LIVE! Agnes Lidbeck and how to write about major adjustments and characters that frustrate us
I’m talking to the Swedish writer, Agnes Lidbeck, in this special edition live episode of the Rippling Pages! We really did have a coffee with one of the world’s, one of Sweden’s most interesting writers, because as we were live in person with a live audience in Leeds!
Life is full of adjustments - perhaps there isn’t a bigger adjustment than having children. But what happens when you start to question your role in this adjustment? Crucially, what happens when a mother starts to question her role in this adjustment.
These are the questions at the heart of Agnes’s novel, SUPPORTING ACT, published by Peirene Press and translated by Nichola Smalley.
It’s a beautiful novel about fierce devotion in the face of fierce questions that need to be asked about why certain people seem to take on certain roles in society.
Agnes is the author of five novels, but this was her first novel, and it’s her first to be translated into English. She is a renowned name in Sweden on TV, radio, and Swedish letters. This book alone was the winner of the prestigious Bourous Debut Novel Prize.
This is part of Modern Culture’s programming of events called Stories from Sweden, so thanks to Martin Colthorpe for help making this happen.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop all books are all sourced from indie bookshops!
https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
0.15 introductions.
3.25 - Agnes time in Leeds
4.35 opening to the novel
6.05 - Agnes and Jens
10.05 - Agnes’s reading
14.00 - touch and tactility
17.10 - Swedish society and parental leave
19.50 - spiritual and physical pain of Anna.
22.00 - Jens and Ivan
24.25 - why is Ivan so compelling to Anna
27.15 - grips of passion
29.00 - rippling pages bookshop
30.15 - different modes of time
35.30 - Anna’s dark thoughts
38.15 - Agnes’s next book
40.45 - frustration and being kind to Anna
42.30 - a strange interaction in the street!
45.00 - questions from the audience - do you have a different relationship with Anna as a result of the translation
47.30 question from audience - is Anna a detached person, or detached as a result of motherhood.
49.00 - the power of translation
Reference Points
Hjalmar Söderberg
Baruch Spinoza
Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
Annie Ernaux
Wretchedness - Andrzej Tichý (translated by Nichola Smalley)
--------
51:24
--------
51:24
Joanna Pocock on writing about kindness and perspective on the American Road
America is a place that has compelled countless writers to travel its vast and varied landscapes. Perhaps you’ve done it yourself. But what happens when you feel compelled to do it all again?
That’s the question at the heart of Joanna Pocock’s essay, Greyhound (Fitzcarraldo Editions). Named after the iconic bus company whose intercity network carries passengers from Detroit to Los Angeles — and which Joanna relies on for her own journey — Greyhound revisits familiar motels, crossings, and bus stations she first encountered years before.
Joanna’s writing has appeared in Granta, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and The London Review of Books, among others. GREYHOUND is her second book, and her first, SURRENDER, won the Fitzcarraldo essay prize.
Remember to like, share, follow, subscribe or leave a review if you enjoy the show.
Reference Points
- 1.40 - is Joanna a city or a country writer
- 3.20 - where the journey starts
- 6.15 - why are there not more women on the road?
- 09.00 - starting in Canada.
- 11.05 - Borders
- 12.15 - the people Joanna meets
- 16.05 - the sense of perspective.
- 17.50 - people Joanna sees
- 19.30 - Amarillo and fecal dust
- 23.00 - rippling pages podcast
- 24.05 - the cost of travel
- 26.35 - the bus as a political space
- 30.30 - the enduring appeal of the American road.
*****
Tickets for Agnes Lidbeck in Conversation
https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/events/p/theripplingpagesliveoctober
*****
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop all books are all sourced from indie bookshops!
https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Reference Points
Ansel Adams
Lewis Baltz
Simone de Beauvoir - America Day by Day
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Irma Kirtz - The Great American Bus Ride
Ethel Mannin - An America Journey
Benjamin Markovits - The Rest of Our Lives
William Least Heat-Moon - Blue Highways
Ed Ruscha
The Salt Path - Raynor Winn
--------
36:16
--------
36:16
Ask the Host! Liam on Latest Reads, Favourite Bookshop, and Reality TV
Welcome to the second edition of Rippling Pages: Ask the Host!
It's time to answer some more questions from you, the listeners!
So, that’s what I’ve done: I’ve picked out some questions from the Rippling Pages inbox, and answered them!
In this episode, I answer:
- What I have been reading lately?
- How are my French lessons going?
- How do I prepare for interviews?
- What is my favourite bookshop?
- What is my favourite season?
- Who's going to win the Premier League and Women's Super League?
Got a question yourself? Why not leave a review and a question and I might pick out one for a future show!
*****
Tickets for Agnes Lidbeck in Conversation
https://www.nextchapterleeds.co.uk/events/p/theripplingpagesliveoctober
*****
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop all books are all sourced from indie bookshops!
https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Reference Points
Books
On the Clock by Claire Baglin (translated by Jordan Stump). Daunt Books
Lanre Bakare - We Were There (Penguin Books)
The Unreliable Nature Writer by Claire Carroll (Scratch Books)
Joy is My Middle Name by Sasha Debevec-McKenney (Fitzcaralldo Editions )
Failed Summer Vacation by Heuijung Hur (translated by Paige Aniyah Morris) Scratch Books
Noreen Masud - A Flat Place (Penguin Books)
White Spines by Nicholas Royle (Salt Books)
Two Days, One Night (2014, directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
--------
16:58
--------
16:58
BONUS! Gurnaik Johal on Objects, Perfect Art and Buster Keaton
“It’s almost a perfect work of art.”
This is some bonus content from the previous episode with Gurnaik Johal where we talk about objects of influence.
The return of a potentially holy river in the Indian mountains - is it a sign of a new age, a divine intervention, or simply the workings of nature? These are the questions at the heart of Gurnaik Johal’s novel, SARASWATI, published by Serpent’s Tail. Frauds, politicians, mystics, writers, and the family who own the farm in which the river exists, are caught up in trying to determine what the return of the SARASWATI river means. It is a novel that is truly global in its scope, set in Canada, India, the Chagos Islands, and Wolverhampton. It was named as a Guardian newspaper selection for 2025, and shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. Gurnaik was a winner of the Galley Beggar short story prize.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop all books are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
--------
6:04
--------
6:04
Gurnaik Johal on Rivers, Family and Pub Chats
The return of a potentially holy river in the Indian mountains - is it a sign of a new age, a divine intervention, or simply the workings of nature? These are the questions at the heart of Gurnaik Johal’s novel, SARASWATI, published by Serpent’s Tail. Frauds, politicians, mystics, writers, and the family who own the farm in which the river exists, are caught up in trying to determine what the return of the SARASWATI river means. It is a novel that is truly global in its scope, set in Canada, India, the Chagos Islands, and Wolverhampton. It was named as a Guardian newspaper selection for 2025, and shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. Gurnaik was a winner of the Galley Beggar short story prize.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop all books are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
1.55 - what is the SARASWATI?
3.35 - the family connection
6.45 - river symbolism
8.20 - characters in the novel
10.30 - family dynasties and novels
11.55- reclamation
14.45 - rippling pages bookshop
15.30 - border conflicts
18.40 - human connection between
21 - romance in the novel
23.20 - the chagos islands
27.50 - how people communicate
29.30 - from short stories to novels
31.15 - being faithful to reality
34.35 - more advice for writers
New Zealand