The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

Latest Episode

A simmering summer in Greece, rare snails, dystopia with a twist: new fiction by Amy Taylor, Leif Enger and Maria Reva (21.08.2025)

Previous Episodes

  • AI in America, a kidnapping in Corsica, the transformative power of boxing: books by Gary Shteyngart, Darrow Farr, and Lucas Schaefer 14.08.2025
  • People turning into trees, mythical rivers rising...new novels by Rhett Davis and Gurnaik Johal (plus, Irish fiction with Colm Tóibín) 07.08.2025
  • 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award assessed 31.07.2025
  • Parties, scandals, sex, love: new novels by Nell Zink, Amy Bloom and the controversial James Frey 24.07.2025
  • New Australian crime + hungry ghosts and a great white whale 17.07.2025
  • Sydney Writer's Festival: The State of the Art of the Novel 10.07.2025
  • Mystery in new fiction from Ben Okri, Sameer Pandya and Anjet Daanje 03.07.2025
  • Sweat, sport and sharp Australian satire; And the 2025 International Booker Prize winner 26.06.2025
  • Popular fiction across space and time, and queer bush doof thriller in Thomas Vowles' Our New Gods 19.06.2025
  • Reading James Joyce's Ulysses for Bloomsday (and new fiction galore) 12.06.2025
  • New fiction from Gail Jones, S A Cosby and Seán Hewitt 05.06.2025
  • A vibrant gay coming-of-age story set in Geraldton 29.05.2025
  • Sydney Writers' Festival: Top 100 Books launched with Alan Hollinghurst, Catherine Chidgey, Mariana Enriquez, Afra Atiq 23.05.2025
  • On stage at Melbourne Writers' Festival with Hannah Kent and Beejay Silcox 15.05.2025
  • A woman falls through the cracks of time in the first of Solvej Balle's seven-novel-series 08.05.2025
  • A beach holiday told four ways in Luke Horton's Time Together 01.05.2025
  • James Bradley's Landfall reveals a flooded, baked and dilapidated city 24.04.2025
  • The Bookshelf Easter Special: Irish writer Niall Williams 18.04.2025
  • A love triangle set against the beauty of Montana in Eric Puchner's Dream State 17.04.2025
  • Folk horror, dreams under surveillance, lonely in Guatemala 10.04.2025

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