episode-header-image

Jul 26

24m 23s

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann translat...

ANNA BAILLIE-KARAS, ANNIE WATERS AND AMANDA HAYES

About this episode

Anna and Geoff discuss THE DIRECTOR by best-selling author of MEASURING THE WORLD and TYLL Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin.

THE DIRECTOR tells the story of cinema director G. W. Pabst, who in the 1930s fled Nazi Germany for Hollywood and then returned to make films for the German Reich. This novel explores Pabst’s moral dilemma and the place of art in a dictatorship. Described as ‘his best novel yet’ (The Guardian) and ‘nothing short of brilliant’ (Wall Street Journal), it mixes comedy, tragedy and horror in Kehlmann’s ironic style.

Coming up: PERFECTION by Vincnezo Latronico translated by Sophie Hughes.

Follow us!

Email: Booksonthegopodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @abailliekaras and @mr_annie

Substack: Books On The Go

Credits

Artwork: Sascha Wilkosz

Up next

Perfection by Vincent Latronico translated by Sophie Hughes

Anna and Geoff discuss PERFECTION by Vincent Latronico translated by Sophie Hughes. PERFECTION is a short novel about Tom and Anna, digital nomads living in Berlin. A re-telling of the cult classic 1960s novel The Things by Georges Perec, it examines a couple who have built a sty ... Show More

Our Top 10 Books of the Year So Far

Anna and Annie discuss our 10 best books of 2025 so far. Books mentioned: A LITTLE TRICKERIE by Rosanna Pike THE NAMES by Florence Knapp THE HUSBANDS by Holly Gramazio DREAM COUNT by Chimananda Ngoze Adiche SMALL RAIN by Garth Greenwell STINKBUG by Sinéad Stubbins PATRIOT by Alex ... Show More

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Anna and Geoff discuss the 2025 Women's Prize winners and the new Data Bill regulating (or not) AI and creative work. Our book of the week is THE EMPUSIUM: A HEALTH RESORT HORROR STORY by Olga Tokarczuk translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Tokarczuk is the Nobel Prize lauereate aut ... Show More

Recommended Episodes

Kym Marsh on Abigail's Party, Severance creator Dan Erickson, film franchises in flux

Kym Marsh on stepping into the iconic role of Beverly in theatre classic Abigail's Party as the play opens at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.Film critic Hannah Strong and George Pundek, co-host of the Pulp Kitchen film podcast, on why so many of the big film franchises ... Show More

The Fall Books We're Looking Forward To

This weekend marks the official start of autumn, so what better time to take a peek at the fall books we’re most excited to read? On this week’s episode, Gilbert Cruz chats with Joumana Khatib and Anna Dubenko about the upcoming season of reading and the books on the horizon that ... Show More

Book Club: 'My Brilliant Friend,' by Elena Ferrante

This July, The New York Times Book Review published a list of The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. The top choice was “My Brilliant Friend,” by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein.The book is the first novel in Ferrante’s so-called Neapolitan quartet, which tracks the ... Show More

Ep. 201: Lidija Hilje (Author of Slanting Towards the Sea) + Book Recommendations

In Episode 201, author Lidija Hilje talks with Sarah about her debut novel, Slanting Towards the Sea. Spanning two decades and one transformative summer in Croatia, Slanting Towards the Sea is a love story that also delves into the profound journey of coming of age in a nation yo ... Show More

Review: film The Substance, Art Michael Craig-Martin, Book The Empusium

Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Bidisha Mamata and Ben Luke who will be offering their verdicts on body horror film The Substance staring Demi Moore, a major new Michael Craig-Martin exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Nobel priz ... Show More

Merve Erme on Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the writer, critic, and author, Merve Emre. Currently the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University – and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism – ... Show More

BONUS: Out Loud's Best Books To Read This Summer

Dropping into your feed in 2021 with a bonus ep from Mamamia Out Loud. After a year many of us struggled to find the energy and attention span for a lot of reading, Holly, Jessie and Mia are here with the page-turners you won't be able to put down in 2021... From big hits to an o ... Show More

The Books We’re Excited About in Early 2025

And we're back! Happy new year, readers. On this week’s episode, Gilbert Cruz and Joumana Khatib talk about some of the upcoming books they’re most anticipating over the next several months.Books discussed on this episode:"Stone Yard Devotional," by Charlotte Wood"Aflame: Learnin ... Show More

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Mrs. Dalloway" at 100

“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”: So reads one of the great opening lines in British literature, the first sentence of Virginia Woolf’s classic 1925 novel, “Mrs. Dalloway.”The book tracks one day in the life of an English woman, Clarissa Dalloway, living in ... Show More

#130: Do Books Need Romance? and The Ladies’ Paradise vs Babbacombe’s

Emile Zola, Noel Streatfeild, and romantic books – welcome to Tea or Books? episode 130! In the first half of this episode, we do a topic suggested by Lindsey – do books need a romantic storyline? In the second half, we

Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami