The Bookshelf

We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

This week The Bookshelf revisits the Trojan War from the ground up in Yann Martel’s Son of Nobody, moves through friendship and loss in Debra Adelaide’s When I Am Sixty‑Four, and dives into queer Sydney in the 1940s with Fiona Kelly McGregor’s The Trap. BOOKSFiona Kelly McGregor, The Trap, PicadorDebra Adelaide, When I Am Sixty-Four, UQPYann Martel, Son of Nobody, TextGUESTSTom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Artistic Associate, Belvoir TheatreHannah Kent, novelist, scriptwriter and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, Devotion and Always Home Always HomesickOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDSarah Waters, Tipping the VelvetDelia Falconer, worksPeter Cornell, The Ways of Paradise Ingrid Horrocks, All Her Lives: Nine StoriesCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound, Craig Tilmouth and Hamish CamilleriArts editor, Sarah L'Estrange

A rich mix of voices and stories in short fiction from acclaimed Native American writer Louise Erdrich; essays and memories from two‑time Miles Franklin Award winner Alex Miller; bleakly funny childhood tales by English author Mark Haddon; and, from Michael Winkler, a surreal and darkly comic story about a man who decides he’d rather be the family dog.BOOKS Michael Winkler, Griefdogg, Text Louise Erdrich, Python’s Kiss: Stories, Corsair Alex Miller, Journey to the End of Time, Allen & Unwin Mark Haddon, Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour, Chatto & Windus GUESTS Shannon Burns, writer and critic from Adelaide, whose first book Childhood: a memoir, was published in 2022 Tony Birch, poet, writer, and Professor of Australian Literature at Melbourne University. His latest book is the short story collection Pictures of You OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDGrimmish, Michael WinklerAct of the Damned; Fado Alexandrino, António Lobo AntunesWhat We Can Know, Ian McEwanThe Transformations, Andrew Pippos Brawler, Lauren GroffCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett, Ce BenedictSound: Craig Tilmouth, Antonia GauciArts editor: Sarah L' Estrange

What if the most talked‑about streaming show of the moment was a mirror reflecting your most private fears and failures? That unnerving question sits at the heart of John Lanchester’s Look What You Made Me Do, a sharp novel about resentment, revenge, money, class and generational unease. Plus: the art of the short story, as Hannah Kent reads and reflects on Lauren Groff’s new collection Brawler; and a woman’s inner life rendered with quiet and devastating precision in Mary Costello’s A Beautiful Loan.BOOKSJohn Lanchester, Look What You Made Me Do, FaberLauren Groff, Brawler, Hutchinson HeinemannMary Costello, A Beautiful Loan, TextGUESTSHannah Kent, novelist behind the phenomenon Burial Rites + The Good People, Devotion and Always Home, Always HomesickTim Rogers, author of Detours; frontman of You Am I, The Hard-Ons and various musical escapades. His solo tour Le Charme Defensif kicks off this weekOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian RoadCharlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë, Wuthering HeightsMichelle de Krester, Theory and PracticeJacqueline Maley, Lonely MouthErin Somers, The Ten Year Affair James Joyce, The Dubliners; The Dead Thomas Mann, The Magic MountainColm Tóibín, The MagicianSteve Hanley, The Big Midweek: Life Inside the FallCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound: Craig Tilmouth, Antonia GauciArts editor; Sarah L'Estrange

A Bookshelf festival special with Kate Evans onstage with writers Jock Serong and Emily Maguire on historical fiction, from the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival.

Statues come alive and London is re-imagined in Francis Spufford's Nonesuch, and surprising parallels in two Australian novels of secrets, shame, land and time in M L Stedman's A Far-Flung Life and Eva Hornung's The Minstrels. Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Michael Robotham and Roanna Gonsalves - to help you decide what to read next.BOOKSFrancis Spufford, Nonesuch, FaberEva Hornung, The Minstrels, TextM L Stedman, A Far-Flung Life, PenguinGUESTSMichael Robotham, internationally acclaimed crime writer – whose books include the Joe O’Loughlin series, the Cyrus Haven/ Evie Cormac series, and his latest – featuring Philomena MCcCarthy, The White Crow. His first Australian-based novel is out later this yearRoanna Gonsalves, writer whose collection of short stories is The Permanent Resident, and whose first novel (The Servants) will be published later this year. She is also one of the hosts of a monthly book club at the State Library of NSWOther books mentioned:Phillippa McGuiness and Richard Neville (eds) The Library that Made Me (you can write your own stories about libraries that have shaped you right here)Anita Heiss, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams Emily St John Mandel, Station ElevenCormac McCarthy, The RoadRashida Murphy’s Old Ghosts and Karleah Olson’s Bloodwood (forthcoming)Michelle de Kretser, The Hamilton CaseNatasha Brown, Assembly, UniversalityCharlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark ShoreDon Winslow, The Power of the Dog, The Death and Life of Bobby Z, The Final Score [stories]Presenters: Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate EvansSound engineers: Timothy JenkinsArts Editor: Rhiannon Brown

In this episode, we travel from the Swiss Alps to the quiet strangeness of Danish suburbia and the fierce edges of American literary drama. We begin with the visceral intensity of Gabriel Tallent’s latest novel, Crux, where characters cling to passion and survival with bloodied fingertips. Claire Thomas reflects on art, ambition, and the lure of towering peaks in On Not Climbing Mountains, and Helle Helle's They, a delicately surreal portrait of mothers, daughters, and the lives lived between silences. BOOKS Gabriel Tallent, Crux, Fig Tree Claire Thomas, On Not Climbing Mountains, Hachette Helle Helle, They, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, Giramondo GUESTSHannah Kent, novelist, scriptwriter, and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, The Good People, Devotion, and Always Home Always Homesick Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Artistic Associate at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDOlga Tocarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the DeadRachel Cusk, worksW.G. Sebald, worksMary Shelley, FrankensteinHenry James, worksRainer Maria Rilke, worksJames Baldwin, worksKatherine Mansfield, worksLeo Tolstoy, worksTeju Cole, worksMuriel Sparks, worksJohanna Spyri, HeidiBlaise Cendrars, worksJessica Au, Cold Enough for SnowHarry Matthews, SleuthJohn Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent Harry Mathews, Tlooth Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of VolumeCatherine Lacey, The Möbius BookCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Micky Grossman and Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Emerald Fennell's film adaptation of Wuthering Heights has been marketed as "the greatest love story ever told", which is not typically the description given to the original novel. What does this adaptation achieve, and what does it sacrifice in the process?The Bookshelf's Kate Evans and Radio National's Arts Hour's Sky Kirkham discuss what they felt did and didn't work in this film and, in an expanded podcast extra edition, they also discussed the film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet

Kate and Cassie read Kin, the latest novel from Tayari Jones — the acclaimed American novelist behind An American Marriage, a book that resonated with both critics and readers alike. Her work sits alongside a bold mix of stories in this episode, from a vampiric love story to speed‑dating slasher fiction, and South African writer Nadia Davids adds her own unsettling brilliance, taking us into the life of a furious yet outwardly obedient domestic servant in a mysterious house on a hill in Cape Fever.BOOKSTayari Jones, Kin, PenguinNadia Davids, Cape Fever, ScribnerShailee Thompson, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates, Atria BooksPip Knight, Aubrey Wants to Die, Harper Collins GUESTSTony Birch, poet and novelist; Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at Melbourne UniversityBeejay Silcox, writer and criticOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDDavid Peace, The Red Riding Quartet; Twilight seriesAnne Rice, Interview with the VampireDan Jennings, Dancing Through the FireRebecca Perry, May We Feed the KingMaylis de Kerangal, Painting TimeCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan and Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Join Kate and Cassie as they explore new fiction alongside guests: musician Tim Rogers (You Am I) and novelist Madeleine Gray (Green Dot, Chosen Family). Three American novels, each tackling big ideas in very different ways - from the political absurdity and humour of Jess Walter’s So Far Gone, to the mockumentary-style tensions of Patmeena Sabit’s Good People, to the darkly comic moral maze of Jonathan Miles’ Eradication.BOOKSJess Walter, So Far Gone, HarperJonathan Miles, Eradication, RiverrunPatmeena Sabit, Good People, ViragoGUESTSTim Rogers, singer-songwriter and actor. Frontman of You Am I.Madeleine Gray, novelist whose books are Green Dot and Chosen FamilyOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDLarry McMurtry, worksBertie Blackman, Bohemian NegligenceJhumpa Lahiri, WhereaboutsNussaibah Younis, FundamentallyNiamh Campbell, Make StrangeEllena Savage, The Ruiners; BlueberriesAlexandra Vasti, Ladies in HatingKatherine Mansfield, worksIan Penman, Three Piece SuiteZadie Smith, The FraudCharles Dickens, Great ExpectationsCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Antonia Gauci and Harvey O'SullivanArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Madeline Cash’s buzzy debut Lost Lambs pairs an off‑kilter storytelling sensibility with a sharp exploration of displacement and identity. George Saunders returns with Vigil, offering his moral curiosity in a novel that probes what it means to pay attention to the world. George Kemp’s Soft Serve delivers a charming and quietly affecting debut about growing up in a small town; and Steven Carroll’s The Afterlife of Harry Playford continues his investigations of history and memory.BOOKSMadeline Cash, Lost Lambs, DoubledayGeorge Saunders, Vigil, BloomsburyGeorge Kemp, Soft Serve, UQPSteven Carroll, The Afterlife of Harry Playford, Fourth EstateGUESTSMichael Robotham is an international crime writer and former journalist whose books include The Secrets She Keeps, Good Girl Bad Girl, and his latest, White Crow. His next novel — his first to be set in Australia — will be published in October.Roanna Gonsalves is a writer and teacher of creative writing whose short‑story collection The Permanent Resident won wide acclaim. Her novel The Servants will be published later this year.OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDKurt Vonnegut, worksJoseph Heller, worksThomas Pynchon, worksJonathan Franzen, worksPaul Murray, The Bee StingDBC Pierre, Vernon God LittleShaun Prescott, The TownStephen King, worksLiz Nugent, The Truth About Ruby CooperGillian Flynn, Gone GirlDeborah Adelaide, When I Am Sixty-FourTim Ayliffe, Dark Desert RoadKatie Kitamura, AuditionCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi HubermanArts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie read award-winning Australian author Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s bold new novel Bugger, while reviewers Hannah Kent and Tom Wright take on Jennette McCurdy’s provocative new book Half His Age — from the former child actor whose memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died shook readers worldwide — and Nina McConigley’s How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder...does it live up to the name?BOOKS Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Bugger, Hachette Jennette McCurdy, Half His Age, Fourth Estate Nina McConigley, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, Fleet GUESTS Hannah Kent, novelist, screenwriter, and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, The Good People, Devotion, and Always Home, Always Homesick Tom Wright, Artistic Associate at Belvoir St.Theatre OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJim Butcher, Twelve Months: The Dresden Files Sita Walker, In a Common Hour Jonas Jonasson, The Distinctly Competent District Councillor Catherine Newman, Wreck India-Rose Bower, We Call Them Witches Amie Kaufman, Red Star Rebels Yxavel Magno Diňo, The Firefly Crown Vladimir Nabokov, LolitaKiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and SunnyOlga Ravn, The Wax Child Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the WindTravis Baldree, Brigands and Breadknives Jorge Luis Borges, LabyrinthsCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Micky Grossman and Ann Marie DebettencorArts editor, Rhiannon Brown