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The Book Show

Ocean Vuong's dazzling follow up to his debut On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Charlotte McConaghy's urgent Wild Dark Shore and David Malouf reflects on a life of writing.

The Emperor of Gladness is the latest novel from the Vietnam born, American-based writer Ocean Vuong who made his name with his 2019 novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. His new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, takes you to a forgotten, rundown town in Connecticut called East Gladness which is a place of overgrown lawns and trampled weeds, of potholes and roadkill. Ocean shares why he thinks his latest book is self-indulgent (and that's ok), how he came to writing from business school and why his mother never knew that he dropped out of college to study literature.

A small family lives on a remote island, the father a caretaker for the world's seeds. Then in the rising seas, a woman is washed up to shore. Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore is a mystery, a story of love, and a warning.

Now at 91, David Malouf tells Claire Nichols about the place of fiction in his life and what it means to reissue three collections of poetry: An Open Book, Earth Hour and Typewriter Music.

Summer highlights: Ocean Vuong, Charlotte McConaghy and David Malouf

Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Kate Mildenhall break the mould with their new books about fraying families, frightening futures and creepy animals in Seed, Chosen Family and The Hiding Place.

These three authors have made a splash with their previous books and they joined each other in Perth with The Book Show host, Claire Nichols, to share the joy — and angst — of writing fiction and the challenge of creating believable worlds. 

Madeleine Gray is the author of Green Dot and her new book is Chosen Family.

Bri Lee is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction work, Eggshell Skull, and her debut fiction was The Work. Her second novel is Seed.

Kate Mildenhall is the author of four adult novels including The Hummingbird Effect and The Mother Fault. Her latest book is The Hiding Place.

Plus, the final instalment in our five-part series Dear Jane, celebrating 250 years of Jane Austen. We ask why is Jane Austen endlessly adaptable? American author, Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) has published her own Austen-inspired novel, The Jane Austen Book Club (2004) and helps Claire Nichols and Sarah L'Estrange answer this big question. 

Listen to the rest of the Dear Jane series here.

Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Kate Mildenhall on friendship, families and the future

Why is Jane Austen endlessly adaptable? After all, her Pride and Prejudice character, Elizabeth Bennett, has fought zombies, investigated murders, been a video blogger and has performed Bollywood dance numbers. Is it the brilliant plotting, the wonderful characters or the humour that makes her work so readily transplanted to the screen, stage and page in so many different variations?

American author, Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) has published her own Austen-inspired novel, The Jane Austen Book Club (2004) and helps Claire Nichols and Sarah L'Estrange answer these questions in the last of our series celebrating 250 years of Jane Austen.

Listen to the other Dear Jane episodes here.

05 | Dear Jane — The endlessly adaptable Austen

For Jeanette Winterson, reading has been her liberation but she's worried about its future. She asks what AI means for storytelling in her new book One Aladdin Two Lamps. American author Lily King shares the surprising origin of her tear-jerker love-triangle novel, Heart the Lover and we consider the parallels between Regency England and Pakistan in our next instalment of Dear Jane.

For British author Jeanette Winterson, the life of the imagination has been the motivating force throughout her life. More recently, the intersection of literature, humanity and technology in the form of AI has preoccupied the author of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? She's gathered her ideas about this intersection and what it means for storytelling in a new book, One Aladdin Two Lamps, which also tackles the famous text 1001 Nights. In the face of this technological innovation, she asks the troubling question: will we be reading books in the future?

Heart the Lover is the sixth novel by American author Lily King. It follows Jordan, a young woman at college who is torn between two men who also happen to be best friends. The choices she makes will ripple throughout her life. The book is both a tear-jerker and a love triangle and draws the reader to the emotional end.

We don our bonnets to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen in the fourth episode in our series, Dear Jane. So far, we've delved into Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion and today we focus on the flawed character of Emma Woodhouse, who graces Austen's fourth published novel, Emma. Laleen Sukhera is our guide and founded the Jane Austen Society of Pakistan over a decade ago (and has hosted many Austen style tea parties). She finds parallels between life in Emma's Regency England and the Pakistan of her 1990s youth.

Jeanette Winterson releases the reading Genie

Jane Austen's influence has spread well beyond the Anglosphere 250 years after her birth and today we consider the the parallels between Austen's Regency England and contemporary Pakistan. 

Laleen Sukhera is the founder of the Jane Austen Society of Pakistan (which has expanded to the Jane Austen Society MENAP - Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan) and grew up reading Jane Austen. Now based in Dubai, she shares the many similarities between tea time, the marriage market and expectations on women in Austen's time and the Pakistan of her youth. She also shares why she has a soft spot for the fabulously flawed Emma Woodhouse in Austen's fourth published novel, Emma. 

Listen to the other episodes in Dear Jane here.

04 | Dear Jane — Reading Emma in Pakistan

Megha Majumdar's A Guardian and a Thief asks what a billionaire, a manager and homeless person have in common, Sally Hepworth reveals the dramatic confession that led to her latest novel Mad Mabel and in the third episode of Dear Jane we are swept off our feet by the romance in Austen's Persuasion.

Indian novelist Megha Majumdar's high stakes second novel, A Guardian and a Thief, drills into the moral dilemma posed by climate catastrophe and the will to survive. It takes a near future Kolkata ravaged by drought and famine and pits middle-class Ma against impoverished Boomba. Both are trying to survive and support their families but who has the moral high ground in this scenario? Megha reflects on how becoming a parent made her the writer she needed to be and why she doesn't want to reinforce the "noble mother" stereotype in her fiction.

Australian author Sally Hepworth's tenth book can be thought of as a heartwarming crime novel. While this description might sound like a contradiction, Mad Mabel is about a granny serial killer but is also about loneliness, neglect and female friendship. Sally tells Claire about the unexpected confession that was inspiration for the book.

We continue our celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen with the third episode in our series, Dear Jane. So far, we've busted some myths and revealed why Austen loves sailors. Today we focus on the romance in Jane Austen's Persuasion with Australian comedian and lover of romance, Alice Fraser. Alice is the author of A Passion for Passion: A Delirious Love Letter to Romance.

Megha Majumdar and Sally Hepworth on climate crisis and granny serial killers

Jane Austen's novel Persuasion was the last she completed before her death and it is considered a more mature, sombre romance, and in Dear Jane, we ask what makes it so special?

Persuasion follows the ever dependable Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth's rekindled romance after an eight year hiatus when it was deemed unsuitable. Australian comedian Alice Fraser describes it as the original second-chance romance and explains why it's different from Austen's other romances. 

Alice is the author of A Passion for Passion: A Delirious Love Letter to Romance.

03 | Dear Jane — Persuasion, the original second chance romance

British comic Ben Elton on the Aussie inspiration for writing fiction, and Miles Franklin winner Sofie Laguna on the collision of puberty and Roman mythology in her novel The Underworld. Plus the rules for reading Austen's Pride and Prejudice with Irish writer Colm Tóibín.

It seems Ben Elton can do anything. Since his first writing gig at 21 for the BBC sitcom The Young Ones, he's been a stand-up comedian, a TV presenter and a writer for Blackadder (and many other film and TV productions). He's also had a prolific career as a novelist with 16 titles to his name, including Stark. So how does he manage his ego, being edited and the constant tussle of new ideas inside his mind? He's just released his autobiography, What Have I Done? and Claire Nichols visited him before a gig at Perth's Regal Theatre to find out.

Australian author Sofie Laguna writes for adults and children and is a past winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award (The Eye of the Sheep 2015). Sofie has a special affinity with the inner lives of young people and her latest novel, The Underworld, opens in 1973, when the main protagonist, Martha is 14 years old and dealing with puberty. She's an awkward outsider but she's also clever and brave. Sofie tells Claire Nichols why she was so taken with this character.

In a Jane Austen novel, what does it mean if a character is in the Navy? Irish author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Tóibín, has the answer and shares some "rules" for reading Austen's most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. This is the second episode in our Dear Jane series which is a celebration of Austen's enduring legacy 250 years after her birth.

Ben Elton and the case for popular fiction

In a Jane Austen novel, what does it mean if a character is in the Navy? What role do aunts and silly characters play? And what's the significance of the lavish balls? 

Irish author of Brooklyn and Long Island, Colm Tóibín, has the answers and shares some "rules" for reading Austen including her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. 

This is the second episode in The Book Show's Dear Jane series which is a celebration of Austen's enduring legacy 250 years after her birth.

02 | Dear Jane — the perfectly plotted Pride and Prejudice

We're celebrating Jane Austen's 250th birthday with Dear Jane, a brand-new series about her life, her books and her legacy. 

In the first instalment, Roller Derby Austen fanatic and academic Devoney Looser busts some myths and explains why she believes Jane Austen was wild, not mild.

Devoney's new book is Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane.

01 | Dear Jane — the wild, not mild, Jane Austen

American author Celeste Ng shares how her latest novel Our Missing Hearts explores one of her deepest fears. 

Celeste Ng is known for her dark realist novels, Everything I Never Told You, and Little Fires Everywhere (which was adapted to the screen in 2020).

Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian, near future America, where anti-Asian sentiment has peaked, books are disappearing from the shelves, and children are being taken away from their families.

It's a chilling world but as Claire Nichols discovers at this Sydney Writers' Festival event, there is also hope in art, poetry, and family.

Celeste Ng also discusses book banning in the US and you can find out more about this worrying trend on The Book Show's new series Banned Books.

Celeste Ng — "Every one of my books starts with a question"

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