In this episode, we travel from the Swiss Alps to the quiet strangeness of Danish suburbia and the fierce edges of American literary drama. We begin with the visceral intensity of Gabriel Tallent’s latest novel, Crux, where characters cling to passion and survival with bloodied fingertips. Claire Thomas reflects on art, ambition, and the lure of towering peaks in On Not Climbing Mountains, and Helle Helle's They, a delicately surreal portrait of mothers, daughters, and the lives lived between silences. BOOKS Gabriel Tallent, Crux, Fig Tree Claire Thomas, On Not Climbing Mountains, Hachette Helle Helle, They, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, Giramondo GUESTSHannah Kent, novelist, scriptwriter, and memoirist, whose books include Burial Rites, The Good People, Devotion, and Always Home Always Homesick Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Artistic Associate at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney OTHER BOOKS MENTIONEDOlga Tocarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the DeadRachel Cusk, worksW.G. Sebald, worksMary Shelley, FrankensteinHenry James, worksRainer Maria Rilke, worksJames Baldwin, worksKatherine Mansfield, worksLeo Tolstoy, worksTeju Cole, worksMuriel Sparks, worksJohanna Spyri, HeidiBlaise Cendrars, worksJessica Au, Cold Enough for SnowHarry Matthews, SleuthJohn Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent Harry Mathews, Tlooth Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of VolumeCatherine Lacey, The Möbius BookCREDITSPresenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullaghProducer, Kate Evans and Sarah CorbettSound engineer, Micky Grossman and Roi HubermanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown