The Bookshelf

• Curtis Sittenfeld's Show Don't Tell + Tim Rogers and Zan Rowe on two new debuts

  Kate and Cassie discuss bestselling American writer Curtis Sittenfeld’s sharp and observant collection of short stories Show Don’t Tell; You Am I frontman Tim Rogers reads First Name Second Name, an excellent debut from Queensland novelist Steve MinOn, and the ABC’s own Zan Rowe (of Triple J, Double J and Take 5 fame) shares her thoughts on Scottish singer-songwriter (from Belle and Sebastian) Stuart Murdoch’s Nobody’s Empire, a case of life inspiring art.BOOKS Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don’t Tell, Doubleday Stuart Murdoch, Nobody’s Empire: A Novel, Faber Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name, UQP GUESTS Tim Rogers, lead singer with You Am I and The Hard-Ons, about to launch into a You Am I tour celebrating 30 years of the Hi Fi Way album. Author of DetoursZan Rowe, Double J’s Music Correspondent and host of Friday Mornings; presenter of Take 5 OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDAndrew O'Hagan, MayfliesRobbie Arnott, DuskHannah Kent, worksLech Blaine, Australian GospelHelen Garner, The Season; Monkey GripGeraldine Brooks, Memorial Days; HorseJoan Didion, The Year of Magical ThinkingJennifer Homans, Mr. B Ronald Hugh Morrieson, The ScarecrowFyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and PunishmentCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Emrys CroninExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

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• This week’s novels takes us to Zanzibar, Budapest and Renaissance Florence

  This week’s novels takes us to Zanzibar, Budapest and Renaissance Florence with Nobel Prize-winning English-Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft; while guest reviewers Tim Ayliffe reads Laurent Binet’s Perspectives; and Siang Lu reads David Szalay’s Flesh.BOOKS Abdulrazak Gurnah, Theft, Bloomsbury Laurent Binet, Perspectives (translated from the French by Sam Taylor), Harvill Secker David Szalay, Flesh, Jonathan Cape GUESTSTim Ayliffe, journalist and crime writer – whose John Bailey series include the books The Enemy Within, Killer Traitor Spy, and The Wrong ManSiang Lu, writes for film and TV and is also the author of the books Ghost Cities and The Whitewash OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDMichael Connelly, works Leon Uris, worksJohn Le Carre, worksStephen King, worksAndrew O'Hagan, Caledonian Road; MayfliesNick Cave and Swan O'Hagan, Faith, Hope and Carnage Sara Foster, When She Was GoneCamille Booker, The Woman in the WavesNatasha Rai, An Onslaught of LightSteve MinOn, First Name Second Name

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• On stage at Adelaide Writers' Week with Niall Williams, Charlotte Mendelson and Brian Castro

  This edition of the Bookshelf was recorded on stage at Adelaide Writers' Week on Sunday 2 March – with Irish writer Niall Williams (Time of the Child), English writer Charlotte Mendelson (Wife) and all the way from the Adelaide Hills, Australian writer Brian Castro (Chinese Postman). How and when do they do their best reading, what have books meant to them, what are their influences and touchstones? With a surprising swerve or to into the bath and to the funeral of a beloved author.BOOKS MENTIONEDLaurence Sterne, worksJames Joyce, works, UlyssesSamuel Beckett, worksP. W. Joyce, English As We Speak It in IrelandCharles Dickens, Great Expectations; Bleak HouseW.G.Sebald, Rings of Saturn; AusterlitzThomas Bernhard, worksHelen Garner, Diaries; The Children's Bach; Monkey Grip  Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls; MemoirHermann Broch, The Death of VirgilSalvatore Satta, The Day of JudgmentSamantha Harvey, Orbital  Ceridwen Dovey, Only the AstronautsLouise Glück, worksAnne Carson, worksJelena Dinic, worksAlistair MacLeod, Ireland and Other StoriesJohn McGahern, Amongst WomenPercival Everett, JamesHilary Mantel, Wolf Hall  James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery StorePatrick Lane, There is a SeasonAlba de Céspedes, worksElena Ferrante, works

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• Australian bestseller Diana Reid returns with Signs of Damage

  Four women’s lives intertwined between Africa and the USA in Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count. Plus, secrets and trauma in the South of France  in Australian novelist Diana Reid’s new one, Signs of Damage; and into the Swedish wilderness to observe a group of seven unlikely people in indie musician turned novelist Annika Norlin’s Colony.BOOKSChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dream Count, Fourth EstateDiana Reid, Signs of Damage, Ultimo PressAnnika Norlin, Colony, (translated from the Swedish by Alice E. Olsson), ScribeGUESTSPeter Polites, Western Sydney writer whose books include the novels Down the Hume and The Pillars, and the memoir-fiction hybrid, God Forgets About the PoorStephanie Smee is a translator who works from French into English and whose translations include Hannelore Cayre’s The Godmother, Helene Gaudy’s A World with No Shore and Marie-Helene La Fon’s The Son’s StoryOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun; AmericanaDiana Reid, Love and Virtue; Seeing Other PeopleFiona McGregor, Chemical Palace; IrisJames Parker, Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes: Odes to Being AliveCREDITSPresenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullaghProducer: Kate Evans, Sarah CorbettSound engineer: Ann Marie Debettencor, Simon BranthwaiteExecutive producer: Rhiannon Brown

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• Irish writer Colum McCann’s Twist dives deep under the ocean and takes on a charismatic mystery

  Irish writer Colum McCann’s Twist dives deep under the ocean and takes on a charismatic mystery; 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang’s We Do Not Part explores massacres on Jeju Island during (and after) the Korean War, stories actively repressed by both the South Korean and American governments; and Australian novelist Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore takes us to a fictional island between Tasmania and Antarctica, inhabited only by a man and his three children.BOOKSColum McCann, Twist, Bloomsbury Han Kang, We Do Not Part (translated from Korean by e. yaewon & Page Aniyah Morris), Hamish Hamilton Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore, Penguin Random House GUESTSBeejay Silcox, critic, essayist and regular onstage interviewer of writers. Until last week – Director of the Canberra Writers FestivalBernadette Brennan, literary scholar and judge, whose books include literary biographies of Australian Helen Garner and Gillian MearsOTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDJoseph Conrad, Heart of DarknessSusannah Clarke, PiranesiSarah Manguso, LiarsAlba de Céspedes, No Turning BackCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans + Sarah CorbettSound engineer, John JacobsExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

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