Sunday 16:00-16:30, repeated Thursday 16:00-16:30, except first Sunday in the month when it is replaced by Book Club.
Open Book spotlights new fiction and non-fiction, picks out the best of the paperbacks, talks to authors and publishers, and unearths lost masterpieces.
This week
29 March and 2nd April 2009
Tom Rob Smith on his Soviet-era thriller, Child 44.
Tom Rob Smith
Last year Tom Rob Smith's debut novel Child 44 won praise from reviewers and made the longlist of the Man Booker Prize. His new book The Secret Speech is, like its predecessor, a thriller set in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. He talks to Mariella about Khruschev's attempt to apologise for Stalin's excesses, and his interest in the period.
Tom Rob Smith: The Secret Speech is published by Simon and Schuster
Writing about Alzheimer's
Two recent novels deal with the difficult subject of Alzheimer's disease. Samantha Harvey, longlisted for the Orange Prize last week for her debut The Wilderness, and the American writer Lisa Genova discuss the difficulties of writing about this condition, and whether it's possible to do so from the point of view of a sufferer.
Lisa Genova: Still Alice is published by Simon and Schuster
Samantha Harvey: The Wilderness is published by Jonathan Cape
Donna Leon and Venice
The Venetian detective Commisario Brunetti is one of the best-known names in contemporary crime fiction. He's the creation of Donna Leon, who this month publishes her nineteenth Brunetti novel. To mark this publication, and the appearance of a guide to Venice which uses the novels as backdrop, Donna Leon and the guide's author Toni Sepeda take Open Book on a tour of Brunetti's Venice.
Donna Leon: About Face is published by William Heinemann
Toni Sepeda: Brunetti's Venice is published by William Heinemann
