Kate and Cassie are back for a big year of books, beginning with Booker-Prize winner Julian Barnes' Departures, a novel about looking back, facing the future, and coming to the end of life. Plus, regular reviewers Tony Birch and Beejay Silcox join us for discussions on This, My Second Life by British novelist Patrick Charnley, and Iluka, by Australian author Cassie Stroud.

BOOKS

Julian Barnes, Departure(s), Jonathan Cape
Cassie Stroud, Iluka, HQ Books
Patrick Charnley, This, My Second Life, Hutchinson Heinemann

GUESTS

Tony Birch, poet, novelist and short story writer whose books include Dark as Last Night, Shadow Boxing, Women and Children and The White Girl. His latest is Pictures of You. He is also a Professor of Australian literature at the University of Melbourne
Beejay Silcox, critic, writer and regular interviewer at writers festivals.

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

Lily King, Heart the Lover
Anne Enright, Attention
Melissa Lucashenko, Not Quite White in the Head
Bryan Washington, Palaver; Family Meal
Souvankham Thammavongsa, Pick the Colour
Charlotte Wood, The Weekend
Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
Jonathan Tropper, And Then We Came To the End
Maggie Shipstead, Seating Arrangements
Emily O'Grady, Feast
Hayle Felicity, Our Brother Nick and the Tolling Bell
Elizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy Barton
Joe Hill, King Sorrow
Haldor Laxness, Independent People
Dani Netherclift The Shape of Absent Bodies
George Eliot, Middlemarch
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Eric Puchner, Dream State

CREDITS

Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
Sound engineer, Roi Hubermann and Ann Marie Debettencor
Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Julian Barnes: Departure(s) + Cassie Stroud: Iluka + Patrick Charnley: This, My Second Life (REVIEWERS: Tony Birch & Beejay Silcox)