The Bookshelf

At 2025 Adelaide Writers’ Week, Irish author Niall Williams joins Kate Evans to talk Faha, fiction, and Time of the Child—his latest novel. Also a playwright and screenwriter, Williams celebrates the film release of Four Letters of Love, and teams up with Kate, Cassie, Charlotte Mendelsohn, and Brian Castro for a lively Bookshelf special on books, reading, and influence.

The Dressmaker’s backstory, a universe of stars to expand our ideas about nature writing, and fragments and tricks galore: Kate and Cassie read Inga Simpson’s The Thinning, Brian Castro’s Chinese Postman and Rosalie Ham’s Molly with guests Ella Jeffery and Amanda HampsonBOOKSInga Simpson, The Thinning, HachetteBrian Castro, Chinese Postman, GiramondoRosalie Ham, Molly, PicadorGUESTSDr Ella Jeffery, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Griffith University, Qld; ABC Radio National ‘Top 5 Arts’ candidate; currently examining insecure housing as a theme in 21st-century literatureAmanda Hampson, novelist whose latest series feature tea ladies in 1960s Sydney . . . solving crime. The first, The Tea Ladies, won the 2024 Danger Award for Best Crime Novel. The second is The Cryptic Clue; and the third – The Deadly Dispute – will be published in April 2025. There will be five in the series.Other books mentioned:Patricia Wrightson, The Nargun and the StarsJohn Marsden, Tomorrow when the War BeganJames Bradley, Deep Water: The World in the OceanRichard Powers, PlaygroundRobert C. O’Brien, Z for ZachariahCormac McCarthy, The Road Miles Franklin, My Brilliant CareerA B Facey, A Fortunate LifeMarcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural LifeRuth Park, works Helen Garner, WorksJohn Birmingham, He Died with a Felafel in his HandAndrew McGahan, worksBernadette Brennan, Brain Castro’s Fiction: The Seductive Play of LanguageCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Peter Climpson, Emrys CroninExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

The latest from double Miles Franklin Award winner, Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice, a novel that evokes the 1980s and Virginia Woolf. Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet plays a French literary game in A Case of Matricide; and summer days under the light of a strange star in Norway in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm.BOOKSGraeme Macrae Burnet, A Case of Matricide, TextMichelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice, TextKarl Ove Knausgaard, The Third Realm, (Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken), Harvill SeckerGUESTSClare Monagle, Professor of Mediaeval History, Macquarie University – who specialises in the history of ideas, and theology in the Middle AgesMark Mordue, freelance music writer and poet whose latest book is the biography, Boy on Fire - The Young Nick Cave. He is also co-director of the Addi Road Writers Festival OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Daphne du Maurier, RebeccaHelen Garner, worksC.J. Sansom, Shardlake seriesUmberto Eco, The Name of the Rose Jack Gilbert, Collected PoemsJuno Gemes, Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of the Movement for Indigenous Rights CREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls, Ann Marie de BettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie read Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow, a pandemic-set novella that details the healing powers of a pet rabbit for a family dealing with tragedy. Plus, Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, a beautifully crafted novel about a love triangle and everyday life in a farming community in North Dakota, and the latest from Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, a poetic montage of life and death.BOOKS Melanie Cheng, The Burrow, Text Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red, Corsair Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, Hachette GUESTS Steph Harmon, Culture Editor, The Guardian Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Associate Director, Belvoir Theatre OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDNardi Simpson, Song of the CrocodileEmeric Pressburger, The Glass PearlsClaire Kilroy, Soldier SailorAlan Murrin, The Coast Road Dan Hogan, Secret Third Thing​CREDITPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth StewartExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Twins, pumas and a colonial western in Robbie Arnott’s Dusk; gay lives, racial politics, class, theatre and exquisite writing, in Alan Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings; and writing between the myths, rumours and religious speculation of a mediaeval woman pope in Emily Maguire's Rapture.BOOKSRobbie Arnott, Dusk, PicadorAlan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings, PicadorEmily Maguire, Rapture, Allen & UnwinGUESTSHuw Griffiths, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Sydney – with a special interest in Shakespeare and contemporary gay literature. His books include Disavowing Authority in the Shakespeare Classroom and Shakespeare’s Body Parts: Figuring Sovereignty in the History PlaysMeredith Lake, presents Soul Search on ABC Radio National as well as Mornings on ABC Alice Springs. She is also a historian of religion, whose latest book is The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJon Ransom, The GallopersMax Porter, worksCynan Jones, worksArelhekenhe Angkentye - Women’s Talk, Poems of Lyapirtneme from Arrernte Women in Central AustraliaKim Mahood, Craft for a Dry Lake; Position Doubtful; Wandering with IntentCREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Huberman, Ann-Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

The Bookshelf is a program for dedicated readers and those who wished they read more.

Many people have been awaiting the release of Intermezzo, the latest book by Irish writer Sally Rooney, which explores love, grief, growing up, playing chess, understanding and misunderstanding family...Kate and Cassie begin the show with this one, with additional input from millennial author Madeleine Gray. Also, under the sea with Richard Powers in his new novel Playground; and searching the American South with Gayl Jones in The Unicorn Woman, with guidance from historian Ethan Blue.BOOKSSally Rooney, Intermezzo, FaberRichard Powers, Playground, Hutchinson HeinemannGayl Jones, The Unicorn Woman, ViragoGUESTSMadeleine Gray, critic and writer whose debut novel, Green Dot, was published in 2023 and is now being adapted for screen. Winner of the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the 2024 ABIAsEthan Blue, Associate Professor of History at the University of W.A., where he specialises in histories of punishment, migration and incarceration.  Author of The Deportation Express: A History of America through Forced Removal https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-deportation-express/hardcoverOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDBonnie Garmus, Lessons in ChemistryReginald Rose, Twelve Angry MenMiriam Toews, Women TalkingJulia Langbein, American MermaidRosemarie Garland-Thomson, Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body Neil Stephenson, Termination ShockEleanor Catton. Birnam WoodZora Neal Hurston, There Eyes are Watching GodLangston Hughes, worksW.E.B. Du Bois, worksRichard Wright, worksElla Baxter, Woo WooAnne Carson, Eros the BittersweetPercival Everett, JamesIvan Chaar Lopez, The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and IntrusionFelicity Amaya Schaeffer, Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous LandsFrederick Jamieson, The Political UnconsciousMargaret Drabble, worksThomas Hardy, worksCREDITSCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

Novels from France, Poland and India – with politics, sanatoriums, automata and horror in the mix too. Kate and Cassie read French writer (and provocateur) Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation (but can they get to the end of the book? There’s the question); while Polish reader and publicist Anna O’Grady joins them to discuss Nobel Prize winning writer Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story; and academic, novelist and memoirist Kári Gislason joins them to review Tania James’ Loot.BOOKSMichel Houellebecq, Annihilation, PicadorOlga Tokarczuk, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, TextTania James, Loot, Harvill Secker  GUESTSAnna O’Grady, Publicity Director, Simon & Schuster. Born in Poland, both her parents and grandparents were connected with the Polish publishing industryKári Gislason, Professor in Creative Writing & Literary Studies, Queensland University of Technology. His books include The Promise of Iceland, the novel The Sorrow Stone and Saga Land (co-authored with Richard Fidler). His latest is the memoir Running with PiratesOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDThomas Mann, The Magic MountainSamantha Harvey, OrbitalCarys Davis, ClearJennifer Croft, The Extinction of Irena ReyDebra Dank, We Come With This PlaceTegan Bennett Daylight, The DetailsGerald Durrell, My Family and Other AnimalsKarl Over Knausgaard, My Struggle seriesAnna Jacobson, How to Knit a HumanCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans  + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan + Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Sex parties, corruption and dark dark deeds in not-quite-Nigeria, in Akwaeke Emezi’s Little Rot; aspiration, real estate and misguided philanthropists in New York, in Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement, and ordinary people living extraordinary lives, and all those untold stories, in Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything. GUESTSGretchen Shirm, critic and writer whose books include the short story collection Having Cried Wolf and the novels Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room.Stephen Long, Senior Fellow at the independent policy research organisation, The Australia Institute. Before that he was a senior reporter for the ABC’s investigative journalism program, Four Corners, as economics correspondent and national finance correspondent.BOOKSAkwaeke Emezi, Little Rot, Faber Rumaan Alam, Entitlement, Riverhead Books Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything, Viking Penguin OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDBarbara Kingsolver, Demon CopperheadTaffy Brodesser-Akner , Long Island CompromisePorochista Khakpour, TehrangelesAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian RoadAlice Robinson, If You GoSusie Boyt, Love and MissedPaul Lynch, Prophet SongJoseph Stiglitz, The Road to Freedom - Economics and the Good Society CREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans +  Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Tegan Nicholls + Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

A peripatetic hotel, a paddle steamer of dreams and a dastardly law firm, in Jock Serong’s Cherrywood; one of the 20th century’s top 10 all-star ‘leading’ murderers, and what it might mean to be close to him, in Malcolm Knox’s The First Friend; and spies, caves, lies and Neanderthals in Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake. BOOKS Malcolm Knox, The First Friend, Allen & Unwin Jock Serong, Cherrywood, Fourth Estate Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, Jonathan Cape GUESTS Roanna Gonsalves, creative writing academic, writer whose books include the short story collection The Permanent Resident Tom Wright, theatre writer and adapter; artistic associate, the Belvoir Theatre OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDPeter Carey, worksJoseph Conrad, Heart of DarknessJames Bradley, Ghost SpeciesJon Baptiste del Amo, Son of ManMichelle de Kretser, Theory and PracticeWilliam Dalrymple, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the WorldJosé Saramago, The Elephant's JourneyAdalbert Stifter, The BachelorsJonathan Raban, Soft CityCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Craig Tilmouth + Ann-Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown