist's muse in fiction and how a mistake led to Laura Jean McKay's latest book.   

Two very different writers explore the dynamics of family and violence: Tony Birch in a 1960s working class, Catholic family and Christos Tsiolkas in middle-aged gay relationships.

In the lead up to the 2023 Booker Prize award, we dive into the six shortlisted novels and meet the authors.

Brisbane is in the spotlight with Melissa Lucashenko exploring the early days of the colony in time for the city's bicentenary and debut novelist Melanie Saward's story of a troubled teen with an attraction to fire.

Things are getting spooky on The Book Show, as we explore ghostly fiction. Booker winner Shehan Karuantilika and Australian Steve Totlz will imagine the afterlife with their beyond-the-grave novels. Jennifer Mills, SJ Norman and Kevin Jared Hosein will tell you about the ghosts haunting their books, and Josh Kemp and Michelle Johnston will take you to the ghost towns that inspired their fiction.

Three authors on the spirits and spirituality at the heart of their novels - award winning US author Jesmyn Ward's lyrical novel about slavery, Indigenous author Graham Akhurt's terrifying dog man in his debut novel, and Anna McGahan on her former membership of a Pentecostal church that informs her Vogel Literary Award winning book. 

Bestselling fantasy author Cassandra Clare's draws on her Jewish background in her first novel for adults, Kareem Abdulrahman on translating Kurdish Iraqi author Bachtyar Ali and Mirandi Riwoe's jasmine drenched historical novel.

Trent Dalton's foray into Brisbane's underworld in his third novel, Leah Kaminsky's story of dolls and exile and Peter Polities on mothers and sons. 

Two writers imagine how technology will shape our future: Jeanette Winterson talks about how AI will give new meaning to ghost stories and Australian writer Kate Mildenhall imagines an algorithm to save the world.

Sebastian Faulks on what makes us human, Emily Perkins takes on female rage and Jane Harrison digs into Australian history to bring us The Visitors. 

It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Margaret Atwood who won the prize for a second time in 2019, sharing the prize with Bernardine Evaristo for her novel The Testaments, a sequel to her popular The Handmaid's Tale.

It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's South African writer Damon Galgut who won the prize in 2021 for The Promise, a novel which explores recent South African history through the changing fortunes of a white family.

It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka who won the prize in 2022 for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, set during the Sri Lankan civil war with a ghost for a narrator. 

It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's American short story writer, essayist and novelist George Saunders who won in 2017 for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, set in the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln's son is buried. 

It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Scottish author Douglas Stuart who won in 2020 for his devastating novel Shuggie Bain, set in the poverty stricken housing estates of 1980s Glasgow. 

It's Booker Prize season so The Book Show has gathered interviews with some of the most recent winners for you. Here's Bernardine Evaristo who shared the prize with Margaret Atwood in 2019 for her novel Girl, Woman, Other.

Literary fiction is good at the hard stuff – grief, pain and conflict - but what about the books that make you feel good? Authors Joan Silber, Toni Jordan and Andy Weir bring joy to The Book Show for ABC Arts Week, talking about the radical act of writing optimistic fiction. You'll also hear from Richard Ford, Douglas Stuart, Jennifer Down, Anita Heiss, Marlon James and Monica Ali.

Two historical novels with colonialism as their backdrop: one by the famous UK writer Zadie Smith and the other a debut novel by Fijian Australian author, Nilima Rao. And Molly Schmidt shares the story that was bubbling inside her since she was a teenager.

Former Booker Prize winner Anne Enright says she's drawn to life's contradictions and in her latest The Wren, The Wren she explores the complicated, messy relationships at the heart of one family. Also, Marija Peričić on one man's love of a dead woman, and Laura Elizabeth Woollett's changing relationship with her hometown, Perth.

Chris Womersley exposes the dark side of suburbia in his sixth novel Ordinary Gods and Monsters, Maxine Beneba Clarke shares the joy of poetry for young readers and Zeynab Gamieldien explores the lives of members of a university Muslim Students' Association in her debut novel. 

Australian author Kate Grenville reflects on her lifetime of writing and how accepting failure Kate Grenville reflects on a lifetime of writing and how accepting failure has been key to her success, and Caribbean author Kevin Jared Hosein on his devastating novel Hungry Ghosts.

Since 2016 Jane Harper has published five bestselling crime novels including The Dry and The Lost Man. Her latest novel Exiles sees a return of financial crimes investigator Aaron Falk but Jane says it will be the last time he has a starring role in her books. So what's next for Jane Harper?  

American author Ann Patchett believes contentment is a radical idea in today's busy world and in her latest novel Tom Lake reflects on the joy of stillness. Also when Tracy Sorensen's novel about cancer, The Vitals, was published Tracy was given the terrible news that her own cancer has re-emerged. She is now undergoing chemotherapy while spruiking her book.

Stories of redemption and healing: Canadian author Patrick deWitt's latest novel The Librarianist is about a lonely, former librarian. Claire takes a walk in Perth bushland with WA author Josh Kemp to discuss his dark and feral novel and Indigenous poet Ali Cobby Eckermann on the healing power of nature.

Shankari Chandran has won this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award for her third novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, a Trojan horse of a novel that lures you in with the promise of a cosy read but is also about racism and trauma.

Anna Funder's fourth book Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life interrogates why George Orwell's wife, Eileen Blair has been written out of his biography. Also debut author Kerry Taylor and her sensitive portrayal of a North Queensland jockey who lived his life as a man while carrying a secret about his identity until his death in 1975.

American author Richard Ford says, "I write for the audience today" and not for immortality. Now 79, and with Be Mine, his fifth Frank Bascombe novel, Ford also shares his ideas about death and dying and why he's not scared. Also, New Zealand author Stephanie Johnson on her novel Kind featuring villainous and duplicitous characters.

Tracey Lien watched Judge Judy as a child and Nina Wan learnt English at 10 when she migrated from China to Australia. Now they have both published entertaining and moving debut novels: All That's Left Unsaid and The Albatross. 

Indigenous writer, lawyer and filmmaker Larissa Behrendt speaks to writers Anita Heiss and Ellen van Neerven about the past and the future of First Nations writing in Australia.

Interviews with all six shortlisted authors for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award from RN's The Bookshelf and Book Show (in alphabetical order). The shortlist was announced on 20 June; the winner will be announced on 25 July.

A double bill of Booker Prize winners with reigning champion Shehan Karunatilaka and previous winner Damon Galgut. 

American author Lisa See's Lady Tan's Circle of Women set during the Chinese Ming dynasty, Robert Gott's comedy of manners, Saman Shad's contribution to the rom-com and a tour of Mark Brandi's writing space. 

Bestselling Australian author Kate Morton's personal story of home and her latest novel Homecoming, Stephanie Bishop's psycho thriller The Anniversary and Zoya Patel's story of a migrant family torn apart by a romantic relationship which took inspiration from her own, difficult experience. 

Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver and British author Max Porter turn their attention to lost boys failed by society.

My Own Sweet Time was a memoir said to be written by Wanda Koolmatrie, a member of the Aboriginal stolen generation. But it was a hoax and this final episode of Fakes and Frauds explores its long lasting impacts. Plus, American author Don Winslow explains why he's stepping away from writing fiction. 

Richard Powers, Hannah Kent, Elif Shafak and Michael Christie all use trees in their fiction to touch on themes of roots and connections, growth and rebirth, the family tree. But as our climate changes, is the way novelists use trees also changing to make the natural world the star of the story? 

The latest episode in our Fakes and Frauds series is about the biggest recent book scandal of all, the Helen Demidenko affair. Also Shirley Le discusses her debut Funny Ethnics.

Cannibalism, telepathy and celibacy are just some of the false claims Marlo Morgan made in her 1990s new age hit, Mutant Message Down Under, meet the Indigenous activists who campaigned against the book in the latest episode of Fakes and Frauds. And Eleanor Catton on her Macbeth inspired satire, Birnam Wood. 

Find out how to catch a con-artist in this episode of Fakes and Frauds that delves into the fake memoir of Norma Khouri. And American author Curtis Sittenfeld on the Saturday Night Live inspiration for her latest novel, Romantic Comedy.

Find out how to catch a plagiarist in the first of our series Fakes and Frauds - the book scandals that rocked Australia. And Australian prize winning author, Alexis Wright on her new novel Praiseworthy, an epic Aboriginal fable. 

Australian authors Chloe Hooper, Alice Pung and Larissa Behrendt reveal the complex and complicated mums in their lives and on the page.

British Booker winner Julian Barnes's latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, is about a life-changing teacher and he tells the audience at the Sydney Writers Festival that "you become a writer by not being the child of a writer".

The smell of books and Italian cooking are celebrated in the latest novels by bestselling Australian authors Pip Williams and Dominic Smith. Pip Williams' follow up to The Dictionary of Lost Words revisits Oxford as the setting for her wartime drama, The Bookbinder of Jericho. And Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto explores the people who choose to stay in crumbling Italian ghost towns.

Indian author Anindita Ghose on life after Vogue, her friendship with Jonathan Franzen, and the joy of killing the patriarch on page one.

Irish writers John Boyne, Esther Freud and Louise Kennedy share stories of the pub, the role of the church and whether there's such a thing as an Irish voice. 

Literary titan, Margaret Atwood on the death of her beloved husband, the influence of George Orwell and the pleasures of ageing. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, Old Babes in the Wood. Also, another Canadian writer Jessica Johns on her debut, Bad Cree.

American writer Sequoia Nagamatsu shares stories from his childhood growing up in Hawaii, his love of Star Trek, how environmentalism fuels his writing and how being Japanese American has shaped him. His debut novel is How High We Go in the Dark and he was a guest of the Perth Festival Writers Weekend.

 Bestselling British author Samantha Shannon celebrates women, love and desire in her latest fantasy novel, A Day of Fallen Night, Cate Kennedy takes a deep dive into the short story and Ronnie Scott on why he persisted with his second novel Shirley.

For Sydney WorldPride, we celebrate queer writers telling queer stories – the funny, the heartbreaking and the spooky. We’ve searched The Book Show archive to bring you highlights from Andrew Sean Greer, Val McDermid, Alan Hollinghurst, Jennifer Mills, S.J Norman, S.L Lim and Holden Sheppard.

A trio of books by women about bodies, ballet, grief and working mothers. Meg Howrey on They're Going to Love You, Inga Simpson on Kath O'Connor's posthumous debut novel Inheritance, and Dinuka McKenzie on the physical pain of being a breastfeeding mother returning to the police force. 

Indian writer Deepti Kapoor takes on corruption, wealth and poverty in India in her novel The Age of Vice, Michelle Johnston takes you deep in to the basement of the Perth hospital where she works and writes and American author Kevin Wilson's "book for prudish teens", Now is Not the Time to Panic.

Two very different crime fiction writers, Australian Indigenous author Julie Janson and Scottish writer Stuart MacBride imagine grisly scenarios in their books Madukka: The River Serpent and The Dead of Winter. Also Briony Stewart's re-imagining of Frente's 90s hit song Accidentally Kelly Street as a children's book. 

Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Jennings have been very successful writers for 40 years and although they're very different writers - Bret Easton Ellis is best known for American Psycho and Paul Jennings for his children's books - they both discuss how they've navigated the benefits and pitfalls of fame.

It's been 40 years since Tim Winton published his first novel, An Open Swimmer. Today he is the beloved writer of 29 books, a four-time Miles Franklin winner (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and an incomparable observer of the Western Australian landscape. For the Big Weekend of Books, he joined The Book Show's Claire Nichols and a live audience at the ABC studios in Perth.

Marlon James' African Game of Thrones, Markus Zusak gets your fanmail and Meg Mason's surprise success with Sorrow and Bliss.

Booker winner Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr explore queer love and identity in their fiction.

Writers (and bookworms) Craig Silvey, Tony Birch, and Dervla McTiernan talk about their reading lives, in this special episode recorded at the Perth Festival Writers Weekend.

Ruth Ozeki, Shehan Karunatilaka and Jennifer Down share the backstory to their award winning books.

Australian novelist Heather Rose lost her brother in a tragic accident when she was just 12 years old. In her memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here, she shares how her grief and curiosity led her on a lifelong search for the extraordinary. Also, Wiradjuri activist-turned-author Yvonne Weldon on her love story Sixty-Seven Days and Thomas Keneally tackles a tricky subject in his historic novel Fanatic Heart.

City-saving superheroes, cheese-bingeing record store employees and a chemist turned TV chef with NK Jemisin, Katharine Pollock and Bonnie Garmus.

Booker winner George Saunders on his short story addiction, Inga Simpson on the great Australian cricket novel and pandemic fiction for kids.

Alex Miller and Patricia Cornwell talk about ageing and fiction and their novels A Brief Affair and Livid, and we explore the line between fact and fiction with historical novelists Jock Serong, Eleanor Limprecht and Sienna Brown.

Actor Joseph Paterson shines a spotlight on Black British history, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's Ottoman Empire saga and Australian Fiona McFarlane goes in search of a lost boy in 1883.

Graham Norton, Diana Reid and Holly Throsby discuss why they enjoy writing about women in fiction. Graham Norton's fourth novel Forever Home is about a woman saying a slow goodbye to her partner (and wondering about a weird smell in the basement). Diana Reid's second novel Seeing Other People unapologetically explores the anxieties of young, educated women in Sydney and musician Holly Throsby's novel Clarke is partly inspired by the case of Lynette Dawson, who famously went missing from her family home in the 1980s.

Ian Rankin's detective John Rebus has been part of the literary world for 35 years and now his 24th Rebus novel has just landed, A Heart Full of Headstones. Discover the hard centre of Victoria Hannan's new novel Marshmallow and find out what an ear prostitute is with Singaporean writer Clarissa Goenawan's Watersong.

Barbara Kingsolver explains her connection to Charles Dickens and why her latest Demon Copperhead is set in Appalachia, USA. Sophie Cunningham's almost 20 year grapple with her latest book This Devastating Fever and apples, orchards and rabbits in Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott's third novel, Limberlost.

Shehan Karunatilaka is the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize for his book The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. He spoke to The Book Show about setting the novel during the Sri Lankan Civil War and the importance of bearing witness to its horrors. 

Three literary superstars share the inspiration for their books and how to give a character a good ending: Holly Ringland, Elizabeth Strout and Jane Harper. They discuss their books The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, Oh William! and Exiles.

Former winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction Kamila Shamsie and Booker Prize-shortlisted author NoViolet Bulawayo reflect on the demise of dictators in their respective countries Pakistan and Zimbabwe and the impact this has had on their lives. Shamsie's new novel is Best of Friends, while Bulawayo has been shortlisted for her book Glory. Also, Australian author Chris Womersley revisits 90s haunts in inner city Melbourne for his gritty novel The Diplomat.

Finding joy in fiction with Pulitzer winner Andrew Sean Greer whose lovable character Arthur Less returns in Less is Lost and Craig Silvey's Runt, a book for children and adults young at heart. And the joy of being on the Booker Prize shortlist with Shehan Karunatilaka whose satire The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is set in 1989 during the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Can a book predict the future? AM Homes' latest novel The Unfolding follows a group of Republicans who plot to take over the government, but Homes says it was written well before the January 6th Capitol riots. Meanwhile, the oldest-ever Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Alan Garner evokes an enigmatic and mysterious world in his book Treacle Walker, and Tracey Lien's impressive debut All That's Left Unsaid explores the death of star student in Cabramatta's Vietnamese community.

Shortlisted Booker author Percival Everett kicks off our Booker Prize coverage with a discussion of The Trees and former Booker winner Ian McEwan reveals that his latest novel, Lessons, is his most personal work and certainly his longest.  Also, Jay Carmichael explains how he went beyond the archive for his second novel, Marlo, on gay relationships in 1950s Australia.

Maggie O'Farrell says her latest novel The Marriage Portrait came to her in "a lightning bolt moment". The book honours the short life of the 16th century Duchess Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, who was rumoured to be murdered by her husband. Also, Australian author Robert Drewe's resurrection of the sporting hero you've never heard of in Nimblefoot and Zaheda Ghani's debut Pomegranate and Fig, a book that's been in her mind since childhood.

American humourist Sloane Crosley explores the dating scene in New York City, but with a twist, in her novel Cult Classic. Also, Neela Janakiramanan takes a break from her hospital rounds to tell you about her Australian medical drama The Registrar and Siang Lu takes on kung fu, comedy, and the history of cinema in The Whitewash.

From growing up surrounded by homophobia in a small Tasmanian town to getting married in 2021, award winning comedian and now writer Hannah Gadsby shares what it is like to be queer, autistic and at the top of her game.

Author of Room, Emma Donoghue questions the zealotry of monks in her latest novel, Haven, set on an inhospitable island in 7th century Ireland (Star Wars fans will recognise this island too!). Also, Pirooz Jafari on his gentle novel, Forty Nights, about war and displacement, and Grace Chan imagines a future dominated by virtual reality in Every Version of You.

It's been 40 years since Tim Winton published his first novel, An Open Swimmer. Today he is the beloved writer of 29 books, a four-time Miles Franklin winner (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and an incomparable observer of the Western Australian landscape. For the Big Weekend of Books, he joined The Book Show's Claire Nichols and a live audience at the ABC studios in Perth.

Women's Prize for Fiction winner, Ruth Ozeki, is also a Zen Buddhist priest and explains how this practice shapes her writing. Also, British crime writer, Ann Cleeves sets her tenth Vera novel, The Rising Tide, on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne where Christianity first came to the UK.

Richard Powers, Hannah Kent, Elif Shafak and Michael Christie all use trees in their fiction to touch on themes of roots and connections, growth and rebirth, the family tree. But as our climate changes, is the way novelists use trees also changing to make the natural world the star of the story? 

For ABC Arts Week, we celebrate literary events at your local bookstore with a couple of conversations with Irish Australian queens of crime. 

Bestselling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty, shares stories from her childhood and how growing up in a big family influenced the theme of sibling rivalry in her latest book, Apples Never Fall. This conversation was recorded at the Castlemaine Town Hall, Victoria, for a joint event between the Castlemaine State Festival and The Wheeler Centre.

Jessie Burton wasn't finished with the main characters in her bestselling debut novel The Miniaturist and returns to the 17th century Dutch setting for the sequel, The House of Fortune. Also, we visit Torres Strait Island writer and advocate for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Thomas Mayor, at his home in Darwin and Sulari Gentill explains the origins of her playful metafictional crime novel, The Woman in the Library.

Ahead of the announcement of the winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's most prestigious book prize, join the shortlisted authors Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Michelle De Kretser, Jennifer Down, Alice Pung and Michael Winkler to find out about their writing rituals, the importance of place in their fiction and how their novels speak to Australia now.

British author Benjamin Myers says he likes to be on the margins as a writer and his latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle, is about the crop circles that appeared in 1989 in the English countryside and explores the type of people who created them. Also Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell explain their genre-bending book, Mothertongues and Noongar author, Claire G Coleman's mysterious and unsettling book, Enclave, set in a walled Australian city.

For NAIDOC Week, three Aboriginal writers who are grappling with the past: Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, Tony Birch explores his family history in Dark as Last Night and SJ Norman's, Permafrost, a collection of haunted short stories.

American author Madeline Miller has found a new audience for her prize winning novel Circe on #BookTok and now she has a new offering based on Greek mythology called Galatea. Also, Lauren Chater's real life inspiration for her third historical novel, The Winter Dress and Carrie Cox asks whether relationships are really meant to go the distance in her latest novel, So Many Beats of the Heart.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brookes says she "didn't grow up as a horse obsessed girl" but rather her interest in horses was a result of a midlife crisis which led her to the history of a famous American thoroughbred that was the inspiration for her latest novel, simply called Horse. Also, John Purcell talks about his second official novel, The Lessons, and reveals his brief career writing erotica and Karen Manton explains the inspiration for her evocative novel, The Curlew's Eye, set in remote Northern Territory.

Meg Mason thought her second novel, Sorrow and Bliss wouldn't be published, it was and is now shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, which will be announced this week. Also Australian writer Ennis Ćehić on his playful collection, Sadvertising, and American writer Leila Motley's debut novel, Nightcrawling, which she wrote at just 17.

Booker-winning writer Damon Galgut wasn’t always aware of his privilege, growing up as a white man in South Africa. Instead, he describes a ‘slow-shifting of consciousness’, that culminated in The Promise, a book he calls ‘my most South African novel'. Also, The Rosie Project author, Graeme Simsion, gives a tour of his writing space and Hilde Hinton on her second novel, A Solitary Walk on the Moon.

British Booker winner Julian Barnes's latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, is about a life-changing teacher and he tells the audience at the Sydney Writers Festival that "you become a writer by not being the child of a writer".

Canadian author, Emily St John Mandel, says the pandemic changed her as a writer. Her latest, Sea of Tranquility, was written during lockdown in New York and while it's a standalone novel, also features links to her previous books, Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel. Also, Goan-Anglo-Indian Australian writer Michelle Cahill's novel, Daisy and Woolf, is a literary homage and post-colonial critique of Virginia Woolf’s classic Mrs Dalloway.

Here Goes Nothing is the last in what Steve Toltz calls his trilogy of fear which began with A Fraction of the Whole. This latest book is narrated by a ghost who discovers there is an afterlife hierarchy and he is at the bottom. Also, Irish writer Audrey Magee on her second novel The Colony which is colonisation in microcosm and Toni Jordan's sixth novel, Dinner with the Schnabels, billed as a family dramedy.

Booker winner Douglas Stuart's second novel, Young Mungo, is again set in gritty working class Glasgow, but also explores blossoming queer love. And, two debut novels also exploring queer identity with Indyana Schneider's 28 Questions and Omar Sakr's Son of Sin.

We meet some of the most remarkable mothers in recent fiction, with authors including Dawn French, Douglas Stuart, Anne Enright, Lisa Taddeo, Larissa Behrendt and Alice Pung. These literary mums can be loving, neglectful and sometimes cruel – and they often reveal something about the author’s own relationship with their mother or children. Other featured authors include George Haddad, Craig Sherborne, Lydia Kiesling and Kate Mildenhall.

Jennifer Down doesn't turn away from uncomfortable truths in her Stella Prize shortlisted novel, Bodies of Light, about the systemic failures of the residential and foster care systems in the 70s and 80s. Also, we revisit our interview with Jonathan Franzen who talks about faith and family, which are two themes in his latest book, Crossroads.

Hannah Kent reflects on her time as an exchange student in Iceland and how it allowed her to pursue writing, and Michelle Johnston tells Claire Nichols about her novel, Dustfall, for the international literary event called Literature Live Around the World which was hosted by the Bergen International Literary Festival in Norway.

Pulitzer-prize winner, Jennifer Egan, is "interested in the ways technology interacts with our psychologies". Her new novel, The Candy House, plays with a deliciously dangerous idea: what if you could externalise your memory? And two books set in small town Australia: Mandy Beaumont's The Furies and Yumna Kassab's provocatively titled Australiana.

The Icelandic sagas have long been a source of fascination for Kári Gíslason and his latest novel, The Sorrow Stone, gives new life to an old Icelandic saga. Also disability advocate and writer Liel Bridgford explores disability representation in fiction with Kay Kerr and Jessica Walton, and Robert Lukins on his second novel Loveland set in Nebraska about two women who've experienced controlling marriages and asks whether trauma is inherited.

For his latest novel, Moon Witch, Spider King, Marlon James says "I was trying to connect with my own mythological history as a black man in an African diaspora, in a former British colony". Also, friendship in fiction with Susan Johnson, Juhea Kim and Paige Clark, and Perth writer David Whish-Wilson's writing space.

'I have a full and beautiful life', says Irish writer Marian Keyes, 'The only thing I can't do is drink'. And the experience of addiction and recovery is something she's given to the main character in her book Again, Rachel, a sequel to Rachel's Holiday. Also, Michael Trant writes a book on his tractor, Jane Caro explores coercive control in The Mother and Rhett Davis's debut novel, Hovering.

Karen Joy Fowler wades into American Civil War history and the story of John Wilkes Booth, the first presidential assassin, in her novel Booth. Also, Kalkadoon author Megan Albany's comic novel about death and Lloyd Jones's latest allegorical novel, The Fish.

Craig Silvey, Tony Birch and Dervla McTiernan share their love of reading from the Perth Festival Writers Weekend. They share their formative childhood reads, favourite first lines and give some writing advice along the way.

Isabel Allende says her latest novel, Violeta, was inspired by her mother but also by Allende's own life. Also, readers who send fan mail and the writers who reply with Markus Zusak, Anita Heiss, John Marsden and Krissy Kneen, and disability in fiction with Joseph Elliott and Kit Kavanagh-Ryan.

Our Country Friends is a funny book set in upstate New York during the pandemic by US writer Gary Shteyngart and Xochitl Gonzalez looks at the city through a Puerto Rican lens in Olga Dies Dreaming.

From young love and forbidden romance to break-ups and long-term relationships: hear authors wax lyrical about love. Writers include David Nicholls, Amy Bloom, Tayari Jones, Howard Jacobson, Monica Ali, Curtis Sittenfeld, Anita Heiss, Vivian Pham, C.S Pacat and Daniel de Lorne.

Jason Mott's Hell of a Book lives up to its name: it has a snappy title, an eccentric narrator and a Nicolas Cage cameo. Also, two authors who explore older Australian's experiences with Liz Byrski's At the End of the Day and Shankari Chandran's Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens.

Almost 20 years after Brick Lane, Monica Ali is still unpicking the ins and outs of relationships in her novel, Love Marriage. Also, Skimming Stones by Maria Papas was directly inspired by her daughter's own illness and Jack Ellis challenges a myth about childhood in Home and Other Hiding Places.

In her new book To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara asks what would America be if its foundations were different. Also Katherine Collette's ode to Toastmasters in The Competition and Craig Sherborne's difficult mother in A Grass Hotel.

Two masters of the form, George Saunders and Tsisti Dangarembga, share lessons from their extensive writing careers.

The Booker-winning author Pat Barker's preoccupation with who's allowed to speak and who isn't continues in The Women of Troy, a sequel to The Silence of the Girls, her exploration of women in the Ancient Greek classics. Also, New Animal author, Ella Baxter, on how her writing relates to her artistic practice, and the final in Michael Mohammed Ahmad's trilogy featuring his alter-ego, Bani Adam, with The Other Half of You.

Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro introduces us to his latest creation in Klara and the Sun, and we also take a look at how authors name their heroes and villains with six writers including Tony Birch, Tabitha Bird and Mirandi Riwoe.

"It's such a contradiction in life how much we learn from suffering," says actor and writer Ethan Hawke who tells The Book Show about his fourth novel A Bright Ray of Darkness. Darkness and light is a recurring theme in our other author interviews with American Patricia Lockwood and Australian Jessie Tu.

International travel has been off the cards for many in the last two years, this literary world tour might be the next best thing.

Kate Grenville, Craig Silvey, Susanna Clarke, Nardi Simpson, Damon Galgut, Christos Tsiolkas and more on their prize-winning books. Plus, former winners Colson Whitehead, Bernardine Evaristo and Anthony Doerr on the impact of winning a major prize.

Unlike many authors, Jodi Picoult decided to take on COVID-19 in Wish You Were Here, because Picoult says, "we need to remember everything we got wrong while we were learning what this disease is". Also, the salvation of poetry in Brendan Cowell's Plum and The Kindness of Birds by Filipino Australian writer Merlinda Bobis.

Scottish crime writer Val McDermid's new book, 1979, is the beginning of a new series inspired by her own experience as a newspaper journalist in the 1970s and 80s. Also, to celebrate International Day of People With Disability we have some recommendations for speculative fiction novels that centre disabled characters, and

"I never sunk into complacency in any aspect of my life." Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo on her latest book, Manifesto, about her unconventional path to success. Also, Stella Prize winner Charlotte Wood on cultivating a rich inner life in The Luminous Solution, and the 2021 Nobel Laureate for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, on how he became a writer.

"I can't separate the erotic and the sensual from the beautiful." Melbourne Prize for Literature winner, Christos Tsiolkas on his latest novel 7½ which explores what it means to be a writer and the role of beauty in fiction. Also, Rebecca Starford and Steven Carroll on the real life characters that inspired their World War II novels, The Imitator and O.

Author of Burial Rites and The Good People, Hannah Kent says she wanted to look at human connection in her latest novel Devotion. It's another historical novel but is a love story about two girls whose love transcends rules, religion, and even crosses an ocean. Also, the British author, Susanna Clarke, was the winner of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction for her novel Piranesi. She talks about writing the book while living with a chronic illness.

Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut on his award winning novel The Promise.

"Everyday could be a day of unthinkable richness if we just keep still, attend and be present to what the place that we live in wants to do." Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers talks about the power of wilderness to centre his characters in Bewilderment, his Booker Prize-shortlisted novel. Also, two time winner of the Miles Franklin, Michelle de Kretser, on her new book, Scary Monsters which is a book in two parts, with two front covers, and is an exploration of the migrant experience.

"The journey is the oldest story known to humanity", says bestselling American author Amor Towles, whose third book is based on this archetypal narrative and takes a group of lost boys on an unpredictable road trip in The Lincoln Highway. Also, Booker Prize shortlisted author Anuk Arudpragasam with A Passage North and Vietnamese American Monique Truong's exploration of Lafcadio Hearn, the 19th century Creole cookbook author and Japanese folktale collector, in The Sweetest Fruits.

Liane Moriarty's latest novel is Apples Never Fall and as another TV adaptation of her work wraps us, she is adamant she will never write books with a view to adaptation. Also, British-Turkish Elif Shafak's inventive The Island of Missing Trees set in a divided Cyprus and Booker shortlisted author Damon Galgut's equally inventive, The Promise.

American author Patricia Lockwood's debut novel is a work of two distinct parts. In the first half, we meet a woman addicted to the “portal”, or internet, where she has crafted a unique online presence. In the second half, the protagonist is dragged back in to the real world, after her sister gives birth to a very sick baby. The book is inspired by Patricia’s own life, and her experiences as an aunt to her niece, Lena. It’s a book as funny as it is heartbreaking, and in this interview Patricia talks about her extreme physical reaction to the book, and her quest for a perfect dress to wear to the Women’s Prize for Fiction ceremony. Patricia Lockwood speaks to Claire Nichols. Listen here for a longer interview about the book.

South African writer Damon Galgut has now been shortlisted for the Booker three times, and the latest is for his ninth book, The Promise. It is a family saga that begins in 1986 apartheid South Africa and follows one Afrikaner family through to the present. At its heart, is a broken promise that serves as an allegory for modern South Africa. But as Damon tells Sarah L'Estrange, it's also about a dysfunctional family.

American travel writer Maggie Shipstead's third novel Great Circle, is about a fictional aviatrix, Marian Graves, who goes missing in her quest to circumnavigate the globe in 1950. It's also about a troubled Hollywood actor who attempts to resurrect her reputation by taking the lead role in a Marian Graves biopic. The novel explores questions of death and disappearance, as well as the unknowability of the past. Maggie Shipstead speaks to Sarah L'Estrange.

Richard Powers is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Overstory. His latest novel, Bewilderment, is about a recently widowed father trying to raise and protect his troubled son, as the planet’s ecology implodes. This novel does not give itself to easy one liners, as its scope is mythical and crosses into the terrain of science fiction while still exploring parental love. Richard Powers is speaking to Claire Nichols.

A Passage North is the second novel by Sri Lankan, Anuk Arudpragasam. It's about a young Tamil man, Krishan, as he travels from Colombo to north Sri Lanka for the funeral of his grandmother's carer. It is an introspective story that follows Krishan's meandering ruminations about the Sri Lankan civil war, trauma, desire and Sanskrit poetry. Anuk Arudpragasam is speaking to Sarah L'Estrange.

In 1952, Somali seaman Mahmood Mattan, convicted of the murder of a local shopkeeper, became the last man to be hanged in Cardiff. Forty-five years later, his conviction was quashed. In The Fortune Men, the British-Somali writer Nadifa Mohamed takes this true story and gives it a novel treatment. Amongst the bustling, multiracial town of Tiger Bay, we meet Mattan, a man of quiet dignity and anger, and the corrupt and racist police who frame him for murder. Mohamed also paints a sympathetic portrait of the murder victim, here renamed Violet Volacki. Nadifa Mohamed is speaking to Claire Nichols.

In 2019, John Boyne faced huge online backlash for a book he wrote about a trans teenager and he's channelled that experience in to his new comic novel, The Echo Chamber. Also, Booker Prize shortlisted author Nadifa Mohamed on The Fortune Men and Emily Bitto’s Wild Abandon, about men, booze, tigers and America.

“I admit to regular fits of feeling simply I am not a good person,” says Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections, “and it’s a question that fiction is uniquely poised to engage with”. And it’s a question that is at the heart of his new novel Crossroads. Also, Maggie Shipstead on her Booker Prize shortlisted novel Great Circle, and Robert Gott’s historical crime novel, The Orchard Murders, based on the Messiah of Nunawading.

In his latest book Cloud Cuckoo Land, Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr explores the human desire to create utopian worlds in places far from home. CS Pacat on their latest fantasy adventure Dark Rise, and Patricia Lockwood on being shortlisted for this years' Booker Prize for No One Is Talking About This.

British rapper, poet and writer, Akala, equates reading and writing to a form of magic. He brings this passion to the page in his debut YA novel, The Dark Lady, about pickpocket Henry, set in the time of Shakespeare's London. Also, The Overthinkers, a debut by a Sydney writing duo and Nick Earls on his heart surgery recovery as well as Empires, his most ambitious novel yet.

"My favourite memories as a kid, are watching Saturday afternoon movies," says two time Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead, "so I gave myself permission to do a heist book and started planning." Harlem Shuffle was the result. Also, Marion Frith's timely debut Here In the After about an Australian soldier who served in Afghanistan and Charlotte McConaghy on Once There Were Wolves, about rewilding the Scottish highlands.

Actor Bryan Brown has published a debut collection of crime fuelled fiction in his 70s, it's called Sweet Jimmy. Also, Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Paige Clark's metaphorical ghosts in She Is Haunted.

Booker winning, Pat Barker's preoccupation with who's allowed to speak and who isn't continues with The Women of Troy, the sequel to The Silence of the Girls, her exploration of women in the Ancient Greek classics. Also, journalist Barry Divola on his music inspired road novel and Malla Nunn's Sugar Town Queens, set in post-Mandela South Africa.

Kevin Kwan is the man who introduced readers to the world of Singapore's ultra rich in his hit trilogy Crazy Rich Asians. Claire Nichols speaks to him about growing up wealthy in Singapore, his move to the US as a teen and the inspiration for his latest book Sex and Vanity.

Kate Grenville's interest in women hemmed in by history comes to the fore in her new audiobook about her grandmother, Always Greener. Also, Lisa Emanuel's debut novel The Covered Wife is about a Sydney woman drawn into a religious cult, and Tony Birch gives poet and editor Evelyn Araluen some writing advice.

The Asian expulsion from Uganda with Idi Amin's rise to power in 1972 is the focus of London based author Hafsa Zayyan's debut novel We Are All Birds of Uganda which deals with many themes the author has lived with all her life. Also, John Byron's crime fiction debut, The Tribute, inspired by the Fabrica, a famous medieval anatomy text, and The Airways, a queer ghost story by Jennifer Mills.

'Your self worth as an Indian child is totally connected with how well you do in these all encompassing exams'. Rahul Raina's satire about fame, fraud and the All India exam system in How to Kidnap the Rich. Also Mark Brandi on his love of dogs, family and why he wears earmuffs to write and Katherine Brabon's exploration of the Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori in The Shut Ins.

Esther Freud's mother had babies at a time when many unwed mothers in the UK and Ireland had their children taken away. Freud says, 'When I thought about the situation of my mother, it struck me how alone and dangerous her situation was'. In I Couldn't Love You More, she imagines if her mother had been forced into one or Ireland's notorious mother and baby homes. Also David Allan-Petale on writing his first book, Locust Summer, on the road, and Jamie Marina Lau's second novel, Gunk Baby, about a young woman about to open a Chinese ear cleaning business.

US author Rumaan Alam’s Leave The World Behind is a timely novel about isolation, fear, class and racism. Also, the 20-something women who are starring in coming of age novels and Rawah Arja's Punchbowl Boys High drama The F Team.

Amanda Lohrey has been announced as the 2021 winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for The Labyrinth. Amanda tells Claire Nichols that her aim was to write a narrative that felt like a meditative walk into and out of a labyrinth.

Ahead of the Miles Franklin Award announcement, we preview the shortlist and find overlapping themes of migration, violence, fractured families and climate change. Aravind Adiga, Amanda Lohrey, Andrew Pippos, Daniel Davis Wood, Madeleine Watts and Robbie Arnott also reflect on what their novels say about Australia today.

Indigenous author Larissa Behrendt questioned whether to include a First Nations lawyer in her latest novel, but she says it felt more authentic given it's a world she knows intimately. Her novel, After Story, explores grief, family and literary travel. Also, Kim Scott on the legacies of history that have inspired his works and Alice Pung's first novel for adults, One Hundred Days, is about a pregnant teenager and her controlling mother.

Emma Jane Unsworth examines 21st century women in all their conflicted, messy glory in this in-depth interview about her books including Adults and Animals.

You've heard of Nordic Noir but what about Scandi Blanc? Bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith has taken the noir out Swedish crime fiction in his latest series starring the warm-hearted detective Ulf Varg. Also, writer Jessie Tu on her preoccupation with loneliness and a big sweeping narrative about a fictional female pilot who goes missing in the act with US author Maggie Shipstead.

Australian writer Jessie Tu says the question of female likeability should no longer exist and it's an idea she explores in her fiction. In this in-depth conversation, she also discusses child prodigies, music, racism and even Sex and the City.

There are name generators for new parents and authors alike, so how do writers choose names for their fictional characters? Many authors, including Tony Birch, Garth Nix and Mirandi Riwoe share their stories.

Andy Weir is most famous for The Martian, the science-heavy Mars survival story that was made in to a hit film starring Matt Damon, and now he's back now with a new book, Project Hail Mary. Journalist Jacqueline Maley on motherhood and ethics in her debut and the final in Michael Mohammed Ahmad's trilogy featuring his alter-ego, Bani Adam.

Lisa Taddeo attracted worldwide attention with her 2019 non-fiction book, Three Women, which explored the depths of three real women's sexual desires. Now Lisa has taken that insight into the female experience, and put it in to a novel called Animal. We also take a look at how authors name their heroes and villains, and visit Perth-based children's author Shirley Marr at her favourite writing location.

The privilege of writing about the loss of a child: Women's Prize shortlisted author Patricia Lockwood on No One Is Talking About This which is laugh-out-loud funny in the first half, and is cry-out-loud devastating in the second half. And Sincerely, Ethel Malley in which Stephen Orr resuscitates the great Australian literary hoax of Ern Malley but with a twist: he reimagines a life for Ern's made-up sister, a woman called Ethel.

Indian American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, has made her name writing fiction in English, but in recent years she has been writing in Italian including her latest, Whereabouts, which she also translated into English. Also, Ella Baxter on how her writing relates to her artistic practice making death shrouds and philosopher Hugh Breakey on his philosophical romance The Beautiful Fall.

Oscar winner, Shaun Tan, tells of his appreciation of seemingly ordinary objects, like a bar of soap, and how he applies mindfulness to his practice as a writer and painter.

Nikki Gemmell wants to challenge herself as a writer so her latest is a colonial gothic horror called The Ripping Tree, written over seven years while raising four children. Meanwhile, Emily Maguire tackles hoarding, consent and climate change in Love Objects, a novel that also celebrates the intense love people can feel for children that are not their own. And Martin McKenzie-Murray explains the inspiration for The Speechwriter, a satire set in the near future featuring rogue, sentient PlayStations.

Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany fictionalised account of the Egyptian revolution, Rebecca Lim gives writing advice to Huda Hayek and Madeleine Ryan's neurodiverse character.

Unforgettable school girls with Booker shortlisted author Tsitsi Dangarembga's story of pre-independence Zimbabwe, and another from modern day Australia with Emily Spurr.

Evie Wyld's The Bass Rock has won the 2021 Stella Prize for Australian women's writing.

Meet all six of the Stella Prize shortlisted writers whose books speak to Australia right in this moment.

Booker winner George Saunders shares writing tips from the Russian masters, Debra Oswald's ethical conundrum in The Family Doctor and Pakana man, Adam Thompson's, debut collection Born Into This.

Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor speaks about her novel Hurricane Season which was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, Lucy Jago's 17th century scandal and Christy Collins's debut.

Ethan Hawke's fourth novel A Bright Ray of Darkness is about an actor as his world implodes, Tabitha Bird on embracing the magical and Kavita Bedford's coming of age Sydney novel.

Pip Williams's debut novel The Dictionary of Lost Words has been named the Book of the Year for the 2021 Indie Book Awards.

Maria Dahvana Headley has dusted off Beowulf with a new translation and author of The Cry, Helen Fitzgerald, has a new thriller centred around a boarding school.

Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen on his latest novel The Committed, we ask what it takes to write crime fiction and Chloe Wilson's powerful collection of short stories.

The author discusses her latest book The Vanishing Half, the complexities of race relations in America, her writing process and making the cover of Time Magazine.

From artificial intelligence to man's best friend; exploring relationships with beings we may never understand but love nevertheless.

Plus a chat with debut novelist Gary Lonesborough on his book, The Boy From The Mish.

Max Porter joins Claire to talk about his new book The Death of Francis Bacon and why there is a "certain ecstasy" in thinking about the human body as meat.

A historical look at black, queer love; a deep dive into the genre of Royal fiction and a crime novel set in the seedy streets of 1980s Sydney.

A taste of African chick lit, authors confess their love for Dungeons and Dragons and a book that reads like a movie script.

How do you take stories of injustice and rage centred around Black Lives Matter and put them on the page for children?

Two novelists, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, talk about the same period of Australia's colonial history.

Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan speaks about the very personal story behind his coming-of-age novel Mayflies, set in Thatcher's Britain to a background of New Order and The Smiths.

Some of the biggest names from the writing world share their top writing tips.

The 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo belongs to the Muscogee Creek Nation and is also a musician and playwright.

Meet Celeste Ng author of Little Fires Everywhere, Mammut, the talking fossil, and hear from Pip Williams about her popular debut novel.

Helen Garner on writing in her diary in this troubled year and authors reflect on the impacts of coronavirus on the future of fiction.

In the year that international travel was cancelled, this literary world tour might be the next best thing.

Rumaan Alam's literary thriller, Rawah Arja's Punchbowl Boys High drama and young women star in debut coming of age novels.

What makes someone a mother? Dawn French and Kate Mildenhall explore this question, and we have a writer's hotline with Luke Horton and James Bradley.

A special in-depth interview with Christos Tsiolkas that digs deep into his origins as a writer.

The Scottish American writer Douglas Stuart has won the prestigious Booker Prize.

The redemptive power of art with Sofie Laguna, Booker shortlisted author Douglas Stuart and how Ken Follett learnt to write bestsellers.

Three writers who've all had successful non-literary careers on their pivot to fiction with Indigenous singer songwriter Nardi Simpson, Booker shortlisted author Avni Doshi and TV presenter Richard Osman.

Neil Gaiman on blogging and wearing black, Booker shortlisted author Diane Cook and Malcolm Knox on changing Australian beach culture.

Matt Haig on the challenges of writing about mental illness, Booker shortlisted author Tsitsi Dangarembga and Elizabeth Tan's quirky short stories.

In this pod extra, meet novelist Kevin Kwan, the man who introduced readers to the world of Singapore's ultra rich in his hit trilogy Crazy Rich Asians.

Just weeks away from the American election, three American writers on religion, a search for identity, racial injustice and the comfort of science.

This Mournable Body (Faber & Faber) by Zimbabwe novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga, is the final instalment in Dangarembga's Tambu trilogy which has followed Tambudzai since she was a girl in the 1960s Rhodesia, pre-independence. Now in her 30s, Tambu is trying to make a life for herself in Harare but is faced with constant obstacles that thwart her self-fulfilment and which are a metaphor for Zimbabwe as a whole.

Shuggie Bain (Picador, Pan Macmillan) is the debut novel by Scottish American author Douglas Stuart. It traces the working class origins of Shuggie Bain growing up in the squalid council flats of Glasgow. The family is abandoned by his father and, after his siblings find an escape, Shuggie is left to care for his alcoholic mother and try to make a path for himself.

The New Wilderness (Oneworld Publications) is the debut novel of American author Diane Cook. It's another story about motherhood, but this one is set in a dystopian future ravaged by climate change. Bea has taken her young daughter Agnes out of the suffocating, polluted city and they must learn to survive in the wilderness with another community. 

Real Life (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing), the debut novel of American Brandon Taylor, explores the ructions in the life of Wallace, a black, queer biochemistry student whose life is framed by the institutional racism at his predominantly white, mid-west university.

Burnt Sugar (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House) is the debut novel by Indian American, Avni Doshi. It begins with this excoriating line: "I would be lying if I said my mother's misery has never given me pleasure." Set in Pune, India, it's about the toxic mother-daughter relationship between Antara and her mother who has Alzheimer's, however, both question each other's memories.

The Shadow King (Canongate Books) by Ethiopian American, Maaza Mengiste, is set during Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and is about the little-known history of the female fighters in this war. The story follows the young maid Hirut as her life is transformed and shaped by the invasion. This the first time a novel by an Ethiopian author has been shortlisted for the award and it's Mengiste's second book.

Trent Dalton explains the concept of sky whispering, Booker shortlisted author Maaza Mengiste and Cressida Cowell's charmed childhood summers on a Viking island.

The true story behind Craig Silvey's novel Honeybee, a novel inspired by Picnic at Hanging Rock and Laura Elvery's homage to women scientists.

Nick Hornby on the Brexit vote and writing diversity, Jane Harper's take on crime writing success and Campbell Whyte's massive graphic novel project.

Andrew O'Hagan's latest novel Mayflies, debut author Imbi Neeme and Erin Hortle's octopus encounter.

Caoilinn Hughes' deep dive into the 2008 Irish financial crisis and Jock Serong's investigation of a 19th century shipwreck.

John Boyne's novel that spans 2000 years, a debut novel about growing up Guyanese in Australia and Jing-Jing Lee on her novel about the Japanese occupation of Singapore.

Elizabeth Strout on Olive Kitteridge, the writer's room of fantasy author Juliet Mariller and Frances Cha's book about young women of Seoul.

American screenwriter Charlie Kaufman pivots to the novel and Australian Jessie Tu's bold debut.

Lawrence Wright on his novel The End of October about a pandemic that starts in Asia and sweeps the world in 2020.

Anne Enright's novel about the theatre, authors on writing the difficult second novel and Tommy Wieringa's obsession with small villages.

Irish novelist Roddy Doyle on Love, Vogel winner KM Kruimink has a writer’s hotline and Les Misérables inspired fantasy fiction.

Two novelists, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, talk about the same period of Australia's colonial history.

David Mitchell celebrates the power of music in Utopia Avenue, Jane Austen inspired fiction and Tara June Winch, winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Award.

Emily St John Mandel on The Glass Hotel and pandemics in fiction, a preview of the Miles Franklin shortlist and Ronnie Scott on his debut The Adversary.

Some of the biggest names from the writing world share their top writing tips.

Richard Ford's love of the Irish, Wai Chim and Melanie Cheng have a writers' hotline session and Jacqueline Woodson's growing list of awards.

Three books that explore the world through the eyes of minorities and outsiders: Angie Cruz on Dominicana, After Australia anthology and C Pam Zhang's alternative version of the American West.

Meet Celeste Ng author of Little Fires Everywhere and Mammut, the talking fossil, and hear from prominent Australian authors on the future after Corona virus.

Bernardine Evaristo on her Booker winning novel, John Burnside shares the power of poetry and Lauren Chater's Gulliver's Wife.

Mitch Albom on writing a serialised novel, Munanjali author Ellen van Neerven has a hotline with Yankunytjatjara poet Ali Cobby Eckermann and Canadian author Zalika Reid-Benta's debut novel.

Curtis Sittenfeld on Hillary Clinton in Rodham, father and daughter writers Peter and Anna Goldsworthy, Mirandi Riwoe's novel set on the Queensland goldfields.

Max Barry's latest novel, a science fiction thriller called Providence, Covid 19 impacts on the book industry and Booker International shortlisted Australian author Shokoofeh Azar.

Candace Bushnell's Rules for Being a Girl, Carmen Maria Machado's inventive memoir, Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winning novel and Danielle Binks asks for writing advice from Sally Rippin.

James Bradley and Donna Mazza on resurrecting Neanderthals in fiction, prolific American crime writer David Baldacci, and Vivian Pham's debut at 19.

Hugo Award winning novelist NK Jemisin on her prescient novel The City We Became, Angela Savage on being an ethical writer, and thoughts on the distracted reader.

Omani writer, Jokha Alharthi's record breaking career, fantasy author Lian Hearn's retirement and the longest running book club in Australia.

Booker winner Howard Jacobson's latest, Pulitzer finalist Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers and Tony Birch's The White Girl.

A look a the Stella prize shortlist, Sebastian Barry's follow up to Days Without End and The Dictionary of Lost Words, a moving debut.

Award winning American author Ann Patchett on wicked stepmothers, Intan Paramaditha's choose your own adventure, and can machines read?

One of the main ways to help writers is to keep reading!

What are the links between contagion and zombie fiction?

Advice on working from home and authors whose book launches and tours have been cancelled.

How are writers in international hotspots coping with the spread of coronavirus and lockdowns?

Feel like you've just stepped out of a dystopian novel? We ask writers around the world how they're faring and can reading contagion lit help in times like these?

Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma's Booker shortlisted novel An Orchestra of Minorities recalls Greek tragedy.

Stella prize winning author Charlotte Wood gives debut writer Mandy Beaumont advice on how to write feminist themes.

Feminism, family and dessert feature in Anna Goldsworthy's debut novel, which charts the life and marriage of a wartime bride in Adelaide.

Award winning memoirist and pianist Anna Goldworthy's foray into fiction, twice Booker shortlisted novelist Chigozie Obioma, and Charlotte Wood gives writing advice.

The 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo belongs to the Muscogee Creek Nation and is also a musician and playwright.

There have been few books more highly anticipated than Hilary Mantel's third and final volume in her wildly successful Wolf Hall trilogy, The Mirror and the Light.

At 13, Yoshna is already a published author.

Invisible Boys author Holden Sheppard takes us inside his writing room.

From page one of this book, you know that you're in for a very different reading experience.

Hilary Mantel's very long and lauded trilogy of Thomas Cromwell, next to the very slender Eimear McBride novel which pushes the boundaries of form and style.

Authors Julia Phillips, H.M. Naqvi and Pitchaya Sudbanthad take us to Bangkok, Karachi and the Russian Far East.

Three generations of women face the threat of violent and predatory men in Miles Franklin winner Evie Wyld’s new novel, The Bass Rock.

Why is founding father of cyberpunk, William Gibson, worried about the future?

Greenwood is a sprawling epic about trees, families and climate change.

Australian author Karen Brooks on being called a witch, Rodney Hall's favourite dictionary and Jamaican writer Curdella Forbes' creole infused fiction.

Isabel Allende asks where she belongs, writers respond to the bushfire crisis and finding Anne Bronte 200 years after her birth.

The two British authors have used elements of Shakespeare's tale in their latest novel. Christos Tsiolkas has chosen a different source: St Paul.

She brings her history as a struggling young writer in the big city to her latest novel Memories of the Future.

Writers Jasper Fforde, Karen Thompson Walker and Krissy Kneen explore the connection between dreams and fiction in a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.

Authors Balli Kaur Jaswal, Markus Zusak and Amy Sackville compare notes on the writing process.

Salman Rushdie, Elif Shafak, and Lucy Ellman join the party.

A rough and raw account of three teenage boys' struggle with their sexuality and the pervasive homophobia in their regional town.

William Faulkner thought so. Katherine Colette, Robert Lukins, and Jock Serong face Wayne Macauley, Melanie Cheng, and Angela Savage to decide.

Peter Goldsworthy remembers his friend Clive James, and Paul Kelly discusses (and sings) his anthology of his favourite poems.

The writer, critic, and broadcaster spoke in 2015 about his illness and how his writing was flourishing.

When crime fiction is about more than murder: LA author Michael Connelly, and Australian crime writers Sulari Gentill and Robert Gott on their tour in the US.

Racism is not her problem.

She burned her earlier diaries, and now she's published others in Yellow Notebook.

Plus, Lucy Ellman finishes a sentence in Ducks, Newburyport.

After losing her family home in the Black Saturday bushfires, Alice Bishop was compelled to write about the many ways people were impacted by the event.

Plus, Christos joins The Pillars' author Peter Polites on sexuality and class, and Garth Nix's Angel Mage.

Plus, Charlotte joins Debra Adelaide to talk about the writing process, and Favel Parrett on There Was Still Love.

Plus, love and science in the Nazi era with Heather Morris (The Tattooist of Auschwitz) and Leah Kaminsky (The Hollow Bones) in conversation at Queenscliffe Literary Festival.

Joey Bui's short story collection features a diverse range of experiences with displacement and exile.

In this podcast special, Sarah speaks to The Bookshelf's Kate Evans about this year's Booker shortlist.

Plus, Indonesian poet Norman Erikson Pasaribu and translator Tiffany Tsao, and bestselling "tragic romance" author Paullina Simons.

Plus, Lynley Dodd on Hairy Maclary, and how does the film adaptation of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch hold up to the novel?

Plus, Max Porter's dark woodland spirit tells a story of England's present and past in Lanny.

Writers Jasper Fforde, Karen Thompson Walker and Krissy Kneen explore the connection between dreams and fiction in a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.

Plus, The Testaments' broken embargo, and Kate Forsyth's Blue Rose.

Plus: Claire G Coleman explores the Stolen Generations through intergalactic warfare, and Joanne Ramos fictionalises surrogacy in her native Philippines.

18 year-old Kaya is in danger — and she doesn't know who she can trust.

Plus, Sisonke Msimang and Rebecca Carroll discuss extracts of Toni Morrison's writing, and Lucy Treloar's second novel Wolfe Island.

Plus, Jane Sullivan revisits her childhood favourites in Storytime, and Tishani Doshi on her poetry and latest novel Small Days and Nights.

In The Electric Hotel, Dominic Smith resurrects the history of silent film and delves into the passion of the early innovators.

Plus David Nicholls' latest romance Sweet Sorrow and what happens when we read with Belinda Jack.

Plus meet the six Australian authors shortlisted for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award and Slaughterhouse Five turns 50.

Plus Michael Robotham's latest crime novel and the Cost of Art series.

Plus Australian author Tara June Winch and Irish writer Adrian McKinty

Gregory Day's nominated novel explores the writer's ongoing fascination with Victoria's Great Ocean Road.

Art historian Noah Glass has been found dead — floating in the pool of his Sydney apartment complex.

As a lover of literary fiction, Bani Adam is unique in the sea of hyper masculinity at his school, Punchbowl Boys High, Western Sydney.

What if you woke up to find that the sea had disappeared?

Power, exploitation and Australia’s involvement in the 2003 Iraq War.

The Miles Franklin-shortlisted novel started its life as a project about 'Aboriginal hillbillies'.

A murder in a small town is investigated by a determined 11 year-old girl, her uncle, and his boyfriend.

Plus we explore the writer's room of Perth based Irish writer Dervla McTiernan.

Plus, Lydia Kiesling, and a rummage through the ACU's historical children's book collection.

Plus, Armando Lucas Correa on WW2 novel The Daughter's Tale, and Erin Gough and Omar Sakr on queer YA anthology Kindred.

Plus, Geoffrey Chaucer's life re-examined, and Jeannie Baker on collage.

Plus, The Letters of Sylvia Plath and a history of silliness — from Aristophanes to Roald Dahl.

LA Quartet author James Ellroy teaches Claire the right way to say his new book title This Storm, Andrea Goldsmith on her latest novel Invented Lives, and Trent Dalton on the phenomenal success of Boy Swallows Universe.

American author Siri Hustvedt on blending fiction and memoir in her latest novel Memories of the Future, Argentinean author Mariana Dimópolus and her translator Alice Whitmore, and Australian author Chris Womersley on his first short fiction collection A Lovely and Terrible Thing.