All Episodes
The Book Show — 251 episodes
Lee Lai's graphic novel makes Stella Prize history
Can we escape fate? Veronica Roth and Amitav Ghosh on past lives and destiny
Elizabeth Strout and Amanda Lohrey on aliens and a man called Artie
Kae Tempest and Michael Winkler talk poetry and pooches
Vale David Malouf
Steve Toltz rolls the dice
Steve Toltz rolls the dice in his new dark comedy
Shaun Micallef and Jenny Tinghui Zhang deliver K-Pop thrills and vampire chills
Yael van der Wouden on sex, history and an incredible year
Debra Adelaide on the life and death of Gabrielle Carey
Colm Tóibín can't stop naming his characters Paul
Daniyal Mueenuddin's changing Pakistan
Howard Jacobson embraces being a Jewish writer
Francis Spufford's Nonesuch shows World War II as you've never it seen before
Tayari Jones on her beautiful new novel Kin
Patrick Ryan and Sita Walker on seances, secrets and school rooms
George Saunders on angels and the afterlife
Adam Kay on how medicine and comedy shaped his debut novel
Trent Dalton and Gregory Maguire on why there's no place like home
Philip Pullman's enduring legacy
Summer highlights: David Nicholls and Liane Moriarty on their starry screen adaptations
Summer highlights: Arundhati Roy, Colum McCann and Morgan Talty
Summer highlights: Samantha Harvey's accidental prize winner
Summer highlights: Marian Keyes on writing to save her life
Summer highlights: Ocean Vuong, Charlotte McConaghy and David Malouf
Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Kate Mildenhall on friendship, families and the future
05 | Dear Jane — The endlessly adaptable Austen
Jeanette Winterson releases the reading Genie
04 | Dear Jane — Reading Emma in Pakistan
Megha Majumdar and Sally Hepworth on climate crisis and granny serial killers
03 | Dear Jane — Persuasion, the original second chance romance
Ben Elton and the case for popular fiction
02 | Dear Jane — the perfectly plotted Pride and Prejudice
Pod extra: David Szalay wins the Booker Prize
Patricia Lockwood on Dolly the sheep and long covid
01 | Dear Jane — the wild, not mild, Jane Austen
Who will win the Booker Prize?
An American elegy with Eric Puchner and Jane Harper on grief and the disappeared
Celebrating Australia's favourite reads with Trent Dalton, Hannah Kent and Barbara Kingsolver
Heather Rose, Omar Musa and Natalia Figueroa Barroso on champagne, ghosts and the disappeared
Peter Carey on not writing fiction anymore
Trent Dalton and David Malouf — Brisbane's favourite sons
How Ian McEwan is using the future to explore the present
Arundhati Roy and Mick Herron on monstrous mothers and Slow Horses
Toni Jordan, Richard Osman and Gail Jones on greyhounds, murder and mystery
Top 100 Books with Colum McCann, Kate Grenville and Kaliane Bradley
R.F. Kuang goes to hell with Katabasis
Gary Shteyngart, Jennifer Mills and Rhett Davis ask what's next
Florence Knapp and Brandon Jack on the power of a name
Amy Bloom, Ben Markovits and Barbara Truelove on love, basketball and monsters
Ben Okri, Jana Wendt and Thomas Vowles on heartbreak, new beginnings and queer Melbourne
"Shimmering" and "strikingly new" — Siang Lu wins Miles Franklin Literary Award
John Boyne, Maggie Stiefvater and Laura Elvery on hope, enemy diplomats and Florence Nightingale
From a debut to two-time winner — the Miles Franklin shortlist is here
Ocean Vuong and Fleur McDonald reimagine Connecticut and Kalgoorlie
Esther Freud has a lot to say about sisters
Yael van der Wouden on sex, history and an incredible year
Catherine Chidgey, Kevin Wilson and Josephine Rowe on history, travel and an almost saint
Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey loosens the reins
Alan Hollinghurst and Charlotte Wood on gay lives and celebrity nuns
Liane Moriaty and David Nicholls on small screen success
Kaliane Bradley, Rumaan Alam, success and 'sexy dead guys'
Marian Keyes — "I have lived many lives"
Eimear McBride, Tasma Walton and James Bradley on stormy weather and broken families
Mother fault lines with Betty Shamieh, Debra Oswald and Naima Brown
Chigozie Obioma on kindness, big families and the Biafran War
Gregory Maguire has another Wicked tale to tell
Charlotte McConaghy on The Wild Dark Shore
Roisin O'Donnell and a woman on the run
Laila Lalami, Steven MinOn and Madeleine Ryan on mining dreams, a walking corpse and a very bad day
Bernhard Schlink, Vincenzo Latronico and Diana Reid on transitions, ennui and memory
Rachel Kushner on writing spies, anarchists and Neanderthals
Colum McCann, Robert Lukins and Jane Yang on repair, the ultra-rich and bound feet
Morgan Talty on family, blood and belonging
My Biggest Book 06 | Markus Zusak on The Book Thief
When Makassar and Yolnu peoples met, a long history told in A Piece of Red Cloth
My Biggest Book 05 | Roddy Doyle on The Commitments
Eowyn Ivey on Alaska, bears and magic
My Biggest Book 04 | Nikki Gemmell on The Bride Stripped Bare
Juhea Kim: City of Night Birds
My Biggest Book 03 | Emma Donoghue on Room
David Baldacci; Sara Haddad's novella The Sunbird
My Biggest Book 02 | Hanif Kureishi on The Buddha of Suburbia
The prolific Alexander McCall Smith
My Biggest Book 01 | Audrey Niffenegger on The Time Traveler's Wife
Summer reading with Andrew O'Hagan and Evie Wyld
Summer reading with Anne Enright
Summer Reading with Celeste Ng
Summer reading with Tim Winton, Kaliane Bradley and Siang Lu
Summer reading with Melissa Lucashenko
Niall Williams and Nick Harkaway on Christmas miracles and special fathers
Will Self gets personal about his mother
Alan Moore's delirious new fantasy The Great When
Roddy Doyle and the character who's stayed with him
Pod extra with Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey
Garry Disher, Emily Maguire and David Dyer on a milestone, a myth and the moon landing
Your ultimate guide to the Booker Prize
Robbie Arnott, Fiona McFarlane and Malcolm Knox on wild cats, crime and satire
Tim Winton's call to action in Juice
Grande Dames Pat Barker and Kate Atkinson
Onyi Nwabineli, Ella Baxter and Melanie Cheng on Mumflencers, stalkers and rabbits
Writing with an agenda — Laura Jean McKay, Laurie Steed and Chemutai Glasheen
Rumaan Alam — why we don't talk about money
Richard Osman's new crime-fighting team
Elif Shafak and the water that connects us
Meet Meena Kandasamy: poet, novelist, rebel
Evie Wyld's writing tip: put a shark in it
Chigozie Obioma on kindness, big families and the Biafran War
Looking to the stars with Ceridwen Dovey, Emily St John Mandel and more
Keanu Reeves and China Miéville write a book together
Pod extra: Alexis Wright makes literary history
Meet Samantha Shannon's biggest critic: herself
Meet the authors on the 2024 Miles Franklin shortlist
R.O. Kwon's ambitions and desires
Writer to writer with Claire G Coleman and Dylan Coleman
Bri Lee and Liam Pieper take down celebrity art
Kevin Kwan wrote a book about weddings, just don't invite him to one
Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch and his fear of mediocrity
Jeanette Winterson and Kate Grenville on the gift of writing
Celeste Ng — "Every one of my books starts with a question"
Shankari Chandran, Stuart Turton and Julie Janson on refuge, failure and outlaws
Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn sequel
Banned Books 05: Censorship in Iran
Percival Everett reimagines Huckleberry Finn
Banned Books 04: USA's most banned book in Australia
Val McDermid and Jonathan Seidler on ancient queens and modern love
Banned Books 03: Homoerotic fiction in China
Pod extra — Alexis Wright wins a second Stella Prize
Téa Obreht and Emily O'Grady on Balkan fairytales, nepo babies and wild creatures
Banned Books 02: The Satanic Verses and the fatwa
Andrew O'Hagan's biggest novel yet
Banned Books 01: Race and racism in the USA
Sunjeev Sahota, Vanessa Chan and Winnie Dunn bring us stories from home
André Aciman and Anjali Joseph on the joy of doing nothing
Melissa Lucashenko on writing through flood, fire and pestilence
Jane Smiley and Louise Milligan on stories they couldn't let go
Jonathan Lethem returns to Brooklyn
Anne Enright on motherhood, Irish poets and famous parents
RF Kuang and Nam Le on Yellowface, mums and minorities
Jennifer Croft, Imbi Neeme and Mykaela Saunders on translation, chewing and the Tweed
Jasper Fforde, Amy Brown and Leo Vardiashvili on surprises, fairytales and rickrolling
Kristin Hannah, Jodi McAlister and Sharlene Allsopp on women, war and love
Hisham Matar and Ela Lee on the friendships that save you
Kiley Reid, Rachael Johns and Iain Ryan on money, love and corruption
Michael Cunningham and Madeleine Gray on romance and relationship breakdown
Fakes and Frauds 05 | A big hoax — Wanda Koolmatrie and My Own Sweet Time
Pip Williams, Shankari Chandran and Josh Kemp on bookbinding, bushwalking and book awards
Fakes and Frauds 04 | Fake identity and Helen Demidenko's The Hand that Signed the Paper
John Boyne, Esther Freud, Louise Kennedy and the Irish voice
Fakes and Frauds 03 | Fabrication and lies in Marlo Morgan's Mutant Message Down Under
Ian McEwan's most personal novel, plus Booker winner Paul Lynch
Fakes and Frauds 02 | Fact or fiction in Norma Khouri's Forbidden Love
Pulitzer Prize winners Barbara Kingsolver and Hernán Diaz
Fakes and Frauds 01 | Plagiarism scandal in The Dogs by John Hughes
Ego and creativity with Anna Funder and Paul Jennings
Naomi Alderman and Charlotte Wood on bunkers, billionaires and nuns
Amanda Lohrey, Matthew Reilly and Katherine Brabon on the sacred, swimming and Einstein
Pod extra with the Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch
Richard Flanagan on the atomic bomb, HG Wells and a kiss
Tony Birch and Christos Tsiolkas on love, shame and dangerous dinner-parties
Booker Prize shortlist — mythical, profound and lyrical
"We don't come from nowhere" — Melissa Lucashenko on her historical novel Edenglassie
Haunting fiction with Shehan Karunatilaka, Steve Toltz and many more
Between two worlds with Jesmyn Ward, Graham Akhurst and Anna McGahan
"It began with a crime" — Cassandra Clare's latest fantasy fiction
Trent Dalton on homelessness, hope and the tyrannosaurus waltz
Jeanette Winterson on avatars and the afterlife, plus Kate Mildenhall
Sebastian Faulks and what makes us human
Booker Prize winner: Margaret Atwood
Booker Prize winner: Damon Galgut
Booker Prize winner: Shehan Karunatilaka
Booker Prize winner: George Saunders
Booker Prize winner: Douglas Stuart
Booker Prize winner: Bernardine Evaristo
Feel good fiction with Anita Heiss, Marlon James, Monica Ali and more
Zadie Smith on Jamaica, delusion and Dickens
"We love the people we damage" — Anne Enright
Coming of age with Chris Womersley, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Zeynab Gamieldien
"Trinidad writes itself" — Kevin Jared Hosein's Hungry Ghosts, plus Kate Grenville
Crime fiction queen Jane Harper on what she'll do next
Ann Patchett and Tracy Sorensen on famous friends and talking organs
Melancholy in the library with Patrick deWitt, Josh Kemp and Ali Cobby Eckermann
Pod Extra with 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner Shankari Chandran
Anna Funder and Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life
Richard Ford says goodbye to his creation
Myth-busting and Judge Judy with Tracey Lien and Nina Wan
Writer to writer with Larissa Behrendt, Anita Heiss and Ellen van Neerven
Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist 2023: pod extra interview special
Booker winners Shehan Karunatilaka and Damon Galgut
Lisa See's portrait of female friendship in Ming dynasty China
Home, art and love with Kate Morton, Stephanie Bishop and Zoya Patel
Max Porter and Barbara Kingsolver's lost boys
Don Winslow, plus Fakes and Frauds #5 Wanda Koolmatrie hoax
Trees in fiction with Richard Powers, Hannah Kent, Elif Shafak and more
Fakes and Frauds #4 Helen Demidenko, plus Shirley Le
Eleanor Catton, plus Fakes and Frauds #3 Mutant Message Down Under
Curtis Sittenfeld, plus Fakes and Frauds #2 Norma Khouri
Alexis Wright, plus Fakes and Frauds #1 The Dogs by John Hughes
Mothers on the page with Larissa Behrendt, Alice Pung and Chloe Hooper
Lessons in life, mortality and love from Julian Barnes
Bookbinding and ghost towns with Pip Williams and Dominic Smith
‘I didn’t know I had anger in me’ – Anindita Ghose kills off the patriarch
John Boyne, Esther Freud, Louise Kennedy and the Irish voice
Margaret Atwood on witches, cats and a lifetime of writing
Grief, plague and Star Trek with Sequoia Nagamatsu
Dragons, literary acrobatics and a house called Shirley with Samantha Shannon, Cate Kennedy and Ronnie Scott
Love, lust and ghosts: celebrating queer fiction
Ballet, bodies and grief with Meg Howrey, Inga Simpson and Dinuka McKenzie
Parties, miracles and Pop Tarts with Deepti Kapoor, Michelle Johnston and Kevin Wilson
Small-town murder with Julie Janson and Stuart MacBride
Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Jennings come to terms with fame and ego
Tim Winton on a life of accidents, successes, and the business of 'useless beauty'
Jamaica's Marlon James creates an 'African Game of Thrones', plus Meg Mason
Queer stories with Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr
Craig Silvey, Tony Birch and Dervla McTiernan's joy of reading
Prize winners Ruth Ozeki, Shehan Karunatilaka and Jennifer Down
"Hardest thing I've ever written" — Heather Rose shares tales from her extraordinary life
Superheroes and fun with NK Jemisin, Bonnie Garmus and Katharine Pollock
"It's addictive" — George Saunders on short stories
Ageing and autopsies with Alex Miller and Patricia Cornwell
Paterson Joseph, Orhan Pamuk and Fiona McFarlane dig up the past
Graham Norton and the power of the Irish mammy
Why Ian Rankin keeps returning to Rebus
Barbara Kingsolver finds the hillbilly in Charles Dickens
Pod extra with the Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka
Beginnings and endings with Holly Ringland, Elizabeth Strout and Jane Harper
Kamila Shamsie and NoViolet Bulawayo on the rise and fall of dictators
Andrew Sean Greer and Craig Silvey share the joy
AM Homes plots an American revolution
Booker magic with Ian McEwan, Percival Everett and Jay Carmichael
Historical resurrection with Maggie O'Farrell, Robert Drewe and Zaheda Ghani
Sloane Crosley's Cult Classic a rom-com with a twist
Hannah Gadsby on comedy, self-awareness and living an authentic life — bonus episode
Star Wars, monks and puffins — Emma Donoghue on Haven
Tim Winton on a life of accidents, successes, and the business of 'useless beauty' — bonus episode
Spirituality and writing with Ruth Ozeki and Ann Cleeves
Trees in fiction with Richard Powers, Hannah Kent, Elif Shafak and more
Double trouble — crime fiction with Dervla McTiernan and Aoife Clifford
Sibling rivalry and secrets with Liane Moriarty
Surprising journeys with Jessie Burton, Thomas Mayor and Sulari Gentill
Meet the 2022 Miles Franklin Shortlist
'I guess I'm a weirdo' — Benjamin Myers on crop circles and being a loner
Anita Heiss, Tony Birch and SJ Norman grapple with the past
'They're about real things' — Madeline Miller on the popularity of Greek myths
'I got obsessed with horses' — Geraldine Brooks on her novel Horse
Meg Mason's surprise success with Sorrow and Bliss
'I wish I’d had more resolution of character' — Booker winner Damon Galgut on privilege and power
Lessons in life, mortality and love from Julian Barnes
Moon colonies and the 'Mandelverse' with Emily St John Mandel
Family troubles with Steve Toltz, Audrey Magee and Toni Jordan
Queer stories with Douglas Stuart, Indyana Schneider and Omar Sakr