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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

ABC Australia

The Book Show

Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Nadine Garner share the Australian books that shaped their reading life. Find out what they want to do with problematic classics like My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin.

The event was recorded with The Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange at Melbourne Writers Festival for ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books vote which is now open.

In the Top 100 Australian Books you can choose any ten Australian titles from fiction to non-fiction, kids books to cookbooks, history, biography or memoir. 

Be part of the countdown and cast your vote for your favourite Australian books here. 

Tune in to ABC Radio National for the countdown weekend: Saturday, 17 and Sunday, 18 October.

Guests:

Maxine Beneba Clarke is a poet, a children's book author and illustrator. She's also the author of the memoir The Hate Race and an award winning book of short stories, Foreign Soil. Her latest book is Beautiful Changelings.

Nadine Garner has been on our screens since the 1980s and The Henderson Kids. She's also starred in The Doctor Blake Mysteries, won Best Actress at the 1988 Australian Film Institute Awards and appeared in many TV roles and on the stage.

Omar Musa is a visual artist, poet, spoken word performer, playwright, novelist, short story writer and rapper. He's the author of two novels, Here Come the Dogs and his latest Fierceland won the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Listen to his interview on The Book Show with Claire Nichols here.

Books discussed

Omar Musa's favourites:

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay

The Monster that Ate Canberra by Michael Salmon

Tiddalick the Frog Who Caused a Flood by Robert Roennfeldt

Strange Objects by Gary Crew

Obernewtyn by Isabelle Carmody

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

Kim Scott's True Country

The Boat by Nam Le

The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher Koch

Shadow boxing by Tony Birch

The Monkey's Mask by Dorothy Porter

Nadine Garner's favourites:

Playing Beatty Bow by Ruth Park

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

My Place by Sally Morgan

Dear Sun: The Letters Of Joy Hester And Sunday Reed edited by Janine Burke

Burial Rights by Hannah Kent

Mullaway by Bron Nicolls

Power Without Glory by Frank

The Women of Little Lon: Sex Workers in Nineteenth-century Melbourne by Barbara Minchinton

Maxine Beneba Clarke's favourites:

Tram to Bondi Beach by Libby Hathorn, illustrated by Julie Vivas

Possum Magic by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julie Vivas

Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein

My Place by Sally Morgan

Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch

Rock Flight by Hasib Hourani

Chinese Fish by Grace Yee

Praise by Andrew McGahan

Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas

Candy by Luke Davies

He Died with a Felafel in his Hand by John Birmingham

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

Top 100 Australian Books is here. Three Aussie stars pick their fave reads

Liane Moriarty reveals why she finally wrote the Big Little Lies sequel after being very resistant. And Garth Nix combines mystery with science fiction in his latest novel, Massif. 

After the success of the Big Little Lies TV adaptation starring Reece Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, Liane Moriarty brings the story back home to Sydney with the sequel Big Little Truths. Set ten years after the events of the first novel, it's the same group of school mums but the focus has shifted from primary to high school...and there's a severed finger. Liane tells Claire's about the challenges of writing a sequel set in Australia, after the TV sequel was set in America and starred Meryl Streep. 

Science fiction fans will gobble up Garth Nix's latest novel which features giant sentient mountain ranges travelling through space. While the Australian writer is known for his fantasy novels for young adults (The Old Kingdom series), he's just published his first science fiction novel for adults. Massif is about soldiers who travel on these mountain ranges to fight rolling wars between Earth and Mars. Garth tells Claire how his years in the Army Reserve shaped the book and why the characters drink so much tea.

Tell us what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Take this quick survey.

The Big Little Lies sequel Liane Moriarty never planned to write

Indian author Vikas Swarup explains the key to his success with Slumdog Millionaire; he believes his new book has a winning premise too. Plus venture capitalist turned novelist Jessy Wu's Good Intentions.

Former Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's debut novel Q&A was a hit with with readers around the world and was adapted into the blockbuster film Slumdog Millionaire. His fourth novel, The Girl With the Seven Lives, opens with a gun pressed to a woman's head as she recounts a tumultuous life marked by changing identities, slums, scams, and revenge. Describing the book as "Slumdog Millionaire meets Scheherazade," Swarup explains why he is drawn to attention-grabbing story premises. Speaking with Claire Nichols, he also discusses his belief that novels can help us better understand ourselves.

Claire mentioned she's interviewed three former diplomats on The Book Show this year. In addition to Vikas Swarup, the other two are Ian Kemish about Two Islands and Miles Franklin shortlisted author Konrad Muller about My Heart at Evening. 

From venture capitalist to novelist, Jessy Wu explains why writing fiction feels like coming home. Her debut novel Good Intentions introduces us to idealistic student journalists Nadia and Jake. When we meet them a decade later the reality of grown-up life, love and business has made things a lot more complicated. Jessy also demystifies the world of venture capital and how this novel allowed her to reconnect with her true calling of being a writer.

Slumdog Millionaire's Vikas Swarup wants to get your attention

In Sophie, Standing There bestselling author Meg Mason channels the good and bad of writers' festivals and author fandom. Plus, Bobuq Sayed's journey from Afghanistan to the US via Perth; their novel No God But Us is about two gay men in Istanbul and their dreams of a better life.

Meg Mason's third novel Sophie, Standing There is an exploration of a lonely book lover who develops an obsession with a superstar author. Meg tells Claire Nichols about her own experience of fandom (from both sides) and explains her connection to Janet Frame's Owls Do Cry and the solace it provided in her own times of loneliness.

You can listen to Meg Mason's interview on The Book Show about her previous bestselling novel Sorrow and Bliss here.

Australian raised and US based Bobuq Sayed reflects on their life as an Afghan migrant and how travel helped them embrace their cultural background. Their debut novel No God But Us is about two queer Afghan men who find themselves isolated and looking for connection in Istanbul at a time when the number of refugees seeking asylum in Europe from countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan has intensified.

Both authors share the solace of reading in difficult times.

Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss follow up is about obsession

Discover why the forests sing in Fierceland, Omar Musa's Miles Franklin Literary Award winning novel.

Poet, visual artist, hip-hop musician and author Omar Musa finds magic in Italian beads, vengeful ghosts and the sound of the Borneo forest in his award winning novel, Fierceland. The Miles Franklin judges described Fierceland as "a psychologically layered and storied reckoning with the world we have inherited."

In this bonus episode Claire Nichols congratulates Omar and revisits her earlier conversation with him about the writing of Fierceland. Omar explains the family connection to this story of palm oil, deforestation and language. 

Omar's latest book is The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan.

He will also be a guest at the London Literature Festival curated by the pop star Dua Lipa.

Omar Musa celebrates his 2026 Miles Franklin win for Fierceland

Why American author Dave Eggers' new novel Contrapposto has taken over 20 years to write. Plus Australian writer Maria Takolander explains the link between Elon Musk, her son and her novel The End of Romance. 

Firstly, Dave Eggers is the celebrated author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and his many novels, including The Circle and You Shall Know Our Velocity! There are also children's books and he's the founder of the publishing house and literary journal McSweeney's. But did you know that he's also an artist? His novel Contrapposto is about two friends in the American Midwest with big artistic dreams and what it takes to realise their ambitions. The book includes a number of nude illustrations and Eggers tells Claire Nichols why he wants to maintain the mystery about who created them.

Then, Australian poet Maria Takolander explains how Elon Musk's plans for the Moon and Mars fuelled her debut novel The End of Romance. It's a haunting dystopian novel set in a future world, where a mother and son struggle to survive in an abandoned house amid societal collapse.

Dave Eggers draws on his lifelong friendships in Contrapposto

From hopping zombies to singing forests and a lot of queer characters, we break down the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist and pick our favourites from strong contenders including Randa Abdel-Fattah, Omar Musa and more. 

The Miles Franklin is Australia's most prestigious literary award. It carries a cash prize of $60,000 and the winning author goes in to the history books alongside previous winners including Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Peter Carey, Melissa Lukashenko and the 2025 winner, Siang Lu (listen to our interview with the author). 

Claire Nichols and producer Sarah L'Estrange have read through all of the 2026 shortlist and are excited by what's on offer: there's a book that brought down a writers' festival, a Tasmanian colonial detective story, one with walking zombies, one where the forests of Borneo sing, a mysterious child saint in the Kimberley and one where dementia is the inspiration for the story structure.

We discuss what we do and don't like about each book and at the end, pick our favourite. Who do you think will win?

These are the six books on the shortlist:

Discipline • by 
Randa Abdel-Fattah • (University of Queensland Press)
First Name Second Name • by 
Steve MinOn • (University of Queensland Press)
My Heart At Evening • by Konrad Muller (Evercreech Editions)
Fierceland • by 
Omar Musa • (Penguin Random House Australia)
Little World • by 
Josephine Rowe • (Black Inc)
You Must Remember This • by 
Sean Wilson • (Affirm Press)

The 2026 Miles Franklin winner is announced in Sydney on 5th August.

We've read every book on the 2026 Miles Franklin shortlist. Who will win?

Mick Herron reveals how the first of his Slow Horses series almost didn't get published. He joined Claire Nichols and a packed audience at the State Library of Western Australia, to discuss this famous series and his latest thriller.

The now hugely successful series is about a batch of failed MI5 operatives, led reluctantly by Jackson Lamb, a grumpy, unkempt former cold-war era super spy. The mismatched group are shunted into a rundown building called Slough House and expected to eventually slink off into the ether, but embarrassingly for HQ, they crack major terrorist plots or uncover historic internal and political corruption. 

The series has been adapted for the screen with Gary Oldman channelling a particularly gross Jackson Lamb; where did those dirty, sloppy gaffer taped socks come from? Mick Herron's latest in the popular series, Clown Town involves a covert op during the Troubles and a mysterious missing book. 

Recorded at the State Library of Western Australia And Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival Event.

Mick Herron and the losers, misfits and boozers of Slow Horses

Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer makes the case for the 'charm novel' with his latest, Villa Coco, about an eccentric Italian baroness and a young American in rural Tuscany. And, as Naomi Ishiguro tells Claire Nichols she channels Japanese folklore, anime, Pokémon as well as themes of migration, slavery and corruption in Rainshadow Orphans, the first of a fantasy trilogy. 

Andrew Sean Greer reveals how his time at an Italian writers' retreat lead by an unforgettable aristocrat inspired his novel Villa Coco. But he's quick to point out that Coco, the elderly eccentric Italian Baronessa of the novel is a vastly different character from the real person. The book's Coco lives in a crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills where a hapless young American takes a job as her assistant. But his vision of what that entails has to undergo a radical rethink; there is chaos, secrets revealed, grandiose visitors sweep through the faded halls and many misunderstandings and mishaps occur. Andrew also makes a case for writing uplifting books (echoing Ann Patchett who spoke with Claire on The Book Show recently about the importance of joy in her writing life). 

Like her father Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, growing up in Britain has shaped Naomi Ishiguro's understandings and connections with her Japanese heritage. As she describes to Claire her latest novel Rainshadow Orphans, the first of a trilogy of fantasy fiction is partly drawn from her readings of traditional Japanese folklore mixed with contemporary anime, and flavoured with a splash of bubble tea. But in creating the mythical archipelago populated with dragons, sun spirits, high tech underworld criminals and a cast of brave revolutionaries, she is also tapping into perennial issues of discrimination, exploitation, the impact of AI as well as corporate and political greed.

Spritz and bubble tea with Andrew Sean Greer and Naomi Ishiguro

Holden Sheppard grew up gay and closeted in the regional town of Geraldton, WA and now he writes characters like himself into his award winning books — Invisible Boys and Yeah the Boys. Plus for NAIDOC week, Kalkadoon writer John Morrissey tells Claire Nichols about his debut science fiction Bird Deity.

Holden Sheppard's bestselling novel Invisible Boys was adapted to the screen and now its sequel, Yeah the Boys has a TV deal in the works too. The stories follow three teenage boys who love football and are also gay. In front of a live audience at Perth ABC, Holden told Claire about the joy of writing stories about same sex attracted men who love cars, footy and heavy metal. 

In NAIDOC week, meet award winning Melbourne based Kalkadoon author John Morrissey whose debut novel Bird Deity uses science fiction to explore the lingering impacts of colonisation and trauma.

Dave Eggers draws on his lifelong friendships in Contrapposto

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