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.

From the nightclubs of 1930s Berlin to the heartache and awkwardness of high school, and into the green rooms and backstage spaces of writers' festivals.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead’s latest novel Cool Machine is a vivid portrait of Black New York in the 1980s. The book reunites readers with furniture salesman and part-time fence Ray Carney. Kate Evans and regular reviewer, critic and essayist Beejay Silcox discuss. Also this week, Isabelle Li’s The Northern Tomb offers an intimate and richly textured portrait of life in Northeast China during the Covid pandemic, while Claire Berest’s Frida brings the passion, colour and complexity of artist Frida Kahlo vividly to the page.  Plus, Kate speaks with Ashley Hay, novelist and interim editor of Meanjin, about the magazine's rich literary history and how its archive can help guide your vote in the ABC's Top 100 Australian Books countdown. (Ashley also shares her top three Australian picks). Each week, a specially curated selection of archival material will be released at Meanjin: Meanjin – The Finest New Writing in Australia Books discussed Cool Machine - Colson Whitehead (Fleet) The Northern Tomb - Isabelle Li (Puncher & Wattmann) Frida - Claire Berest, translated from French by Stephanie Smee (Mountain Leopard Press) Also mentioned But Won't I Miss Me - Tiffany Tsao (Harper Via) Beejay Silcox's recommendations Angel Down - Daniel Kraus The Children - Melissa Albert Their Brilliant Careers - Ryan O'Neill Ashley Hay's Top 3 Australian picks The Commandant - Jessica Anderson Edenglassie - Melissa Lucashenko The Great Fire - Shirley Hazzard Credits Presenter - Kate Evans Producer - Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound - Tim Jenkins and Isabella Tropiano Arts editor - Rhiannon Brown

Dave Eggers explores the messy intersection of art, friendship and growing up in Contrapposto, while Daniel Mason's Country People follows an academic family into a Vermont landscape full of stories and believers in worlds beneath the earth. Then Maria Takolander's The End of Romance imagines life after collapse. Joining Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh are our regular reviewers, novelist Madeleine Gray and musician Tim Rogers.  Plus, playwright and novelist George Kemp shares three favourite Australian books ahead of the ABC's Top 100 Australian Books countdown. Books discussed Contrapposto - Dave Eggers Country People - Daniel Mason The End of Romance - Maria Takolander Cloudstreet - Tim Winton The Sun Walks Down - Fiona McFarlane Cold Enough for Snow - Jessica Au Guest recommendations Dream Girls - Hannah Goldstein Brother of the More Famous Jack - Barbara Trapido The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark Riverboy - Jim Ewing A Suitable Man - Jock Serong Fifty Beating Wonders - Dr Michelle Johnston Flights - Olga Tokarczuk  Credits Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound, Micky Grossman and Tegan Nicholls Arts editor, Sarah L' Estrange

This week on The Bookshelf, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh discuss new novels including Laura McPhee-Browne's Worry Doll, a story of desire, obsession and uncertainty; Leïla Slimani's I'll Take the Fire, the acclaimed French-Moroccan writer's rich, politically charged exploration of family, memory and identity; and Kris Kneen's Rite of Spring, an eerie island novel where strange creatures lurk in the mist. Joining the program are regular reviewers, bestselling crime writer Michael Robotham and novelist and academic Roanna Gonsalves. Plus, as ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books Countdown approaches, writer and historian Bruce Pascoe shares three Australian books he loves. Books discussed Worry Doll, Laura McPhee-Browne I'll Take the Fire, Leïla Slimani (translated by Sam Taylor) Rite of Spring, Kris Kneen Benang: From The Heart, Kim Scott Every Secret Thing, Marie Munkara Mullumbimby, Melissa Lucashenko Guest recommendations Whistler, Ann Patchett The Hunter, Tana French Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree   Credits Presenter: Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound: Craig Tilmouth and Micky Grossman Arts editor: Sarah L'Estrange

A live recording from the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival, with guests Hannah Kent and Beejay Silcox. Hannah Kent, Always Home, Always Homesick (Picador) Eimear McBride, The City Changes Its Face (Faber) Susan Choi, Flashlight (Jonathan Cape) Edward St Aubyn, Parallel Lines (Jonathan Cape) Caryl Phillips, Another Man in the Street (Bloomsbury) Guests Hannah Kent is the author of the novels Burial Rites, The Good People and Devotion. Her latest book is the memoir, Always Home, Always Homesick Beejay Silcox is a critic, writer, festival director and literary interviewer Other Books Mentioned Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Eric Puchner, Dream State Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers Emily Maguire, Rapture Mariana Enríquez, A Sunny Place for Shady People Susan Hampton, Anything Can Happen

We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

Cassie McCullagh is joined by Jonathan Green this time, for a wide-ranging hour of new fiction, from Australia and beyond. First, Fiona Mozley’s unsettling Awake Awake, where a young woman begins to suspect her grandfather may have killed Adolf Hitler, Zan Rowe weighs in. Then, Irish writer Niamh Campbell’s Make Strange, a quietly eerie novel about a four-year-old asking impossible questions, including whether she’s lived before...Madeleine Gray gives her verdict. And we begin with a striking new Australian voice in the short story collection I Made This Just For You by Chris Ames. ~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Elmet; Hot Stew, by Fiona Mozley What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan The Ruiners, by Ellena Savage The Shepherd's Life; A Place of Tides, by James Rebanks The Animators; Returns and Exchanges, by Kayla Rae Whitaker Fruit Fly, by Josh Silver Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart ~ CREDITS Presenter, Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green Producer, Cassie McCullagh and Sarah Corbett Sound, Antonia Gauci and Ann Marie Debettencor Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

From a sun-drenched Tuscan reset with a side of style advice (Andrew Sean Greer's Villa Coco via Michael Robotham), to Ilka Tampke’s How To Love the World, a tender take on parenting and the pull of the bush (guided by Roanna Gonsalves), and throw in a windswept lighthouse on the edge of the world with Michael Pedersen’s Muckle Flugga. ~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Charles Bukowski, works Andrew Sean Greer, Less Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame Steve Toltz, works Ilka Tampke, Skin; Songwoman Debra Adelaide,When I Am Sixty-Four David Sedaris, The Land and Its People; Me Talk Pretty One Day Rashida Murphy, Old Ghosts; The Historian's Daughter Olga Ravn, The Wax Child; The Employees ~ CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Tegan Nicholls and Harvey O'Sullivan Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh are joined by regulars Hannah Kent and Tom Wright to talk new fiction from three major voices: Maggie O’Farrell’s Land, an expansive novel set in famine-era Ireland that traces memory, myth and the imprint of history on place; Ann Patchett’s Whistler, a sharp story of family, lost fathers and the long shadow of childhood; and Christine Balint’s A Single Witness, which follows a teenage girl confronting her community and the law in 18th-century Italy. ~ OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Maggie O'Farrell, works Ann Patchett, works Christine Balint, works George R.Stewart, Names On The Land  Sumner Locke Elliott’s Careful, He Might Hear You  Tusiata Avia, Big Fat Brown Bitch  Dominic Hoey, 1985 Ingrid Horrocks, All Her Lives: Nine Stories Tāme Iti, MANA ~ CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound: Micky Grossman, Isabella Tropiano Arts editor: Rhiannon Brown