The Book Show

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.

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.

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.

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 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).