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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

ABC Australia

The Book Show

Settle in for some classic storytelling with actor Bryan Brown who's written his third novel, Hidden. Plus Angela O'Keefe tells Claire Nichols about Phantom Days, a book about a book.

Bryan Brown has been a fixture of our screens since the 1970s but he recently became a writer too. In 2021 his first book of short stories, Sweet Jimmy came out and he's now penned two novels including his latest, The Hidden. He joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival and shared his path to writing. He had the audience laughing at "hello".

Claire also speaks to Angela O'Keefe whose award winning second novel The Sitter was told from the perspective of a painting. In her new novel Phantom Days, another object is a character, in this case, a book. Angela speaks about the importance of letting go after a book is published and how she found the "voice" for the book character in her latest.

Bryan Brown comes bob-bob-bobbin' along

How Susan Choi took her own family — and dialled up the tension — in her Booker shortlisted novel, Flashlight.

Flashlight traces the fallout from the disappearance of Serk, a Japanese born Korean on his family, including his American wife and daughter. In the process, the novel powerfully traverses the intersecting 20th century histories of Japan, Korea and the US. 

Susan Choi joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival.

Why Flashlight's Susan Choi can't stop writing about her dad

Fresh from the Oscars for Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell joins Claire Nichols to discuss her book Land. Plus, Robert Forster of iconic indie band The Go-Betweens shares the musical influences behind his debut novel Songwriters on the Run.

Maggie O'Farrell is best known for her novels Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait and her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am. Her new novel Land takes place soon after the 19th century Irish famine and follows an Irish map maker and his son as they take part in the first official mapping of the country. Maggie shares her personal connection to this venture and how she's now obsessed with maps (and identifies as a 'neek') and the Irish tradition of holy wells. She shares some Oscars gossip too.

Before Robert Forster's (The Go-Betweens) debut novel Songwriters on the Run was a book, it was a song from his solo album, Songs to Play. The story follows a couple of jailbreaking musicians evading the law. Robert shares the genesis of the song and how it became a story he couldn't let go.

How Maggie O'Farrell's inner 'neek' came out with Land

In Son of Nobody, Yann Martel tells Claire Nichols how he reimagines The Iliad, shifting the epic from heroic legend to life as an ordinary foot soldier.

Twenty-five years after Life of Pi changed his life, he also reflects on the enduring power of myth, storytelling, and why animals continue to resonate in fiction.

Yann spoke to Claire Nichols at the Sydney Writers Festival.

Yann Martel flips the script on a Greek classic

Bestselling author Ann Patchett joins Claire Nichols to discuss her novel Whistler and its unexpected take on step-parents, while Romy Ash unpacks her intimate, sexy and strange new book, Mantle.

American author Ann Patchett is the bestselling author of Commonwealth, Bel Canto and Tom Lake. She tells Claire Nichols how her own experience of growing up in a large, blended family influenced her new novel Whistler which is about a reunion between a woman and her stepfather, 40 years after losing touch. 

Ann Patchett is also a bookseller and shares the books she's excited about this year: John of John by Douglas Stuart and Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li.

Skin, strange rashes, the climate crisis and salmon farming all come together in Romy Ash's follow up to her Miles Franklin shortlisted novel, Floundering. Mantle is about a woman who's travelled to Tasmania to care for her dying mother, meanwhile a bizarre skin rash is spreading through the population. Romy shares her love of geology and why fiction is the perfect avenue to explore this passion.

Why joy matters in Ann Patchett's Whistler

Why Booker Prize winner David Szalay once thought Flesh was a vulgar title and why he's glad he kept it.

He joined Claire Nichols at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival to discuss his award winning novel and its complicated relationship to masculinity.

With the fall of the USSR, the novel charts István's changing fortunes from his humble beginnings in Hungary to a lavish life in the UK.

David also tells Claire about why his first Booker Prize award ceremony for All that Man Is in 2016 was so nerve wracking, but the second time around was much more enjoyable (winning helps).

Booker Prize winner David Szalay on the risk and reward of writing Flesh

Why Siri Hustvedt wants Paul Auster to return as a ghost.

American novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt speaks with Claire Nichols about her partner of 43 years, writer and poet Paul Auster. When Auster died in 2024 from complications of lung cancer, Hustvedt began writing in the depths of grief. Her new memoir, Ghost Stories, reflects on a life both with and without him, offering rare insight into their creative partnership. It draws on journal entries, correspondence between the two, and letters Auster wrote to his newborn grandson in the final months of his life.

Plus, Lee Lai has won the 2026 Stella Prize for her graphic novel Cannon, marking the first time a graphic novel has been awarded the $60,000 prize. She tells Claire Nichols why she was surprised to win and why the project of growing up is never finished. Listen to the pod extra interview with Lee Lai, the 2026 Stella Prize winner here.

Siri Hustvedt's love letter to Paul Auster

Steve Toltz talks to Claire Nichols about his comic novel A Rising of the Lights, and former diplomat Ian Kemish reflects on his tender debut, Two Islands, exploring the long tail of war.

Twins separated by the role of a dice, the rise of AI, and a mystery behind lives trying to hold it together in a lonely fractured world. These are just a few of the themes discussed with Claire Nichols about A Rising of the Lights, the latest darkly comic novel from the Booker Prize shortlisted author Steve Toltz.

Ian Kemish has used his considerable knowledge as a former Australian diplomat to write a debut that is ultimately about compassion. In Two Islands a young man flees the Balkan conflict to an isolated island on the west coast of Scotland. What does he find there and is he safe?

Steve Toltz rolls the dice in his new dark comedy

Lee Lai has won the 2026 Stella Prize for her graphic novel Cannon, marking the first time a graphic novel has been awarded the $60,000 prize. She tells Claire Nichols why she was surprised to win and why the project of growing up is never finished.

Running since 2013, the Stella Prize is an Australian award for women and non-binary writers. The judges praised Lai for her "elegant artistry" that "evokes horror and poignancy, shock and delight, and Cannon is an incontestable reminder that — in the hands of a masterful artist and storyteller — the very best graphic novels can do what prose alone cannot. And Cannon is absolutely one of the best."

It's about Luce Cannon who feels her life falling apart as the pressures of being queer, a well behaved second generation Chinese migrant and a carer collide in an epically bad night at work in the kitchen of a Montreal restaurant.

Lee Lai's graphic novel makes Stella Prize history

Irish author of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín shares with Claire Nichols the stories that have shaped his latest collection that travels continents and times, and Patmeena Sabit tests assumptions about the death of a young woman in her inventive novel, Good People. Who do you believe?

Colm Tóibín's collection of short stories, The News from Dublin is a glimpse into people living a life away from their homeland, from sisters wanting to return to Catalonia, the undocumented worker facing a decision, a mother receiving shocking news of the death of a son or the haunted Irishman seeking anonymity in Spain.

Using the noise and commentary around the death of a young woman, Afghan-born, Canadian based author Patmeena Sabit speaks with Claire Nichols on the ways she draws on her family roots and academic research to not just tell a story, but test assumptions around migrant communities. Good People is about an Afghan family living the American dream, but cultural tensions, gossip, envy and conjecture swirl around following the death of their daughter.

Colm Tóibín can't stop naming his characters Paul

Readers have lovingly followed the fictional lives of Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton for more than a decade. Now their creator, Elizabeth Strout introduces a new character to embrace and Claire Nichols finds out why. Plus Amanda Lohrey explains her fascination with the belief in aliens.

Artie Dam is an unassuming Massachusetts high school history teacher who seems to have it all, but is facing internal turmoil, even doubting the notion of free will. As Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout reveals in this interview, The Things We Never Say is a story reflecting our recent volatile times. 

And Miles Franklin winner Amanda Lohrey also dissects the idea of certainty in her latest novel. Capture is about a psychiatrist, Jim, who interviews people who say they've been abducted or visited by aliens. While assumptions may be challenged a truth is out there. Or is it? Amanda Lohrey explores life's mysteries with Claire Nichols.

Elizabeth Strout and Amanda Lohrey on aliens and a man called Artie

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