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The Book Show

The Asian expulsion from Uganda with Idi Amin's rise to power in 1972 is the focus of London based author Hafsa Zayyan's debut novel We Are All Birds of Uganda which deals with many themes the author has lived with all her life. 

Also, John Byron's crime fiction debut, The Tribute, inspired by the Fabrica, a famous medieval anatomy text, and The Airways, a queer ghost story by Jennifer Mills.

Identity, belonging, home and immigration are themes in Hafsa Zayyan's life and fiction

Kate Grenville's interest in women hemmed in by history comes to the fore in her new audiobook about her grandmother, Always Greener.

Also, Lisa Emanuel's debut novel The Covered Wife is about a Sydney woman drawn into a religious cult, and Tony Birch gives poet and editor Evelyn Araluen some writing advice.

'I just wanted to rescue them' — Kate Grenville unravels her family history

Kevin Kwan is the man who introduced readers to the world of Singapore's ultra rich in his hit trilogy Crazy Rich Asians. 

Claire Nichols speaks to him about growing up wealthy in Singapore, his move to the US as a teen and the inspiration for his latest book Sex and Vanity.

Crazy times with Kevin Kwan

Booker winning, Pat Barker's preoccupation with who's allowed to speak and who isn't continues with The Women of Troy, the sequel to The Silence of the Girls, her exploration of women in the Ancient Greek classics.

Also, journalist Barry Divola on his music inspired road novel and Malla Nunn's Sugar Town Queens, set in post-Mandela South Africa.

'It all starts with a fight' — Pat Barker gives voice to the women of Ancient Greece

Actor Bryan Brown has published a debut collection of crime fuelled fiction in his 70s, it's called Sweet Jimmy. 

Also, Anita Heiss takes the 1852 Gundagai flood as the starting point for her novel Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Paige Clark's metaphorical ghosts in She Is Haunted.

'I could've got into trouble' — Actor Bryan Brown's crime fiction

"My favourite memories as a kid, are watching Saturday afternoon movies," says two time Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead, "so I gave myself permission to do a heist book and started planning." Harlem Shuffle was the result. 

Also, Marion Frith's timely debut Here In the After about an Australian soldier who served in Afghanistan and Charlotte McConaghy on Once There Were Wolves, about rewilding the Scottish highlands.

Pulitzer prize winner Colson Whitehead's crime caper, Harlem Shuffle

British rapper, poet and writer, Akala, equates reading and writing to a form of magic. He brings this passion to the page in his debut YA novel, The Dark Lady, about pickpocket Henry, set in the time of Shakespeare's London. 

Also, The Overthinkers, a debut by a Sydney writing duo and Nick Earls on his heart surgery recovery as well as Empires, his most ambitious novel yet.

'It's absolutely magical' — Akala on reading as a superpower

In his latest book Cloud Cuckoo Land, Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr explores the human desire to create utopian worlds in places far from home.

CS Pacat on their latest fantasy adventure Dark Rise, and Patricia Lockwood on being shortlisted for this years' Booker Prize for No One Is Talking About This.

Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr visits Cloud Cuckoo Land

“I admit to regular fits of feeling simply I am not a good person,” says Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections, “and it’s a question that fiction is uniquely poised to engage with”. And it’s a question that is at the heart of his new novel Crossroads.

Also, Maggie Shipstead on her Booker Prize shortlisted novel Great Circle, and Robert Gott’s historical crime novel, The Orchard Murders, based on the Messiah of Nunawading.

Faith and family with Jonathan Franzen on Crossroads

In 2019, John Boyne faced huge online backlash for a book he wrote about a trans teenager and he's channelled that experience in to his new comic novel, The Echo Chamber.

Also, Booker Prize shortlisted author Nadifa Mohamed on The Fortune Men and Emily Bitto’s Wild Abandon, about men, booze, tigers and America.

‘It became brutal’ —John Boyne responds to a twitter storm in Echo Chamber

South African writer Damon Galgut has now been shortlisted for the Booker three times, and the latest is for his ninth book, The Promise. It is a family saga that begins in 1986 apartheid South Africa and follows one Afrikaner family through to the present. At its heart, is a broken promise that serves as an allegory for modern South Africa. But as Damon tells Sarah L'Estrange, it's also about a dysfunctional family.

Damon Galgut

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