Claire-Louise Bennett’s debut, Pond (Fitzcarraldo), has been a firm bookshop favourite since its release, for its unique, irreverent voice and attention to the parts of experience which go overlooked or unspoken. Checkout 19 (Jonathan Cape), the follow-up, is one of our most eagerly-anticipated books of 2021; Bennett was in conversation with Sheila Heti. Hos ... Show More
Oct 28
Jeremy Lee & Bee Wilson: Kitchening
Jeremy Lee’s smoked eel sandwich became a London sensation when it was introduced at Soho’s Quo Vadis, where Lee is chef proprietor and, amongst other things, led Jay Rayner to call him ‘a rare phenomena in the London food world; a chap everyone agrees is a good thing.’ Now his s ... Show More
59m 12s
Oct 21
Lavinia Greenlaw & Mark Wallinger: On Difficulty (and Poetry)
In On Difficulty (Faber), her latest book of non-poetry, poet and essayist Lavinia Greenlaw explores the fascination, terror and opportunity of wrestling with the opaque, the obscure, the complex and the indeterminate. Is poetry really difficult, and do we like it more when it is ... Show More
58m 26s
Oct 14
Claudia Rankine & Victoria Adukwei Bulley: Triage
Triage (Allen Lane), Claudia Rankine’s new book, is an unclassifiable piece of writing, blending narrative, criticism and lyricism to create something capable of facing ‘the collective devastation of the present’ (in Saidiya Hartman’s words). Two friends meet in an art gallery af ... Show More
1h 11m
Mar 2022
'Checkout 19' explores the magic of escaping with a good book
The nameless narrator in author Claire-Louise Bennett's new novel, Checkout 19, absolutely loves books. Their mere presence puts her at ease. But her lifelong love of reading is, in part, because she feels let down by the people around her. Bennett told NPR's Scott Simon that lov ... Show More
8m 37s
Mar 2023
Claire-Louise Bennett Reads Maeve Brennan
Claire-Louise Bennett joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Family Walls,” by Maeve Brennan, which was published in The New Yorker in 1973. Bennett has published two books of fiction, “Pond” and “Checkout 19.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adcho ... Show More
1h 16m
Jun 2022
#389 Sheila Heti: Art is the Opposite of an Algorithm
My guest today is the brilliant Sheila Heti, author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be? In this episode we discuss her latest book Pure Colour, a new novel l about art, love, loss and time. It has been described as a galaxy of a novel: explosive, bright, huge and streaked w ... Show More
33m 34s
Dec 2021
Best Books of 2021- Young Reader's Literature- Kelly Loy Gilbert
On our second Best Books episode, Kelly Loy Gilbert discusses When We Were Infinite (Simon & Schuster, March). Gilbert’s “beautifully, achingly cathartic” YA novel (starred review), is one of Kirkus’ Best Books in young readers’ literature for 2021. Then young readers’ editor Lau ... Show More
48m 7s
Jan 2022
Debut Novelists to Look Out For in 2022 with Isy Suttie
<p>A new year = new books, and there are plenty of brilliant new stories to look out for this year. To get your 2022 reading list started, we've brought together five of this year's most exciting debut novelists. Speaking to Isy Suttie, they introduce us to themselves and their b ... Show More
47m 9s