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The Bookshelf

by ABC Australia

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Latest episodes

Beyond the Top 100: The books readers nearly voted in

October 23, 2026 · 55 min

More than 280,000 readers voted. Now Kate and Cassie reveal the books that just missed Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books countdown. With special guests literary curator and Top 100 producer Michaela Kalowski, and critic and…
Australian artists, writers and readers share the Australian books they love most

October 16, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

On this special edition of The Bookshelf, ahead of the Top 100 Australian Books Countdown, Kate Evans speaks with historian Professor Martyn Lyons about the history of reading in Australia and what our reading lives can reveal about the…
Chris Hammer, Jem Calder and Pip Williams reviewed on this week's Bookshelf

October 9, 2026 · 55 min

Kate and Cassie are joined by rockstar Tim Rogers and novelist Madeleine Gray to discuss some big new releases. Australian crime heavyweight Chris Hammer swaps the outback for the world of high finance in Full Circle, a thriller of money…
New fiction from Barbara Kingsolver, Colm Tóibín and Ayad Akhtar

October 2, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

This week, Kate and Cassie are joined by regulars Hannah Kent and Tom Wright to discuss three books that echo one another across themes of art, beauty, family and transformation. In Barbara Kingsolver's Partita, a young woman longs to…
Ambition, Rage, Gothic Hunger: New Novels from Min Jin Lee, Louise Kennedy and Catherine Chidgey

September 25, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

In American Hagwon, the bestselling author of Pachinko, Min Jin Lee, explores family, education, ambition and the long shadow of economic upheaval, set between Seoul, Sydney and California. Louise Kennedy's Stations offers a tough and…

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Emily St. John Mandel and John Boyne alongside a Booker-longlisted debut

September 18, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

Kate and Cassie take a look at bestselling author Emily St. John Mandel's latest, Exit Party, an epic that follows a doppelgänger and a man who disappears from a Los Angeles party in 2031, leading to a journey across parallel worlds and…
New Fiction: Donal Ryan, Emma Cline, Max Easton and Sebastian Barry

September 11, 2026 · 55 min

We step into Irish bestseller Donal Ryan's world in Where Are the Kings, a tender coming of age story about a boy navigating grief. Inside a fracturing mind in Emma Cline’s Booker Longlisted novel Switzy, read with novelist Madeleine Gray…
New Fiction from Melissa Harrison and Malcolm Knox + Mandy Sayer's Top 3

September 4, 2026 · 55 min

Kate and Cassie with regular reviewer Tom Wright discuss new releases including Melissa Harrison’s The Given World and Malcolm Knox’s The Second Child. Plus, novelist and memoirist Mandy Sayer on her Top 3 Australian books ahead of Radio…
Top 100 Australian Books from Byron Writers Festival

August 28, 2026 · 55 min

Voting in Radio National's Top 100 Books countdown is about to open and this year we're celebrating Australian books. As you think about your own Top 10, Kate and Cassie bring together a trio of award-winning writers (including last year's…
Anjet Daanje's extraordinary The Stork and the Dromedary + Liane Moriarty returns with Big Little Truths

August 21, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

Anjet Daanje's The Song of Stork and Dromedary, translated from the Dutch, explores the intimate work of death and care in the eighteenth century. Liane Moriarty returns to the world of Big Little Lies with Big Little Truths, reuniting…
The Haunting Wild, a Trip to Mars and Dreaming of Escape in 1980's France

August 14, 2026 · 55 min

We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.
Miles Franklin winner Omar Musa + Booker-longlisted All Them Dogs and Téa Obreht's Sunrise

August 7, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

Omar Musa joins us after winning the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Plus, Michael Robotham and Madeleine Gray review Djamel White's Booker Prize-longlisted debut All Them Dogs and Téa Obreht's sweeping new novel Sunrise.