Literary Friction

School is a loooong way in our past, but the imprint of that new start in September cycle runs deep, so in this minisode we are leaning into that back-to-school feeling. It also feels like there are more brilliant books on the horizon than ever this autumn, and we want to pay homage to our big and exciting to-read piles by telling you about some of the books we’re most jazzed to read in the coming months. Get your pencils out and take some notes!

It's September, the leaves are starting to turn, and we're kicking off our Autumn season with a vital conversation about the power of writing for change. Our guest is the author Shon Faye, who joined us to discuss her hotly anticipated first book, The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice. It's a necessary and inspiring text in which she argues that we're having the wrong conversation about trans people, and that the struggle for trans liberation is all of our struggle. In honour of Shon's book, which aims to change the terms of a cultural conversation, we'll talk more widely about books that seek to shift perspectives, including the ones that shifted ours. It's good to be back! Recommendations on the theme, Writing for Change: Octavia: The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud Carrie: Ways of Seeing by John Berger General Recommendations: Octavia: Paul by Daisy Lafarge Shon: The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan Carrie: Circe by Madeline Miller Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/litfriction Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

We're on our summer break, which gives us a chance to re-run this brilliant conversation we had with punk superstar Viv Albertine when she dropped by the studio a few years ago to talk about her memoir, To Throw Away Unopened. Nothing grants insight into lived experience quite like a memoir, but the form can accommodate so much more than that, and Viv's book takes in many things alongside its descriptions of her experiences growing up as a working-class kid in London, and her complicated relationship with her extraordinary mother. So, tune in for a show celebrating memoirs that take us from the experience of giving birth to coming out to what it’s like to be in a world-famous band, via all the richness and thorny issues that this form promises, and we'll be back with a new episode in September.

It’s hot here, the sky is blue, the air smells sweet, and we are about to take our summer break, so we wanted this last minisode of the season to be a little ode to one of our very favourite things about this time of year: the ocean. Of course, the sea is for all seasons, but there is something magical about it in the summer - swimming in it, gazing at it, dreaming of it... that shimmery, glittery blue and green stretching all the way to the horizon. Writers and poets have been enthralled by it forever, so listen in as we ponder what it is about the ocean that will always be so captivating, and we'll be back with a new show in September.

Many of us have significant relationships with our grandparents, but is this reflected in literature? From Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Olive Kitteridge, which fictional grandparents have stayed with you? This month, we’re really excited to welcome the author Anuk Arudpragasam to talk about his second novel, A Passage North. It's a beautiful, meditative book about a young man named Krishan, who must take a train from Colombo to Northern Sri Lanka to attend a funeral. His relationship with his grandmother is a central part of the story, so we're dedicating this show to the elders of literature. We'll be asking what grandparents symbolise in family dynamics, and wondering why there seem to be so few grandparents in contemporary literature, so put the kettle on, get comfy, and imagine we're offering you a Werther's original for the next hour of Literary Friction. Recommendations on the theme, Grandparents: Octavia: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende Carrie: Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout General Recommendations: Octavia: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder Anuk: A Book of Memories by Peter Nadas Carrie: Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny Find lists of all recommended books at: http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/litfriction. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Inspired by Deborah Levy's recommendation of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez - about the surprising friendship between a woman and a Great Dane named Apollo - this show is dedicated to: pets! Furry best friends or unfairly subjugated creatures? Is it ever possible to love animals ethically? Which pets from the pages of literature have stuck in our minds, and why? Tune in for odes to the animals in our lives, plus a cameo from an irascible peacock named Oberon. If you'd like to suggest themes for us to explore, and get an extra minisode each month, you can subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

This month, our guest is the inimitable author Deborah Levy, whose latest book, Real Estate, is the third instalment in her acclaimed living autobiography trilogy. It's a book about a lot of things - being a writer, being a woman, how we make and remake a life, and what we ultimately leave behind. But it's also about real estate, which got us thinking about the importance of buildings, houses and homes in literature. How can books help us understand where and how we make our homes? Why is the haunted house such an enduring symbol? And how is the value of property different for 'generation rent'? So if you want to check out some hot property, join us for all this plus the usual recommendations. Recommendations on the theme, Real Estate: Octavia: In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado Carrie: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters General Recommendations: Octavia: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters Deborah: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez Carrie: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas Find lists of all recommended books at: http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/litfriction, where you can order books online while supporting independent bookshops. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Book criticism - it’s a divisive topic, and one people feel very strongly about. Do you secretly relish a hatchet job, or think there's only space for glowing reviews?What actually is the function of criticism, and what makes it good or bad? Can it ever be truly impartial? This month's theme was recommended by our patron Angelique, and it's one we really enjoyed digging into. Tune in for Carrie's favourite critics, O's favourite Rilke quote, plus a cultural recommendation from the actual outside world! If you'd like to suggest themes for us to explore, and get an extra minisode each month, then you can subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Our guest this month is the novelist Rachel Kushner, who we have been huge fans of ever since we read her novel The Flamethrowers. Rachel’s latest book is a collection of essays, The Hard Crowd. Though it covers a lot of ground, the collection returns often to the rebels and misfits and outsiders living on the edge of society - a theme in her fiction too. Inspired by Rachel's work, for this show we're talking about ‘hard crowds’ in literature, from the ultraviolent gang in Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange to musicians living on the edge in their memoirs. So, climb on the back of our hogs and take a ride with us for the next hour of Literary Friction… Recommendations on the theme, Hard Crowds: Octavia: Nicotine by Nell Zink https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/nicotine?variant=32557710442574 Carrie: Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson https://us.macmillan.com/author/denisjohnson/ General recommendations: Octavia: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/no-one-is-talking-about-this-9781526629760/ Rachel: The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/138738/tove-ditlevsen.html Carrie: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/306/306246/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/9780241330890.html Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction Find lists of our recommendations at: http://uk.bookshop.org/shop/litfriction, where you can also order books while supporting independent bookshops This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Some people treat books like they are sacred objects, others scribble all over them (or even cut them in half). Of course, books are objects, but they're also portals to other universes, new ways of thinking, adventures, romances, and more. The suggestion for this theme was sent to us on Patreon by a patron called Agnes - who asked if we’d talk about how we relate to books as things, as well as vessels for thoughts and experiences. Tune in to find out who is a profligate page folder, who underlines in pen, and who once threw a library book in a puddle of mud (gasp!). If you'd like to suggest themes for us to explore then you can subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Everyone needs a little magic from time to time, and this episode is brimming with it. We spoke to Leone Ross about her sensuous, absorbing new novel, This One Sky Day, which is set in the fictional Carribean archipelago of Popisho, where everyone is born with a certain magical gift, or cors. It's a story about many things, but mainly of two lovers trying to find their way back to one another over the course of a single day while the world shifts around them. We spoke to Leone about the subversive potential of magical realism, it's political power, and why some people are still so snobby about it. So listen in for our interview with Leone, a more general discussion of the literature of magical realism, and finally our usual book recommendations, and let us whisk you away to a better place for an hour. Recommendations on the theme, Magical Realism: Octavia: Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/571/57141/fictions/9780141183848.html Carrie: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/572/57241/one-hundred-years-of-solitude/9780141184999.html General recommendations: Octavia: Everybody: A Book About Freedom by Olivia Laing https://www.olivialaing.com/everybody Leone: Diary of a Film by Niven Govinden https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/niven-govinden/diary-of-a-film/9780349700724/?v2=true Carrie: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro https://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/7906/s/9780571364879-klara-and-the-sun/ Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/litfriction Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

This month, as spring begins to spring, we're thinking about vulnerability, about the perils and pleasures of opening up. Joining us is author and academic Katherine Angel, whose latest book Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again is a nuanced and thought-provoking examination of women’s desire in the age of consent, exploring the shortcomings of our current discussions around things like sex, power and violence. Our theme is inspired by Katherine’s book, and her discussion of the necessity of vulnerability in sex, so listen in for our thoughts about some of the books that explore vulnerability and the complicated terrain of consent, as well as the vulnerability of writing itself. Come let your guard down with us for the next hour of Literary Friction. Recommendations on the theme, Vulnerability: Octavia: To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571326211-to-throw-away-unopened.html Carrie: The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571327850-the-lesser-bohemians.html General recommendations: Octavia: Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux, translated by Tanya Leslie https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/simple-passion Katherine: Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin https://granta.com/products/gay-bar/ Carrie: Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253/253221/things-i-don-t-want-to-know/9780241983089.html You can support us on Patreon: http://patreon.com/litfriction Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

For Minisode Nineteen we’re doing something a little different - this episode is sponsored by publisher Serpent’s Tail, who are celebrating their thirty-fifth birthday this year (just like both of us!). We’ve had many of their authors on the show over the years, including Chris Kraus, Carmen Maria Machado, Mary Gaitskill, Esi Edugyan and Sarah Perry. So in honour of their birthday, we talked to Serpent’s Tail publisher Hannah Westland about what it's like to be an editor, how she works with authors and with text, and what it means to be looking for fresh talent. Plus she gave some hot tips about upcoming books this Spring. We hope you enjoy it! https://serpentstail.com/

Building on our show in 2017 with Dana Spiotta that looked at books about film, this month we want to explore what happens when books turn into films. We’ll be asking why literature is often a source for cinema, thinking about what the best adaptations get right, and remembering some of our favourite movies inspired by books. Our guest is author Niven Govinden, whose sixth novel, Diary of a Film, unfolds over the course of three days in an unnamed Italian city, where an auteur director has come to premier his latest film at a festival. It’s a love letter to the cinema, and an intense meditation on the creative process, artistic control, queer love and flaneurs. So, grab your popcorn - it will almost be like sitting in a crowded movie theatre again! Our recommended film adaptations: Octavia: Lady Macbeth, directed by William Oldroyd (https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/lady-macbeth-william-oldroyd-period-film-bones) based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov: https://www.nyrb.com/products/lady-macbeth-of-mtsensk?variant=32796791701641 Carrie: Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve (https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/11/13587262/arrival-movie-review-amy-adams-denis-villeneuve) based on the short story Story Of Your Life by Ted Chiang: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538163/arrival-stories-of-your-life-mti-by-ted-chiang/ General recommendations: Octavia: The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781933372006/the-days-of-abandonment Niven: Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/604955/romance-in-marseille-by-claude-mckay-edited-by-gary-edward-holcomb-and-william-j-maxwell/ Carrie: Having and Being Had by Eula Biss https://www.faber.co.uk/books/non-fiction/9780571346424-having-and-being-had.html We'll be launching our Patreon next month so keep an eye on our socials if you'd like to become a patron and support our work! Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Minisode Eighteen is dedicated to winter reads. Summer reading seems to get all the attention, but as we hunker down into our second month of winter lockdown in the UK, we’ve been thinking about the kinds of books we turn to in the colder months of the year (and at peak pandemic exhaustion). We’re going to discuss what makes a good read in bleak weather, and some of the best books set in the bleakest season. Also featuring: tantalising news of our forthcoming Patreon page! We can't wait for Spring but, til then, let's get lost in some excellent books. Enjoy! Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

For our first show of 2021, we bring you this author special with Raven Leilani, who joined Carrie in cyberspace to talk about her smash hit debut novel, Luster. In this extended interview, they discussed making art in precarity, writing so the reader can’t look away, good and bad sex, what it means to write Black characters who unapologetically deny respectability, nerd culture, and so much more. Plus the usual book recommendations. We hope you enjoy! Recommendations: Raven: Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/hex-9781526611444/ Carrie: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/109/1095909/the-interestings/9780099584094.html Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

It’s our last Literary Friction of 2020, and as usual it's time for our year in review show, packed full of recommendations just in time for your holiday shopping. We'll be looking back over some of the books that got us through this wildly challenging year, and gently revisiting the reading resolutions we made in 2019, when we were still so innocent and full of optimism. We'll also give some resolutions for the year ahead, plus some of the books we are excited to read in 2021. We've teamed up with two of our favourite independent bookshops to offer some ace deals for LF listeners: Burley Fisher (https://burleyfisherbooks.com/) are offering 10% off using the code LITFRICTION at checkout, available until midnight on 23/12. If you spend over £20 at Pages of Hackney (https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/) they'll throw in one of their brilliant totes for free, just add the tote plus books to your basket and use the code LITFRICTION at checkout. They've also put together a list of everything we recommended on this show, here: https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/litfriction/ Top picks from 2020: Carrie: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill The Years by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer Euphoria by Lily King Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo In The Woods by Tana French Octavia: Weather by Jenny Offill In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado Blueberries by Ellena Savage This Brutal House by Niven Govinden Things I Don’t Want To Know by Deborah Levy Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan A Man’s Place by Annie Ernaux, trans. Tanya Leslie Unknown Language by Hildegard of Bingen and Huw Lemmey Looking forward to next year: Carrie: Open Water by Caleb Azuman Nelson Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler Having and Being Had by Eula Biss Octavia: Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again by Katherine Angel Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu This One Sky Day by Leone Ross Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

Does the written word really have the power to change things? How do you make a good argument in writing? Does the form of the essay lend itself particularly well to politics? Join us as we talk to the writer Otegha Uwagba about her brilliant essay Whites, a clear sighted, powerful comment on race in our society which examines her feelings in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and the failures of white allyship. Picking up from our discussion of the form of the essay with Brian Dillon in 2017, we’ll be exploring the strengths and limitations of the form and talking about our favourite political essayists, from George Orwell to James Baldwin to Rebecca Solnit, plus all the usual recommendations. Our recommended political essays: Octavia: Daddy Issues by Katherine Angel https://peninsulapress.co.uk/product/daddy-issues Carrie: On Witness and Repair by Jesmyn Ward https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/jesmyn-ward-on-husbands-death-and-grief-during-covid General Recommendations: Octavia: A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/10378/a-very-easy-death-by-simone-de-beauvoir/ Otegha: America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549486/america-is-not-the-heart-by-elaine-castillo/ Carrie: Intimations by Zadie Smith https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/321/321775/intimations/9780241492383.html Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

What with the news of a viable Covid vaccine in the works and a Biden Harris administration on the horizon, you may be having an unusual feeling, one that you vaguely recognise but can’t quite put your finger on... Well, friends, it might just be Optimism. We're a few weeks into lockdown two in the UK, and seeing as we talked about joy at the start of the first one, it feels like good symmetry to call on our optimistic reserves this time around. As the global pandemic drags on, we think it's a good muscle to flex. So join us as we ask, what does it really mean to feel optimistic now? How does it work for us, and how can we nurture it in a helpful way? Plus some aural and visual recommendations for when reading isn't hitting the spot.

What does it mean to love too much, or in a way that society doesn’t see as appropriate? Is loving an inherently complicated experience? Helping us consider these questions is our guest, the author Mary Gaitskill, who joined us to talk about her masterful long essay Lost Cat, which has just been published in the UK for the first time. It’s the story of her lost cat, Gattino, and also a clear-eyed and heartbreaking meditation on who we are allowed to love, how different kinds of suffering are connected, and the hope and pain that love can bring. Inspired by Gattino and Mary, the theme of today’s show is ‘Complicated Love’, and we’ll be looking at its joys and perils in books from Romeo and Juliet to Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Listen in for our interview with Mary Gaitskill, thoughts about the whys and wherefores of how love gets complicated in literature, and all our usual recommendations. Recommendations on the theme, Complicated Love: Octavia: The Pisces by Melissa Broder https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-pisces-9781408890981/ Carrie: Middlemarch by George Eliot https://www.gutenberg.org/files/145/145-h/145-h.htm General Recommendations: Octavia: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2016/hot-milk-by-deborah-levy/ Mary: Snow by Orhan Pamuk https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/snow/author/orhan-pamuk/ Carrie: Beloved by Toni Morrison https://bookshop.org/books/beloved/9781400033416 Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

What is it about sisters? Loving, competitive, sometimes incredibly sinister... this month, we're thinking about sisterhood, and all those memorable sisters that fill the pages of literature with their rivalries and alliances, adoration and rebellion. From Little Women to My Sister the Serial Killer, we're getting into why this familial bond is so potent in storytelling. With the days drawing in and Halloween nearly upon us, we're also thinking about how sisters can be uncanny, and we couldn’t have a better author guest to help us explore the spookiness of the sisterly bond: Daisy Johnson, whose new novel, Sisters, is about two girls who are disturbingly close, and what happens when they move with their mother to a crumbling house on the seaside after they cause a terrible incident at their school. We dedicate this show to sisters everywhere - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Recommendations on the theme, Sisters: Octavia: Atonement by Ian McEwan http://www.ianmcewan.com/books/atonement.html Carrie: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/133/133431/we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle/9780141191454.html General Recommendations: Octavia: A Man’s Place by Annie Ernaux https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/a-mans-place Daisy: Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin https://oneworld-publications.com/little-eyes.html Carrie: The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781933372426/the-lost-daughter Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram:

Before we were hit with this recent heatwave, there was starting to be a chill in the air, and soon it will be the perfect climate for taking brisk walks in parks, or just round the block for your government mandated hour of exercise should we find ourselves in another lockdown. Either way, the perfect conditions for… listening to books! The first of our autumnal minisodes is dedicated to the cosy pleasure of being read to - we’re getting into audiobooks, so tune in for all things aural pleasure (and displeasure), and the simple joy of being told a good story.

Why is there so much delight in discovering a juicy new word? Do you ever read the dictionary for fun? Is it annoying when people use obscure words too often? This month’s show is dedicated to the building blocks of all books: words. Joining us is the author Eley Williams, whose first novel The Liar’s Dictionary is both about words and delights in them. In the novel, Peter Winceworth, a disgruntled employee of Swansby’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary at the turn of the century, begins inserting his own invented words into the first edition. In the present day, intern Mallory is tasked with rooting out his mischievous insertions. We spoke to Eley about lots of things including our favourite words and reading the dictionary like a novel, so kick back and join us for an hour of lexical wonder and appreciation. Recommendations on the theme, The Joy of Words: Octavia: A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes https://monoskop.org/images/f/f7/Roland_Barthes_Roland_a_lover_s_discourse_1978.pdf Carrie: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess https://www.anthonyburgess.org/a-clockwork-orange/ General Recommendations: Octavia: Blueberries by Ellena Savage https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/blueberries Eley: and what if we are all allowed to disappear by Tania Hershman https://www.guillemotpress.co.uk/poetry/tania-hershman Carrie: The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/n-k-jemisin/the-fifth-season/9780316229296/ Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

We're still on our summer break, so we wanted to use this chance to bring you a re-run of one of our favourite shows from our archive. In 2018, we spoke to Thomas Page McBee about his book Amateur, which tells the true story of his quest to become the first trans man to box at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The theme of the show is Masculinity: what makes a man? Why do men fight? Is there a crisis of masculinity? These are some of the questions that authors from Ernest Hemingway to Grayson Perry have asked, and questions that Thomas Page McBee addresses head on in his searching, beautiful and wise book.

Don't know about you, but we've really felt the need for a little more joy around here lately. We miss it, and as the world continues to turn upside down, we’re learning how to find it in new ways and in new places. So, Minisode Fifteen is dedicated to JOY, and the best thing about joy is that once you have a little of it you can find ways to pass it on, like a paper chain of joy spreading out across communities virtual and real. What's bringing you joy right now? Is reading a joyful act? Can finding joy be a practice? And as we get into what brings us joy, hopefully we’ll spread a little of that joy to you, and finally as usual give a few recommendations of things we’ve been into lately. This is our last show before we take our summer break in August, so we wish you all good things, and may you go to your joy.

What does it mean to write luxuriously? How can books be rich and generous? This month we’re talking about luxury in literature - and no, we don’t mean books about the 1% having spa days or flying first class. Instead, we’re talking about writing that explores the aesthetic, opulent, baroque and decadent. Through writers including Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sylvia Plath, we’ll be thinking about what makes writing luxurious, and why engaging with luxury can be a subversive act of resistance for marginalised communities. Our guest today is Shola von Reinhold, whose debut novel Lote is about present-day narrator Mathilda's fixation with the forgotten Black Scottish modernist poet, Hermia Druitt. It's also a beautiful meditation on aesthetics and beauty and who is allowed access to them. Listen in for all the usual recommendations, and a chance to find out if you're an Arcadian or a Utopian. So, come indulge with us in a little literary friction. Recommendations on the theme, Luxury: Octavia: Ariel by Sylvia Plath https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571236091-ariel-the-restored-edition.html Carrie: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/alan-hollinghurst/the-line-of-beauty/9781447275183 General Recommendations: Octavia: The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/emily-st-john-mandel/the-glass-hotel/9781509882809 Shola: Race, Sexuality and Identity in Britain and Jamaica: the Biography of Patrick Nelson by Gemma Romain https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/race-sexuality-and-identity-in-britain-and-jamaica-9781472588654/ Carrie: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett https://britbennett.com/the-vanishing-half Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

This month, we're going behind closed doors with Carmen Maria Machado, who dialled in from the States to talk to us. Her innovative memoir, In The Dream House, is about her experience of domestic abuse, something that is so often hidden from view, and even more so when it happens in a queer relationship. What does it mean to write into archival silence? How do we tell the most difficult stories? As usual, our theme is inspired by our guest, so join us as we talk about literature that looks at what happens behind closed doors, both in the literal sense - domestic spaces that are not what they seem, or hold secrets - but also those books that show us narratives that are usually left out of literature and culture. Plus, of course, our usual book recommendations - so sit back, and let us open YOUR door on Literary Friction. Recommendations on the theme, Behind Closed Doors: Octavia: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/40771/the-year-of-magical-thinking-by-joan-didion/9781400078431/readers-guide/ Carrie: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/133/133431/we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle/9780141191454.html General Recommendations: Octavia: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-the-bloody-chamber-and-other-stories Carmen: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder http://www.melissabroder.com/about/ Carrie: Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor https://www.ndbooks.com/book/hurricane-season-1/#/ Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

We're in the midst of an international protest movement, sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis police. As a result, it didn’t feel right to put out a new show, so instead we wanted to re-run a show from 2017 during which we talked about race with Reni Eddo-Lodge, the author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Kishani Widyaratna, an editor at Picador Books in London. In her now best selling book, Reni takes a thorough and passionate look at the UK's long and complicated relationship with structural racism. This show comes with the caveat that we recorded this conversation three years ago. Our thinking has evolved since then as we’ve all continued to read and listen and learn about race. For white people in particular, anti-racist work is an ongoing journey. However, it’s sad and frustrating that most of the issues we were discussing then remain the same. It’s important to point out that we were talking about race generally on this show, whereas the current protests are for Black Lives Matter, focussing on anti-blackness, which is connected but a more specific issue. Recommendations on the theme, race: Octavia: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/288/288167/citizen/9780141981772.html Kish: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/243/24381/wide-sargasso-sea/9780241951552.html Carrie: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/190696/the-warmth-of-other-suns-by-isabel-wilkerson/ General Recommendations: Octavia: Mislaid by Nell Zink https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062364777/mislaid/ Kish: Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed https://www.dukeupress.edu/living-a-feminist-life Reni: Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde https://www.silverpress.org/your-silence-will-not-protect-you Carrie: First Love by Gwendoline Riley https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/lockdown/product/first-love-gwendoline-riley/ Further Reading: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race-9781408870587/ Reni's podcast, About Race: https://www.aboutracepodcast.com/ Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad https://www.meandwhitesupremacybook.com/ White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566247/white-fragility-by-robin-diangelo/ Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213837/are-prisons-obsolete-by-angela-y-davis/ So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/ijeoma-oluo/so-you-want-to-talk-about-race/9781541647435/ Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

We're still stuck on the theme of intimacy, because we haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The demands of this crisis are forcing us to rethink so much that used to be instinctive, including how we connect with other people - physical contact has never been more loaded, and we're having to rely on other ways to bridge the gaps between us. In our last show with Garth Greenwell we were thinking about how books can be a tool for intimacy in themselves, and in this minisode we continue that conversation. How does reading and talking about books create intimacy? Has the way we think about intimacy changed during lockdown? Can books ever be a substitute for intimacy IRL? Plus, the usual (extremely inside) cultural recommendations. This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador @picadorbooks

Like a lot of people, lockdown has made us think about intimacy. As separation from our loved ones drags on, we're all having to find different ways to connect, and in this socially distant reality, intimacy feels more necessary than ever - however we can get it (hot tip: books are good!). Writing and reading can be intimate acts, so for this episode we'll be discussing what intimacy means in literature, which writers - from Henry James to Sally Rooney to Maggie Nelson - have been able to capture it, and what it means to write in an intimate way. Our guest this month is Garth Greenwell, a writer whose work chronicles and explores intimacy in many forms, so he couldn't be a better person to talk to. His second book, Cleanness, follows an American teacher living in Sofia, Bulgaria as he navigates relationships with his students, love and sex. Listen in for our interview with Garth, our thoughts about intimacy in literature, and all the usual recommendations. Come closer, let us put our arms around you, and get enveloped for the next hour by Literary Friction. Recommendations on the theme, Intimacy: Octavia: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/argonauts Carrie: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/573/57368/giovanni-s-room/9780141186351.html General Recommendations: Octavia: This Brutal House by Niven Govinden https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/niven-govinden/this-brutal-house/9780349700687/ Garth: Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/594959/where-reasons-end-by-yiyun-li/ Carrie: The Years by Annie Ernaux https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/the-years Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

In the absence of an outside world, and because we are missing our loved ones, our friends, our acquaintances, even strangers on trains, for Minisode Thirteen we're going inside our minds: we want to talk about the characters from literature that have stayed with us and taken root in our imaginations long after finishing the books that brought them to us. Which literary characters would be good quarantine buddies? Which would be full blown nightmares? Who has been unforgettable, for good or bad reasons? In this strangely liminal tine where our imaginations and subconscious minds have been sent into overdrive, we’re staying in because we can’t go out, so join us as we unpack a bunch of internal boxes, plus the usual recommendations. This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador @picadorbooks

How do you hold onto hope in the dark? This question feels more pertinent than ever right now, and we couldn't think of anyone we'd rather ask than author Jenny Offill, who we spoke to from our various quarantine locations this month. Her new novel Weather is a sharp, insightful meditation on how regular humans process catastrophe, and while it's particularly about the climate crisis, as you might imagine it’s become weirdly relevant in our current situation too. But listen, rather than bring you a show about catastrophe, we also wanted to make a show about hope. ‘Obligatory note of hope’ is an expression a character uses in Weather, and it’s also a website that Jenny set up with resources she found during her research (https://www.obligatorynoteofhope.com/). So, as well as talking to Jenny and giving all the usual recommendations, we’ll be thinking about what it means for a book to be hopeful, and talking about which books and authors have personally given us hope over the years. So, Pandora: shut that box just in time, and join us for the next hour on Literary Friction. List of books mentioned that give us hope: Octavia: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson; Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid; Just Kids by Patti Smith; Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin's writing; The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz Carrie: Middlemarch by George Eliot; Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf; Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson; When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson; Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn; Ways of Seeing by John Berger General Recommendations: Octavia: Wrechedness by Andrzej Tichý https://www.andotherstories.org/wretchedness/ Jenny: Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin https://oneworld-publications.com/fever-dream.html Carrie: Bad Behaviour by Mary Gaitskill https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/312/312616/bad-behavior/9780241383100.html Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

How are you finding reading at the moment? Are you struggling to drag your eyes away from Twitter or endlessly scrolling news sites? What does escapism really mean? What's working, and what isn't working in these anxious times? We are currently about sixty miles apart from one another, but very pleased to be bringing you Minisode Twelve from our isolation stations. We want to offer a little escapism, but we also want, maybe even need to talk about what's going on right now. So we're going to talk about literature in quarantine, which also means talking about not being able to read at all. We hope you're all doing ok, and we remain at your service through whatever's on the horizon, and as always, thank you for listening. This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador @picadorbooks

Has anyone written a great social media novel yet? Is Twitter destroying our ability to read novels in the first place? How worried should we be about bookstagrammers? Why are you listening to this podcast instead of reading a book? What even is the point of podcasting?? On this month’s show we’re asking these not at all panicked questions and talking about social media in literature. As usual, our theme has been inspired by our guest: Kiley Reid dropped by the studio to talk about her debut novel Such a Fun Age, a fun, sharp story about babysitting, racial politics, class and privilege. Listen in to hear our interview with Kiley, our thoughts about the theme of social media in literature, plus all the usual recommendations. Thankfully, we recorded with Kiley before Covid-19 travel restrictions came into play, and before the virus spread, so if you want an hour to escape into a time before reality got turned around then open your mind, ignore twitter - at least for the next hour - and focus all your attention on Literary Friction. Recommendations on the theme, Social Media: Octavia: NW by Zadie Smith https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/303327/nw-by-zadie-smith/ Carrie: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/166486/super-sad-true-love-story-by-gary-shteyngart/9780812977868 General Recommendations: Octavia: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/306/306731/the-water-dancer/9780241325254.html Kiley: Jillian by Halle Butler https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/halle-butler/jillian/9781474617581/ Carrie: In the Cut by Susanna Moore https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/susanna-moore/in-the-cut/9781474613606/ Buy a tote! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/758247545/literary-friction-canvas-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1 Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

However you feel about Brexit, there’s no denying that it’s going to change the relationship that people in the UK have with the European Union and the twenty-seven countries that make it up. But we are not here to dwell in the misery of all that! One of the most beautiful things about literature is that, unless things get fully fascistic, no political machine can restrict your movement in your imagination. This minisode is a bit of a celebration of the European literature and culture we’ve loved, the stuff we want to read, and the power of reading to create and maintain connections where politics has failed us. So it’s Brexit, but make it optimistic? Tote bags: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/758247545/literary-friction-canvas-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1 Email us: [email protected] Twitter & Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

This month on Literary Friction we’re going on the run. Or, more accurately, we’ll be sitting still in the studio talking about literature that features characters and people who are running away both physically and psychologically, from Cora in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, to Madame Bovary, to Augusten Burroughs and A.A. Gill. Our guest is Irish novelist Eimear McBride, who has come back on the show to talk about her third novel Strange Hotel, which follows an unnamed protagonist as she moves from hotel room to hotel room around the world, trying to forget her past, and the powerful allure of an untethered life. So, lace up your sneakers and jog along with us for the next hour of Literary Friction. Recommendations on the theme, On The Run: Octavia: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion https://www.thejoandidion.com/year-of-magical-thinking Carrie: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/colson-whitehead/the-underground-railroad/9780708898383/ General Recommendations: Octavia: Things I Don't Want to Know by Deborah Levy https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253/253221/things-i-don-t-want-to-know/9780241983089.html Carrie: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/311/311140/girl--woman--other/9780241984994.html Eimear: Cleanness by Garth Greenwell https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/garth-greenwell/cleanness/9781509874637 Buy a tote! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/758247545/literary-friction-canvas-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1 Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

For the first minisode of 2020, we're wading into the gossipy world of TS Eliot's love life: this year marks the publication of his romantic letters to Emily Hale, fifty years after their deaths. If you missed the story in the press, let's just say it's not one in which he covered himself in glory. Listen in for our thoughts on literary fetishism, posthumous publications, and how to choose a wife that won't kill the poet in you, plus all the usual recommendations. Tote bags: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LiteraryFriction Twitter & Instagram: @litfricton This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Our first show of the year (and decade) is all about New Beginnings: from Virginia Woolf's novels to memoirs like Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, we’ll look at books that feature rejuvenation, and think about why it's such fertile ground for storytelling. Joining us is author An Yu, whose thoughtful and surreal debut novel Braised Pork inspired the theme. It tells the story of Jia Jia, a young artist in contemporary Beijing who, after the abrupt death of her husband, must begin her life again. Listen in for our chat with An, who stopped by the studio to talk about starting over, the power of enigmatic symbols, and why we need stories to make sense of the world around us, plus all the usual recommendations. It’s good to be back! Recommendations on the theme, New Beginnings: Octavia: Days Without End by Sebastian Barry https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316782/days-without-end-by-sebastian-barry/ Carrie: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan https://serpentstail.com/washington-black.html General Recommendations: Octavia: Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/naoise-dolan/exciting-times/9781474613477/ Carrie: Kudos by Rachel Cusk https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571346646-kudos.html An: Village of Stone by Xiaolu Guo https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1035933/village-of-stone/9780099459071.html Buy a tote! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/758247545/literary-friction-canvas-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1 Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

For our last show of the year, we’re going into therapy - or, more accurately, we’ll be talking about therapy’s intersection with literature. Does analysis make good fiction? Do therapists make good characters, or good authors? What has the language of psychology given to literature? We’re very happy that the inspiration for today’s topic is our guest, Ben Lerner, whose third novel The Topeka School is a brilliant meditation on family, psychology, toxic masculinity, whiteness and American life, told through the lens of one man’s coming of age in Topeka, Kansas in the 90s, where Ben himself was born. So, lay down on the couch and do the work with us for the next hour on Literary Friction, and we'll catch up with you in the new decade. Happy holidays, everyone! Recommendations on the theme, In Therapy: Octavia: Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-century Paris by Asti Hustvedt https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/medical-muses-9780747576334/ Carrie: The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz https://www.stephengrosz.com/the-examined-life/ General Recommendations: Octavia: Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/year-of-the-monkey-9781526614759/ Ben: The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178325/the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world Carrie: The Past by Tessa Hadley https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062270429/the-past/ Buy a tote! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/758247545/literary-friction-canvas-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1 Email us: [email protected] Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

It’s our last minisode of 2019, so we're looking back over some of our favourite reads of the year, some of our resolutions for 2020, plus the usual cultural recommendations - so, if you need some inspiration for what books to buy people for Christmas then grab a pen! Also, here’s your annual reminder to support your local independent bookshop instead of ordering everything online. An update on our lovely, fair trade cotton tote bags: we now have an Etsy shop where you can buy them! The link is below, all the money we make from the sales goes back into making the show bigger and better, so please get one for all your friends. Finally, thank you for listening and for another brilliant year of Literary Friction. Happy holidays everyone! See you on the flipside. Tote bags: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LiteraryFriction Twitter & Instagram: @litfriction Email us: [email protected]

From William Faulkner to John Updike, and Hilary Mantel to Margaret Atwood, why do authors return to the same characters and places again and again? What can a trilogy do that a solo book can’t? And why do we get so excited (and nervous) about these returns? To help us answer these questions, this month we have a very special guest: the inimitable, Pulitzer prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout. Her latest novel, Olive, Again, is a return to the complicated character of Olive Kitteridge and her community in Crosby, Maine. Recommendations on the theme, Returning: Octavia: Everything Under by Daisy Johnson https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1110035/everything-under/9781784702113.html Carrie: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld http://www.curtissittenfeld.com/books/eligible/buy-the-book/ General Recommendations: Octavia: Be My Guest by Priya Basil https://canongate.co.uk/books/3072-be-my-guest-reflections-on-food-community-and-the-meaning-of-generosity/ Elizabeth: Tolstoy by Henri Troyat and Tolstoy by A.N. Wilson https://groveatlantic.com/book/tolstoy/; https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780393321227 Carrie: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/118610/hateship-friendship-courtship-loveship-marriage-by-alice-munro/ Email us: [email protected] Tweet us and find us on Instagram: @litfriction

For Minisode Eight we were inspired by a question podcaster Isaac Butler asked on Twitter, which was: What’s a Great Book that you read because it was assigned to you that you actually loved? We also asked: Which were the books that really did it for you at school or university? Did you like being set reading, or rebel against it? And were there any books you had to read that almost turned you off for good? Plus all the usual recommendations.

This show is a little different from usual as we’re coming to you from the Cheltenham Literature Festival, where we were this year’s podcast in residence. This jam-packed special features recordings from both the events we chaired: ‘A Body of Work’ with Karen Havelin and Eleanor Thom, in which we discussed their books Please Read This Leaflet Carefully and Private Parts, including how to write about chronic/persistent pain, and endometriosis; and ‘Me Too in Fiction’, where we spoke to Rosie Price and Ayelet Gundar-Goshen about their books What Red Was and Liar, which deal with sexual assault and its aftermath in very different ways. Plus: voxpops from Max Porter, Candice Carty-Williams, Wana Udobang and Sinéad Gleeson, who all told us what they’d read and loved recently; and our utter glee at discovering the back seat of a car makes an excellent makeshift recording studio, steamed up windows and all. It’s full of the good stuff to warm you up as the nights draw in.

This month's show is called City of Voices in honour of our very esteemed guest, author Zadie Smith. We met Zadie for a live event in Sheffield to talk about her first short story collection, Grand Union, a playful, ambitious symphony of different voices, styles and forms. Listen in to hear about why we should all embrace our inner chaos, the ways our voices get co-opted by Big Technology, and for a more general chat about literature by authors like William Faulkner and Yaa Gyasi that encompasses a range of different voices. Plus, of course, all the usual recommendations.

Do you consider yourself a vain person? Because this month is all about vanity in literature, dedicated to those characters who are just a little bit too pleased with themselves. It's also our first full show back this Autumn, and we are thrilled to kick things off with none other than the inimitable Deborah Levy, who joined us for a live event at Foyles in London to talk about her latest novel, The Man Who Saw Everything. It features a beautiful, vain, frustrating, intriguing, ultimately very human protagonist, and slips through time with Lynchian abandon. So whether you're a Dorian or a Narcissus, or a paragon of humble virtue, join us for the next hour for all the usual conversation and recommendations on Literary Friction.

Hello! We're back! We missed you! Welcome to Minisode Seven, in which we make an excited return to the studio and catch up on what we got up to over our summer break. Before all that, though, we want to play you some of an ace live event Octavia did with authors Jia Tolentino and Emilie Pine, discussing their brilliant essay collections, Trick Mirror and Notes To Self. Sadly you can only hear the first half of it because there were ghosts in the machine (technical meltdown), but it was a fascinating conversation so we still think it's worth it. We also have some really exciting stuff lined up for this autumn: a live event with none other than Zadie Smith; the launch of some very stylish LF merch; and we are the podcast in residence at Cheltenham Literary Festival this year. So, listen in for Jia, Emilie, new news, old news, the usual recommendations and, as ever, a little music too. It's good to be back!

We're still on our summer break, but we didn't want to leave you totally bereft of literary friction, here's a little something from the archive. In Spring 2016 we spoke to Kevin Barry about his novel Beatlebone, and in celebration of his place on this year's Booker Prize longlist (for his latest novel Nightboat to Tangier) we thought we'd re-run the episode. Beatlebone is a wonderful novel about a very famous John's quest to reach a tiny island that he owns in Clew Bay, off the West Coast of Ireland. Inspired by his trip, our theme is 'down the rabbit hole', dedicated to all those literary escapes to the ends of the earth and to the centre of the mind. We'll be following that elusive rabbit's fluffy tail and lighting out for the territory with Huck Finn, breaking out of jail with the Count of Monte Cristo, and getting lost in all kids of mythical adventures. Come along for the ride, and enjoy a bit of time travel into the world of our younger selves - our equipment was a lot less pro in those days!

For our last show before we take our summer break, we bring you this author special with poet and novelist Ocean Vuong, who was over from the States to talk about his novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Carrie was on holiday so Octavia flew solo for a long interview with Ocean where they talked about submission as power, queer narratives, acceptance over forgiveness, the subversive potential of fragmented storytelling, the violence of parental love and a whole lot more. We’ll be back in September with an exciting Autumn programme, and we’ll put out some shows from the archive in the meantime so you can still get your LF fix. Until then, have a wonderful summer everyone!

Are you a re-reader? Do you have any comfort books that you return to over and over? Have you ever recommended a book and then realised you can’t remember what happens in it? Have you ever picked up a book and got halfway through before realising you've read it before? (One of us may have some confessions to make). Minisode Six is about re-reading - how we do it, if we do it, why we do it. We also have some announcements: we're about to take a summer break but we'll be back in 2 weeks with an author special featuring Ocean Vuong, and then we’ll be resting our voices til September and working on building our website and putting together a great autumn programme. But don’t worry! We’ll be re-running old shows from our archive in the meantime.

From Virginia Woolf to Susan Sontag, writers have grappled with how difficult it is to both describe and understand the pain of others. This month we’re going to examine that phenomenon, but also look at some of the writers who have captured the experience of pain in a unique and interesting way. One of those writers is Sinéad Gleeson, whose personal essay collection Constellations thoughtfully explores the way pain of all kinds - physical, emotional, political - can shape a life, and also be the catalyst for finding new ways of expressing the self. So, join us for the next hour as we try to face this challenging universal experience. Email us: [email protected] Tweet us and find us on Instagram: @litfriction Recommendations on the theme, Pain: Octavia: Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/571/57150/good-morning--midnight/9780141183930.html Carrie: Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/545/54582/regarding-the-pain-of-others/9780141012377.html General Recommendations: Octavia: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/andrea-lawlor/paul-takes-the-form-of-a-mortal-girl/9781529007664 Carrie: Trust Exercise by Susan Choi https://serpentstail.com/trust-exercise.html