Cath and Sarah delight in sharing what they loved about Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey’s short novel, “Orbital”

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Cath then settles into a cosy chat to author Melanie Cheng. She’s created a delicate and wise novella in which a family’s grief is articulated and haltingly addressed with the adoption of a pet rabbit.

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Michaela enjoys revisiting Margaret Atwood’s enigmatic classic “Alias Grace” with Flinders University Associate Professors, Kylie Cardell and Lisa Bennett.

Guests

Melanie Cheng, General Practitioner and author of “The Burrow”, “Room for a Stranger” and “Australia Day”

Lisa Bennett is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English at Flinders University. She’s the author of “Viking Women: Life and Lore”. The follow-up volume, “Viking Women: Myth and Magic” is due out this year.

Kylie Cardell is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English at Flinders University. She’s the author of “Dear World: Contemporary Uses of the Diary” and Editor (with Kate Douglas) of “Telling Tales: Autobiography of Childhood and Youth” and she is the essays Editor for the Australian scholarly journal, “Life Writing”.

INSTAGRAM

@lisalhannett

@kyliesays

@text_publishing

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Catherine McKinnon’s tense but tender tale, “To Sing of War”, immerses the reader in the lives of three characters strung across the globe during the dying days of World War II …as the days tick towards the detonation of the first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima.

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Poet Ken Bolton makes a good case for why British writer Beryl Bainbridge should not be forgotten.

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ABC Broadcaster and poet Mike Ladd shares what’s in his tsundoku.

Guests

Catherine McKinnon, author of “To Sing of War” and the Miles Franklin Award shortlisted “Storyland”

Ken Bolton, Australian poet whose most recent collection is titled “Salute”

Our Random Reader is ABC broadcaster and poet Mike Ladd

Other books that get a mention

Catherine McKinnon mentions “The Regeneration Trilogy” by Pat Barker, “Cloud Cukooland” by Anthony Doerr.

Ken Bolton mentions Beryl Bainbridge’s books, “An Awfully Big Adventure”, “Injury Time”, “Master Georgie”, “The Birthday Boys”, “Watson’s Apology”, “According to Queeney” and “A Quiet Life”.

Mike Ladd mentions “The story of Wy-lah, the cockatoo” by Leslie Rees, “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller, “Selected Poems’ by Elizabeth Bishop, “The Years” by Annie Ernaux, “The Pole and Other Stories” by John Coetzee and “Salt Creek” by Lucy Treloar.

INSTAGRAM

@cathmckinnonauthor

@harpercollinsaustralia

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Michaela talks to one of her favourite writers, Robbie Arnott, about “Dusk”; a beautiful and beguiling tale of siblings, so down on their luck they embark on an impossible quest to slay a puma in the Tasmanian highlands and claim a life-changing bounty.

Sarah chats to stand-out millennial Hannah Ferguson about her second book, “Taboo: Conversations we never had about sex, body image, work and relationships”

Then, the Tsundoku gang gets together to discuss their favourite books of 2024 and the book they’d most like to find in their Christmas stocking.

Guests

Robbie Arnott, author of “Dusk”

Hannah Ferguson, author of “Taboo: Conversations we never had about sex, body image, work and relationships”

Other books that get a mention

Robbie Arnott also mentions “Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner, “The Sound of Waves” by Yukio Mishima, “Deep Water; The world in the ocean” by James Bradley, “Old School” by Tobias Wolff and “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkien

Cath mentions “The Red Children”, “The White Children”, “My Driver” and "My Cleaner” by Maggie Gee and Belinda Bauer’s books “Snap”, “Exit” and “The Impossible Thing”

Annie mentions “The Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St John Mandel,“The Beesting” by Paul Murray, “Caledonian Roads” by Andrew O’Hagan and the Robert Harris books, “Precipice”, “Pompeii” and “Fatherland”

Sarah mentions “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin, “All Fours” by Miranda July, “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and “Stone Yard Devotional” by Charlotte Wood

Michaela mentions “Other Houses” by Paddy O'Reilly and “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey

INSTAGRAM

@robbie_gc_arnott

@macmillanaus

@hannahferguson_
@affirmpress

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