The Book Show
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The Book Show
Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.
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Yann Martel flips the script on a Greek classic
In Son of Nobody, Yann Martel tells Claire Nichols how he reimagines The Iliad, shifting the epic from heroic legend to life as an ordinary foot soldi...
Why joy matters in Ann Patchett's Whistler
Bestselling author Ann Patchett joins Claire Nichols to discuss her novel Whistler and its unexpected take on step-parents, while Romy Ash unpacks her...
Booker Prize winner David Szalay on the risk and reward of writing Flesh
Why Booker Prize winner David Szalay once thought Flesh was a vulgar title and why he's glad he kept it.
He joined Claire Nichols at the Margare...
Siri Hustvedt's love letter to Paul Auster
Why Siri Hustvedt wants Paul Auster to return as a ghost.
American novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt speaks with Claire Nichols about her part...
Lee Lai's graphic novel makes Stella Prize history
Lee Lai has won the 2026 Stella Prize for her graphic novel Cannon, marking the first time a graphic novel has been awarded the $60,000 prize. She tel...
Veronica Roth and Amitav Ghosh: From Divergent to Ghost Eye, exploring fate and past lives
What do fate and past lives reveal about who we are? Claire Nichols speaks with Veronica Roth and Amitav Ghosh on Seek the Traitor's Son and Ghost Eye...
Elizabeth Strout and Amanda Lohrey on fate and aliens
Readers have lovingly followed the fictional lives of Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton for more than a decade. Now their creator, Elizabeth Strout int...
Michael Winkler's Griefdogg and Kae Tempest pours his heart out
British poet, performer and novelist Kae Tempest explains why writing his second novel, Having Spent Life Seeking, was so necessary and Michael Winkle...
Vale David Malouf
David Malouf was a giant of Australian writing who was known and loved for his iconic debut novel, Johnno, about a young Brisbane man during World War...
Steve Toltz rolls the dice in his new dark comedy
Steve Toltz talks to Claire Nichols about his comic novel A Rising of the Lights, and former diplomat Ian Kemish reflects on his tender debut, Two Isl...
Steve Toltz rolls the dice
Twins separated by the role of a dice, the rise of AI, and a mystery behind lives trying to hold it together in a lonely fractured world. These are j...
K-Pop thrills and Vampire kills with Jenny Tinghui Zhang and Shaun Micallef
A fun wild ride here on the Book Show where Claire Nichols embraces the silly with Shaun Micallef and K-Pop with Chinese American writer Jenny Tinghui...
Yael van der Wouden on sex, history and an incredible year
For this Easter special an opportunity to revisit Yael van der Wouden the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction winner.
Her celebrated debut The Safeke...
Debra Adelaide on the life and death of Gabrielle Carey
Debra Adelaide reflects on her pain and helplessness in the wake of writer and friend, Gabrielle Carey's death, and Emma Styles aptly takes Claire Nic...
Colm Tóibín can't stop naming his characters Paul
Irish author of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín shares with Claire Nichols the stories that have shaped his latest collection that travels continents and times,...
Colm Tóibín can't stop naming his characters Paul
Irish author Colm Tóibín shares with Claire Nichols the stories that have shaped his latest collection that travels continents and times. The News fro...
Daniyal Mueenuddin's changing Pakistan
This is Where the Serpent Lives from Pakistani-US writer Daniyal Mueenuddin, is an elegy to a changing Pakistan where contemporary life and technolog...
Howard Jacobson embraces being a Jewish writer
Howard Jacobson joins Claire Nichols to unpack Howl, and Australian authors Eva Hornung and Omar Musa discuss their latest novels.
Booker Prize...
Francis Spufford's Nonesuch shows World War II as you've never it seen before
In his new novel, Nonesuch, British author Francis Sufford introduces a fabulously spiky heroine fighting fascism and mysterious moving statues during...
Tayari Jones on her beautiful new novel Kin
Tayari Jones, author of the Women's Prize-winning An American Marriage, returns with Kin, a work of historical fiction that illuminates the inner live...
Tayari Jones on absent mothers and the American South
Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.
Patrick Ryan and Sita Walker on seances, secrets and school rooms
A stolen kiss propels Patrick Ryan's American epic, Buckeye, which traces the loves, loss and lies of two Ohio couples. And Sita Walker on her inventi...
George Saunders on angels and the afterlife
American author George Saunders reflects on why death is such fertile ground for fiction and how it shapes his haunting new novel Vigil. Plus, Austral...
Adam Kay on how medicine and comedy shaped his debut novel
Doctor‑turned‑memoirist‑turned‑comedian Adam Kay makes his fiction debut with A Particularly Nasty Case, a medical murder mystery set inside a hospita...
Trent Dalton and Gregory Maguire on why there's no place like home
Bestselling author Trent Dalton reveals how The Wizard of Oz appears in every book he's written — from Boy Swallows Universe to his latest novel, Grav...
Philip Pullman's enduring legacy
Philip Pullman's 30 year enchantment with his heroine Lyra Belacqua and His Dark Materials continues with The Rose Field. And Zoe Terakes takes a quee...
Summer highlights: David Nicholls and Liane Moriarty on their starry screen adaptations
From Sydney Writers Festival, two bestselling writers, David Nicholls and Liane Moriarty, reveal what it's like to see their stories go from the page...
Summer highlights: Arundhati Roy, Colum McCann and Morgan Talty
God of Small Things author Arundhati Roy on her monstrous mother and becoming a writer, Colum McCann dives into the digital age with Twist and Penobsc...
Summer highlights: Samantha Harvey's accidental prize winner
British author Samantha Harvey joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival for a revelatory conversation about dreams, in...
Summer highlights: Marian Keyes on writing to save her life
Irish writer Marian Keyes joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival and they spoke about how Marian became a writer whe...
Summer highlights: Ocean Vuong, Charlotte McConaghy and David Malouf
Ocean Vuong's dazzling follow up to his debut On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Charlotte McConaghy's urgent Wild Dark Shore and David Malouf reflects...
Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Kate Mildenhall on friendship, families and the future
Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Kate Mildenhall break the mould with their new books about fraying families, frightening futures and creepy animals in See...
05 | Dear Jane — The endlessly adaptable Austen
Why is Jane Austen endlessly adaptable? After all, her Pride and Prejudice character, Elizabeth Bennett, has fought zombies, investigated murders, bee...
Jeanette Winterson releases the reading Genie
For Jeanette Winterson, reading has been her liberation but she's worried about its future. She asks what AI means for storytelling in her new book On...
04 | Dear Jane — Reading Emma in Pakistan
Jane Austen's influence has spread well beyond the Anglosphere 250 years after her birth and today we consider the the parallels between Austen's Rege...
Megha Majumdar and Sally Hepworth on climate crisis and granny serial killers
Megha Majumdar's A Guardian and a Thief asks what a billionaire, a manager and homeless person have in common, Sally Hepworth reveals the dramatic con...
03 | Dear Jane — Persuasion, the original second chance romance
Jane Austen's novel Persuasion was the last she completed before her death and it is considered a more mature, sombre romance, and in Dear Jane, we as...
Ben Elton and the case for popular fiction
British comic Ben Elton on the Aussie inspiration for writing fiction, and Miles Franklin winner Sofie Laguna on the collision of puberty and Roman my...
02 | Dear Jane — the perfectly plotted Pride and Prejudice
In a Jane Austen novel, what does it mean if a character is in the Navy? What role do aunts and silly characters play? And what's the significance of...
Pod extra: David Szalay wins the Booker Prize
The British-Hungarian author David Szalay restrained novel Flesh has won the 2025 Booker Prize.
The prize was presented to Szalay by Samantha H...