The Bookshelf

• Mothers and Sons...is the story as fraught as the title?

  An examination of family dynamics through three novels...Adam Haslett’s Mothers and Sons reflects on unspoken stories and familial divides; The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr, set in 1970s Ireland, tells the story of a family that takes in a child washed ashore, and Robert Lukins’ Somebody Down There Likes Me depicts an uber-rich family who gather together as their wealth and corruption begin to unravel.BOOKSAdam Haslett, Mothers and Sons, Hamish HamiltonRobert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me, Allen & UnwinGarrett Carr, The Boy from the Sea, PicadorGUESTSClaire Mabey, founder of NZ’s Verb Wellington literary organisation and writers’ festival; books editor at The Spinoff; writer whose middle-grade children’s book The Raven's Eye Runaways was published last year. And, here's a link to the NZ book awards Claire mentions: https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/)Jonty Claypole, CEO Red Room Poetry; co-host of podcast The Secret Life of Books; author, Words Fail Us: In Defence of Disfluency OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDPercival Everett, JamesCharles Dickens, David CopperfieldBarbara Kingsolver, Demon CopperheadSamantha Harvey, OrbitalRobert Lukins, The Everlasting Sunday; LovelandF. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great GatsbyMark Twain, Moby DickShakespeare, HamletEvelyn Waugh, Brideshead RevisitedAudrey Magee, The ColonyPaul Murray, The Bee StingPaul Lynch, Prophet SongColm Toibin, worksNiall Williams, Time of the ChildFiona McFarlane, The Sun Walks DownJames Baldwin, Giovanni's RoomJane Austen, Pride and PrejudiceMarilynne Robinson, GileadSusannah Clarke, PiranesiDamien Wilkins, DeliriousHarriet Baker, Rural HoursCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: John Jacobs, Ann Marie DebettencorExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown 

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• Alaska, folktales and mothers and daughters in Eowyn Ivey's Black Woods Blue Sky

  Alaska, folktales and mothers and daughters in Eowyn Ivey's Black Woods Blue Sky. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Anne Tyler is back with Three Days in June, another novel about mothers and daughters; and Italian novelist Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection, a critique of social media and contemporary life.BOOKSEowyn Ivey, Black Woods, Blue Sky, Tinder PressAnne Tyler, Three Days in June, Chatto & WindusVincenzo Latronico, Perfection (translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes), TextGUESTSAlice Pung, novelist, memoirist and editor. Her books include Unpolished Gem, Laurinda and One Hundred DaysDylin Hardcastle, novelist, artist and screenwriter, currently completing their PhD. Their novels include Below Deck and A Language of Limbs OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDEowyn Ivey, The Snow ChildJohn Marsden, worksAnne Tyler, worksJazz Money, Mark the DawnDavid Owen Kelly, Host CityKirsty Jagger, RoseghettoWeike Wang, Joan is OkayCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, John Jacobs, Tegan NichollsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

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• A story of yearning, belonging, secrets and identity from Native America

  A brief foray into the world of ‘romantasy’ and the international bestseller Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. A story of yearning, belonging, secrets and identity from Native America in Morgan Talty’s Fire Exit; rusted robots, prosthetic limbs, AI and noisy families in Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author; and coercive control and walking on eggshells in Irish writer Roisín  O’Donnell’s Nesting.BOOKS Morgan Talty, Fire Exit, Scribe Rebecca Yarros, Onyx Storm [Book three in the Fourth Wing/Empyrean series], Piatkus Nnedi Okorafor, Death of the Author, Gollancz Roisín O’Donnell, Nesting, Scribner GUESTS Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Sydney; and co-host of the podcast Film Versus FilmSarah Gilbert, journalist, Executive Producer, Impact Studios, University of Technology, Sydney. Her latest book is Unconventional Women: The Story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia. She is currently writing a biblio-memoir set in Buenos Aires, and has a podcast coming with Sydney Review of Books called Fully LitOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDNikki May, WahalaDostoevsky, Crime and PunishmentIain Pears, An Instance of the FingerpostUmberto Eco, The Name of the RoseElizabeth Jane Howard, The Cazalet ChroniclesElsa Morante, Lies and SorceryElene Ferrante, worksCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, John Jacobs and Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

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• France, Sweden, New Zealand: books from around the world

  Cassie and Kate read Marie-Hélène Lafon’s The Son’s Story, a family story that spans the twentieth-century, full of melancholy beauty and secrets. Crime writer Hayley Scrivenor reads Geoff Parkes’ When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, a story of small towns, envy and threat in New Zealand; and documentary maker Johan Gabrielsson reads Swedish bestseller The Group, by Sigge Eklund, in which art, sun, wealth and beautiful people meet and mingle in Madrid.BOOKSMarie-Hélène Lafon, The Son’s Story (translated from the French by Stephanie Smee), MLPGeoff Parkes, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, Penguin Random HouseSigge Eklund, The Group (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles), Ithaka PressGUESTSHayley Scrivenor, crime writer whose books are Dirt Town and – her latest – Girl FallingJohan Gabrielsson, documentary maker: longtime Australian resident, he was born in SwedenOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDMary McCarthy, The GroupPatricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr RipleyAshley Kalagian Blunt, Cold TruthSara Foster, When She Was GoneSamantha Byres, Dead EndsJames Bridle, Ways of BeingSlavoj Zizek, Too Late To Awaken CREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Roi Huberman, Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

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• Escaping a drunken rant in Catherine Jinks' Panic

  Kate and Cassie are back for 2025 to discuss Panic by Catherine Jinks, about a young woman looking for a fresh start after posting a drunken rant that went horrifically viral. Novelist George Haddad, and Professor Sue Turnbull, who specialises in crime drama and fiction, are also along, to take a look at new novels by Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran and American author Garth Greenwell.BOOKSCatherine Jinks, Panic, TextGarth Greenwell, Small Rain, PicadorShankari Chandran, Unfinished Business, Ultimo PressGUESTSGeorge Haddad, novelist, artist and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Western Sydney. His novel Losing Face was published in 2022Sue Turnbull, Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, who specialises in crime drama and fiction. She is also chief crime fiction reviewer for The Age and SMHOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDKaliane Bradley, The Ministry of TimeAlice Winn, In MemoriamRichard J. Evans, Hitler's PeopleGeorge Eliot, MiddlemarchCaroline Darian, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again:  Turning our family trauma of Chemical Submission into a collective fightCurtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell; Romantic Comedy; EligibleGarth Greenwell, CleannessShankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon GardensKatherine Brabon, Body FriendBen Watt, Patient Alexandros Papadiamantis, The MurderessMichelle de Kretser, Theory and PracticeRonni Salt, Gunnawah Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Cold Truth; Dark ModeKatherena Vermette, The Stranger family trilogyCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Tegan Nicholls, Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

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