Program: The Bookshelf

Source:ABC Radio National

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Presented by

Kate Evans

Cassie McCullagh

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more; and every month you can read along with us in the monthly book club.

Airs Saturday 10am. Repeated: Monday 11pm, Friday 8pm

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Latest

Mysteries and meta-physical thrillers: Kemper Donovan, Mike McCormack and Alex Michaelides

Mysteries and meta-physical thrillers.....new work by L.A. author Kemper Donovan, award-winning Irish novelist Mike McCormack and best-selling British-Cypriot author Alex Michaelides.

Published: YesterdayFri 9 Feb 2024 at 3:00am

Duration: 54 minutes 5 seconds

More from The Bookshelf

New fiction from Francis Spufford, Hisham Matar and Kiley Reid

Cassie McCullagh and Michaela Kalowski review new novels including Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz, Hisham Matar's My Friends and Kiley Reid's Come and Get It.

Duration: 53 minutes 36 seconds

Published: 2 Feb 2024Fri 2 Feb 2024 at 4:00am

We're back for 2024 featuring new novels from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem

The Bookshelf is back for 2024 reviewing the latest from Katherena Vermette, Dolly Alderton and Jonathan Lethem.

Duration: 54 minutes 6 seconds

Published: 26 Jan 2024Fri 26 Jan 2024 at 4:00am

Summer Reads: history remade, futures reimagined

Reclaiming and retelling Australian history, where time is both stilled and circular, in Melissa Lucashenko's Edenglassie; and commenting on the past through alternative futures, in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars, Catherine Lacey's…

Illustration of found object, on blue background. A chair with a pile of books, bricks for walls, upside down coathanger birds

Duration: 54 minutes 8 seconds

Published: 19 Jan 2024Fri 19 Jan 2024 at 4:00am

Books Extra: Irish Booker Prize Winner Paul Lynch on Prophet Song

Irish writer Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for his novel Prophet Song, showcasing his lyrical writing and brutal vision. His earlier novels are Red Sky in Morning, The Black Snow, Grace and Beyond the Sea.

Man looking quietly thrilled holding his novel in front of Booker Prize screen

Duration: 28 minutes 36 seconds

Published: 17 Jan 2024Wed 17 Jan 2024 at 4:00am

The Book Club

The Book Club in 2023

What's this month's theme, and what book are we reading?

Illustration of books flying through the air, with the words 'The ABC Book Club' in bold lettering

Published: 23 Jun 2023Fri 23 Jun 2023 at 3:53am

The Book Club: Historical Fiction with Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend and Zadie Smith's The Fraud

A monthly Book Club edition looking at works by two major literary names that add to the growing body of work attempting to address the past.

Duration: 54 minutes 30 seconds

Published: 13 Nov 2023Mon 13 Nov 2023 at 1:09am

The Book Club: Thrillers

Are you a crime fiction thriller fan? Those stories that get your heart racing and keep you awake all night? Even if you only dip into the genre once in a blue moon, you'll want to join us for a lively thriller themed Book Club with two top-notch…

Duration: 52 minutes 38 seconds

Published: 1 Dec 2023Fri 1 Dec 2023 at 2:25am

The Book Club - Short Stories

In this edition of The Book Club we look at the art, and the science, of the short story with three brand new and intriguing Australian collections.

New short story collections from J.M. Coetzee, Laura Jean McKay and John Morrissey

Duration: 54 minutes 6 seconds

Published: 28 Sep 2023Thu 28 Sep 2023 at 11:47pm

Feature Articles

Debut poet takes home $125,000 in prize money for a verse novel that almost wasn't published

Melbourne poet Grace Yee has won Australia's richest literary award, the Victorian Prize for Literature, for her debut verse novel, Chinese Fish.

A close-up of a middle-aged Asian woman with short black hair looking at the camera

Published: 1 Feb 2024Thu 1 Feb 2024 at 8:05amby Nicola Heath

'Singing the accumulated histories of our continent': Eight must-read books by First Nations' writers

Culture, family, colonisation and resistance are some of the themes uniting these acclaimed literary works by First Nations writers from Australia.

A composite image showing eight book covers on an angle against a yellow background

Published: 26 Jan 2024Fri 26 Jan 2024 at 5:11amby Kate Evans, Claire Nichols, Sarah L'Estrange, Declan Fry and Cher Tan

'I hate mezzanines': Miles Franklin-winning author Amanda Lohrey takes on Australia's renovation obsession

The question of what constitutes a sacred space in our increasingly secular society is at the heart of Amanda Lohrey's new novel The Conversion.

A white woman in her 70s with white shoulder length hair and wearing a red scarf sits on a bench in a garden

Published: 19 Jan 2024Fri 19 Jan 2024 at 12:15amby Nicola Heath

'A narrow world': Why a small country town is the perfect setting for crime fiction

From dusty farming communities to sleepy seaside towns, crime fiction set in regional Australia is taking off. Here's why readers are devouring these stories.

A tall man and a woman walking along a dusty road

Published: 22 Dec 2023Fri 22 Dec 2023 at 12:30amby Nicola Heath

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