The Book Show

David Malouf was a giant of Australian writing who was known and loved for his iconic debut novel, Johnno, about a young Brisbane man during World War 2; a book partly inspired by his own life.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, David wrote plays, poetry, libretto, and more novels, including The Great World, and his Booker Prize shortlisted, Remembering Babylon.
And today, on this special episode of The Book Show, we're remembering David who has died at the age of 92.
Claire Nichols revisits her very special interview with David in 2025 in which he discusses his early life, sharing books with his mother, that first novel and the benefits of a daily walk on the beach.
This interview was first broadcast on 25 September 2025.

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?

A fun wild ride here on the Book Show where Claire Nichols meets American Chinese writer Jenny Tinghui Zhang who has tapped into the K-Pop phenomenon with her latest novel Superfan. A knock-off American K-Pop group are set to make history, but at what cost to them and their loyal fans? It's an affectionate but covert satire on obsession, loneliness and fame.
And prepare for supreme silliness and a lot of blood letting when Shaun Micallef debates vampires, zombie slaves and a cast of dead historical figures. His new book De'ath Takes a Holiday is a unique perspective on the Gothic romance horror where the harbinger of Dracula attempts mortality.

For this Easter special an opportunity to revisit Yael van der Wouden the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction winner.
Her celebrated debut The Safekeep also made the 2024 Booker Prize shortlist. The Safekeep is set in the Netherlands, 15 years after the end of World War II and is about an uptight woman, an unpredictable house guest, loneliness, repression and desire. The novel confronts the prevailing narrative about the Dutch experience of World War II and its treatment of Jewish people.
Claire Nichols spoke to Yael at the Sydney Writers Festival in 2025
This conversation was first broadcast 23 June 2025

Australian author Debra Adelaide's latest book is her most personal to date. As she reveals to Claire Nichols, When I am 64 was written as an autofiction to give her more freedom to reflect on her lifelong close friendship as well as coming to terms with the death, at age 64, of writer Gabrielle Carey, most known as the co-author of Puberty Blues. 
If this conversation raises issues with you or those close to you Lifeline 13 11 14
In her latest thriller The Shark, Emma Styles takes the reader to the height of a Perth summer. It's hot and as she tells Claire Nichols, a season sizzling with danger. But who is the Shark circling on the beach and how can two teenage girls net them?