World Book Club Podcast
The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.
Episodes to download
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Bryan Washington: Memorial
Sat 7 May 2022
A portrait of an edgy gay relationship seen from both men’s point of view.
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NoViolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names
Sat 2 Apr 2022
Ten-year-old Darling from Zimbabwe has a choice: it's down or out
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Kiley Reid: Such a Fun Age
Sat 5 Mar 2022
A carefully observed study of class and race, and biting portrait of white urban affluence
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Isabel Allende: Eva Luna
Sat 5 Feb 2022
In Eva Luna, an orphaned girl tells stories to survive mid-century South America
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Naoise Dolan: Exciting Times
New Year's Day 2022
Irish writer Naoise Dolan talks about her dazzling novel Exciting Times
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Monique Roffey: The Mermaid of Black Conch
Sat 4 Dec 2021
Harriett Gilbert talks to the award-winning Trinidadian-British author Monique Roffey
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Burhan Sönmez: Istanbul, Istanbul
Sat 6 Nov 2021
A powerfully political and intensely personal story of modern Turkish life
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Wole Soyinka
Sat 2 Oct 2021
Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka discusses English PEN centenary and his new novel.
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Maylis De Kerangal: Mend the Living
Sat 4 Sep 2021
Award-winning French writer Maylis de Kerangal talks about her novel Mend the Living
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Crime and Punishment: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sat 7 Aug 2021
Damnation and redemption in 19th Century St Petersburg
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Jane Harper: The Dry
Sat 3 Jul 2021
Australian author Jane Harper talks about her internationally garlanded thriller The Dry.
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Manu Joseph: Serious Men
Sat 5 Jun 2021
Manu Joseph discusses Serious Men, a satirical portrait of contemporary Indian society
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Louise Penny: Still Life
Sat 1 May 2021
Award-winning murder mystery set in rural Quebec from Canada’s queen of crime-writing
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Robert Seethaler: A Whole Life
Sat 3 Apr 2021
A mesmerizing tale of the beauty and harshness of a lonely life in the mountains
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Tsitsi Dangarembga: Nervous Conditions
Sun 7 Mar 2021
Tsitsi Dangarembga talks about her coming-of-age novel Nervous Conditions
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Bill Bryson: Notes from a Small Island
Sun 7 Feb 2021
Amusing and affectionate portrait of the island nation Bill Bryson proudly calls home
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Sjón - Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was
Sun 3 Jan 2021
Sjón answers questions from readers about his novel Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was.
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Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing
Sun 6 Dec 2020
We discuss the prize-winning novel Homegoing with its acclaimed Ghanaian author Yaa Gyasi
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Yiyun Li: The Vagrants
Sun 8 Nov 2020
We talk to acclaimed Chinese author Yiyun Li about her harrowing debut novel The Vagrants
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Ali Smith: How to Be Both
Sat 3 Oct 2020
We discuss the novel How to Be Both with its acclaimed British author Ali Smith
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Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge
Sat 5 Sep 2020
Harriett Gilbert talks to the world-renowned American author Elizabeth Strout
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Helen Garner: The Spare Room
Sat 1 Aug 2020
Friendship, caring, nursing and anger in a short, fierce novel from Australia
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Bernardine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other
Sat 4 Jul 2020
A novel that offers an unforgettable insight into life in today’s multi-cultural Britain
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Deborah Levy - Hot Milk
Sat 6 Jun 2020
A hypnotic tale of female sexuality set with the lush backdrop of southern Spain
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Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies
Sat 2 May 2020
The rise and fall of Cromwell, the most powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII
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Fatima Bhutto - The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
Sat 4 Apr 2020
Five young Pakistani men and women try to live and love in a world on fire
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Leïla Slimani - Lullaby
Sun 8 Mar 2020
An acclaimed French thriller which probes at the fault lines of gender, class and race
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Petina Gappah - The Book of Memory
Sun 2 Feb 2020
A Zimbabwean woman charged with murdering her adoptive father awaits her execution
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Naomi Alderman - The Power
Sun 5 Jan 2020
A speculative fiction imagining women and a new ‘power’ helps them take over the world
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Jenny Erpenbeck - Visitation
Sun 8 Dec 2019
The horrors of twentieth century Germany filtered through the beauty of one house
Next recording: Mohsin Hamid
In June Mohsin Hamid will be discussing his novel Exit West
Next episode: Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan will be talking about her novel A Visit from the Goon Squad
Ten Amazing Interviews
Favourite episodes of World Book Club, featuring Maya Angelou and Henning Mankell.
Crime Fiction
Henning Mankel, Patrica Cornwell, Jo Nesbo: stars of the genre discuss their craft.
Tales from History
From the tulip fields of 17th Century Amsterdam to the trenches of World War One.
