World Book Club

Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed Israeli writer David Grossman about his award-winning novel, To the End of the Land. Winner of - amongst others - the Wingate Jewish Book Prize for 2012, To the End of the Land is a novel of extraordinary power and lyrical intensity about the power of love and the devastating cost of war. Instead of celebrating her son Ofer’s discharge from the Israeli Army, Ora is appalled when he reenlists and is sent back to the front for a major offensive. Unable to bear the thought of sitting alone waiting for the ‘notifiers’ to bring her bad news, she sets off on a hike across Israel with Ofer’s biological father who has never met his son and has has lived in near-seclusion since being tortured as a prisoner in the Yom Kippur war three decades before.Photo credit: Reuters

With the international release of the much anticipated film of We Need To Talk about Kevin in October, here's another chance to catch the World Book Club in which Harriett Gilbert and a studio audience talk to acclaimed American writer Lionel Shriver about this searing novel. Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005, We Need To Talk about Kevin is the profoundly disturbing story of a boy who, shortly before his 16th birthday, kills seven classmates in a high school massacre. Grippingly but unreliably narrated through the letters of his mother Eva to his absent father Franklin, the novel raises questions about culpability, the limits of maternal love and the nature of evil itself.

Harriett Gilbert talks to Hisham Matar about his stunning debut novel In The Country Of Men. Set in the bewildering world of Tripoli, it is the emotional tale of a young boy growing up, where fears, secrets and betrayal threaten the ties of family and friendship. The novel was shortlisted for the 2006 Booker Prize.

Hariett Gilbert talks to Irish author Colm Toibin about his book Brooklyn.A haunting tale of love, loss and familial duty, and winner of the 2009 UK Costa Novel Award, Brooklyn follows the fortunes of a young Irish woman who leaves home to make a new life for herself in 1950s New York. Hear how Colm's own painful memories of homesickness in America and Spain inform Eilis' experiences in Brooklyn and how her ambivalent relationship to the small town Ireland she's left behind also echoes Colm Toibin's own.

This month's World Book Club comes from the church of St Mary Magdalene in Woodstock, England. Harriett Gilbert talks to Swedish superstar Henning Mankell about Faceless Killers, the first novel in his globally acclaimed series featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander.In it, an elderly farm couple is brutally murdered and the only clue is the wife's uttering of the word "foreign" before she dies. Wallander must find the killers before anger towards foreigners boils over. Hear about - and from - Wallander's female admirers around the globe all apparently queuing up to marry him, and about how Mankell plants deliberate errors - one in each novel - that no-one has ever spotted.

Acclaimed British writer Val McDermid discusses her page-turning crime novel A Place of Execution. A taut psychological suspense thriller told through two overlapping and interlocking narratives, A Place of Execution takes place both in the present day as well as 1963 rural England with two different investigators exploring the disappearance of a 13 year old girl who vanished without a trace on a bitterly cold winter's afternoon. This is not a cosy novel but one that confronts us with brutal realities and stirs up uncomfortable reactions, gripping the reader up to the very last page and its stunning conclusion.

Detective Erast Fandorin investigates a student's apparent suicide in 19th-century Moscow. Russian writer Boris Akunin talks to Harriett Gilbert and listeners in the studio and around the world about his page-turning, best-selling crime novel The Winter Queen. After setting out to solve the apparent suicide of a university student in 19th Century Moscow, eager young investigator Erast Fandorin soon finds himself embroiled in a far-reaching international conspiracy. Boris Akunin tells us where he found the inspiration for his winning young detective who bounces from one cliff-hanger to the next. He also describes why short Russian literature - rather than the heavy tomes of earlier generarions - provides a better "role model" for today's youngsters.Photo: Boris Akunin Credit: Getty Images

Dysfunctional Norwegian detective Harry Hole navigates a World War Two ghost story. Voted the best Norwegian crime novel ever, Jo Nesbo's The Redbreast delves into neo-Nazi activity in Norway and ends up re-examining a crime that had its roots in the battlefields of the Eastern Front in World War II. Hear how Jo admits that there’s more than a little of him in his dysfunctional detective Harry Hole and how his own parents ended up on opposing sides during the war, father fighting for the Nazis and his mother in the Norwegian resistance.Jo Nesbo photo: Hakon-Eikesdal

Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed Spanish writer and historian Javier Cercas about his haunting novel Soldiers of Salamis. Internationally feted and winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2004, Soldiers of Salamis delves into the painful history of Spain's Civil War through the gripping, death-defying story of fascist soldier Sanchez Mazas. In his meditation on the nature of heroism and humanity in war, of remembrance and forgetting after war, the narrator moves from cynical indifference through fascination to wholehearted empathy as the true hero of the story eventually emerges centre stage.

In Eat the Rich the inimitable American satirist P.J. O'Rourke tours the world trying to understand why some countries 'have' and some countries 'have not'. He talks to Harriett Gilbert and answers questions about his book from a live studio audience and listeners around the world.

Harriett Gilbert talks to the acclaimed German writer Bernhard Schlink about his explosively controversial novel, The Reader, at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.Made into an Oscar-winning Hollywood film with Kate Winslet The Reader tells of law student Michael Berg who, nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

Damon Galgut's internationally acclaimed novel is the story of an idealistic medical graduate who arrives at an isolated South African hospital to take up a year's community service.Damon discusses his novel The Good Doctor, and answers questions from BBC World Service listeners around the world.

Harriett Gilbert and an audience at the Drill Hall Theatre in Central London talk to bestselling Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie about her internationally acclaimed novel Burnt Shadows. Spanning much of the 20th Century and into the 21st, Burnt Shadows is an epic narrative of disasters evaded and confronted, loyalties honoured and betrayed, and loves lost and found. In the devastating aftermath of the second atomic bomb, Hiroko Tanaka leaves Japan in search of new beginnings. From Delhi, amid India's cry for independence from British colonial rule, to New York City in the uncertain wake of 9/11, to the novel's nail-biting climax in Afghanistan, a violent history casts its shadow over the entire world over.(Photo: Kamila Shamsie. Credit: Reuters)

This month's World Book Club comes from the Jesus Centre in London.Harriett Gilbert and readers talk to bestselling writer Barbara Kingsolver about her internationally acclaimed novel The Poisonwood Bible.Having sold four million copies around the world, Kingsolver's most ambitious novel paints an intimate portrait of a crisis-ridden family amid the larger backdrop of an African nation in chaos.In 1959 an overzealous Baptist minister Nathan Price drags his wife and four daughters deep into the heart of the Congo on a mission to save the unenlightened souls of Africa.As his plans unravel in tandem with the country's dreams of becoming an independent democracy, the five women narrate the novel, each in their own inimitable voice.

Part stunning literary thriller, part gothic novel, the book The Shadow of the Wind is a page-turning exploration of obsession in literature and love, and the places that obsession can lead. It is a potent mix of a coming-of-age novel and a tragic love story set in Barcelona's post-war years. Harriet Gilbert puts questions from the audience to the author Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Harriett Gilbert talks to David Mitchell about his novel Cloud Atlas.

Richard Ford discusses his classic novel 'The Sportswriter' with Harriett Gilbert and an invited studio audience.

French Nobel Laureate JMG Le Clezio talks to Harriett Gilbert in front of an invited studio audience about his recently-translated work Desert. Contrasting the beauty of a lost culture in the North African desert with a depiction of Europe seen through the eyes of unwanted immigrants, the novel is a rich, poetic and provocative epic about colonization and its legacy, which is still painfully relevant after 30 years.

John Boyne discusses his acclaimed novel 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' with Harriett Gilbert and an invited studio audience.

Harriet Gilbert talks to Andrea Levy about Small Island, a heart-warming and tale of love and immigration during World War II.

Harriett Gilbert talks to Indian writer Kiran Desai about her internationally bestselling work The Inheritance of Loss. Winner of the Man Booker prize in 2006, Desai’s novel is a profoundly moving cross-continental saga that sweeps around the globe from the Himalayas to New York City to Cambridge in the UK. Reflecting the author’s own Indian-American upbringing the novel interweaves the grand disruptions of politics with the domestic lives and loves of three memorable characters, the morose judge, his lovelorn granddaughter Sai and their devoted, long-suffering cook.

James Ellroy discusses his novel American Tabloid with Harriett Gilbert and an invited audience.

Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed Egyptian writer Alaa Al-Aswany about his bestselling novel The Yacoubian Building. It was the Arab world’s number-one bestseller for five years running after it was published in 2002. The Yacoubian Building interweaves the stories of a group of diverse characters who live and work in downtown Cairo. A moving study of politics and power, sex and revenge - centred on the apartment building - the Yacoubian building, which still stands in Cairo today.The novel offers a compelling yet daringly scathing portrayal of modern Egypt since the Revolution of 1952.

Half a century on from its first publication, G�nter Grass will be talking about The Tin Drum from his home in Lubeck, Germany.

This month Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed American writer Lionel Shriver.Her prizewinning novel, We Need to Talk about Kevin, is the profoundly disturbing story of a boy who, shortly before his 16th birthday, kills seven classmates in a high school massacre. Grippingly but unreliably narrated through the letters from his mother to his absent father, the novel raises questions about culpability, the limits of maternal love and the nature of evil itself.

In this month's World Book Club Harriett Gilbert will be at London’s South Bank Arts Centre talking to internationally acclaimed writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about her bestselling novel Half of a Yellow Sun. Winner of the UK Orange Prize for fiction in 2007 Half of a Yellow Sun charts the stories of three intersecting lives turned upside down by the Biafran war in the late 1960s. Village boy Ugwu comes to work for a charismatic professor. The professor’s glamorous girlfriend Olanna forgoes her life of luxury to live with him and Englishman Richard is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. Meanwhile the shadow of this most horrific of civil wars, whose repercussions are still felt in Nigeria today, looms ever larger.(Photo: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) (Credit: Jeff Overs/BBC)

Harriett Gilbert talks to internationally acclaimed Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi about her classic novel Woman at Point Zero.Recorded in 2009.Written over 30 years ago but still resonating clearly today Woman at Point Zero is a dark and powerful account of the life of a young woman awaiting execution in a Cairo prison for murdering her pimp. Her crime, borne of anger at her lifelong mistreatment at the hands of men, is one she confesses to with no shame. The urgency and passion of the writing in this book is more than matched by the author’s response to the questions posed by you, our World Book Club listeners, around the world.(Photo: Nawal El Saadawi, 2012) (Credit: MARINA HELLI/AFP/Getty Images)

This month Kate Grenville talks about her best-selling novel The Secret River. Her first work for five years since she won the Orange Prize, The Secret River was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize soon after publication. Set in 1806 and based on the true story of Kate’s first Australian ancestor, this is a dramatic and evocative historical novel set between the slums of nineteenth-century London and the convict colonies of Australia. Told through the eyes of William Thornhill and his family The Secret River examines the timeless themes of ownership, belonging and identity against a backdrop of Aboriginal Australia.Book list:Title: The Secret River Author: Kate Grenville Publisher: Canongate Books ISBN-13: 978-1841956824 If you'd like to take part in a future World Book Club, here's your chance.Lionel Shriver will be discussing his bestselling novel We Need to Talk Kevin on Tuesday 12th May 2009.Please submit your question for Lionel Shriver in the comment section on the form below or ring us on (+44) 207 5571619.

Mohsin Hamid talks to Harriett Gilbert and an invited audience about his bestselling novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007 Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a sparse, gripping, short novel that tackles the complex issues of Islamic fundamentalism and America's 'war on terror' with sympathy and balance.Book list: Title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist Author: Mohsin Hamid Publisher: Penguin ISBN-13: 978-0-141-02954-2If you'd like to take part in a future World Book Club, here's your chance. Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi will be talking about her classic novel Woman at Point Zero on Friday 3rd April 2009 and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be discussing her bestselling novel Half of a Yellow Sun on 7th April 2009.Please submit your question for Nawal El Saadawi or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the comment section on the form below or ring us on (+44) 207 5571619.

Harriett Gilbert talks to David Guterson about his novel Snow Falling on Cedars.

Harriett Gilbert talks to Toni Morrison about her novel Beloved. Recorded in January 2009.(Photo: BBC)

Harriett Gilbert talks to Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott about his epic poem Omeros, which explores ancient themes of displacement and exile in a modern Caribbean setting.

Harriett Gilbert talks to Alice Walker about her novel The Color Purple.

American writer Annie Proulx talks about her prize-winning novel 'The Shipping News' and her short story 'Brokeback Mountain'.

David Lodge discusses his acclaimed novel 'Nice Work'.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the first publication of the acclaimed African novel ‘Things Fall Apart’, we are repeating the memorable World Book Club with bestselling Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.

American author John Irving discusses his bestselling novel 'The World According to Garp', the tragicomic lifestory of the author TS Garp.

Harriett Gilbert talks to Khaled Hosseini about his book The Kite Runner.

Best-selling English writer Sebastian Faulks talks about his heart-rending novel of love and war, Birdsong.

Best-selling American author Jane Smiley discusses A Thousand Acres, her ambitious re-imagining of Shakespeare's King Lear transposed onto an Iowan farmstead, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

American crime writer Patricia Cornwell talks about Post Mortem, the first novel in her celebrated Kay Scarpetta series.

Irish writer Edna O'Brien discusses The Country Girls, her novel about adolescence set in 1950's Ireland.

Italian author Umberto Eco discusses his novel The Name of the Rose, set in a 14th Century Franciscan monastery and answers questions from an invited audience.(Photo: Umberto Eco)

American crime writer Sara Paretsky talks to Harriett Gilbert about her detective novel 'Indemnity Only'.

A special fifth-anniversary edition of the World Book Club with the Sri Lankan-born, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje who discusses his best-loved novel 'The English Patient'.Image: Michael Ondaatje, Credit: Prakash SinghAFP/Getty Images

Harriett Gilbert talks to American author Armistead Maupin about his novel Tales of the City.

Thomas Keneally discusses his novel Schindler's Ark published in 1982 - released as Schindler's List in the USA. It is based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, who is credited with saving hundreds of Jews in Poland and Czechoslovakia from death during World War II by employing them in his factory. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.(Photo: Tom Keneally) (Credit: BBC)

Richard Dawkins answers questions from an audience and sent in by BBC listeners about his international best-seller, The Selfish Gene. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert.

Wole Soyinka talks about his memoirs Ake: The Years of Childhood. Presenter: Harriett Gilbert

World Book club with author Mario Vargas Llosa.