The Book Show

What do fate and past lives reveal about who we are? Claire Nichols speaks with Veronica Roth and Amitav Ghosh on Seek the Traitor's Son and Ghost Eye.
Award-winning, Indian-born American author Amitav Ghosh explores the mysteries of past lives in his latest novel Ghost Eye. Drawing on international case studies of reported reincarnation, Ghosh brings these stories to life through a narrative set in 1960s Calcutta. When a three-year-old girl from a wealthy, strictly vegetarian family wakes up insisting on eating fish, the question is raised: could she be remembering a previous life as a fisherwoman from a rural community? In conversation with Claire Nichols, Ghosh explains why such accounts of past-life memories shouldn't be dismissed outright as they say something profound about what it means to be human.
Amitav Ghosh is visiting Australia in May and will be a guest at the Sydney Writers Festival, Saturday 23 May and the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, Wednesday 27 May.
Bestselling author Veronica Roth speaks with Claire Nichols about writing her debut novel Divergent while still a university student and how the book and series went on to sell more than 35 million copies worldwide. Now, Roth turns to adult speculative fiction with her new novel Seek the Traitor's Son, the first in an epic series set in a divided world. The story follows a young woman destined to save her people in a society fractured between those who worship the mysterious force known as the "fever" and those who reject it.

Readers have lovingly followed the fictional lives of Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton for more than a decade. Now their creator, Elizabeth Strout introduces a new character to embrace and Claire Nichols finds out why. Plus Amanda Lohrey explains her fascination with the belief in aliens.
Artie Dam is an unassuming Massachusetts high school history teacher who seems to have it all, but is facing internal turmoil, even doubting the notion of free will. As Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout reveals in this interview, The Things We Never Say is a story reflecting our recent volatile times. 
And Miles Franklin winner Amanda Lohrey also dissects the idea of certainty in her latest novel. Capture is about a psychiatrist, Jim, who interviews people who say they've been abducted or visited by aliens. While assumptions may be challenged a truth is out there. Or is it? Amanda Lohrey explores life's mysteries with Claire Nichols.

Michael Winkler tells Claire Nichols why life might be better as a dog, particularly if you're middle aged and depressed like the main character in his new novel, Griefdogg. And British poet, performer and novelist Kae Tempest explains why he "writes what he can't bear to admit" in his second novel Having Spent Life Seeking.
Michael Winkler's second novel, Griefdogg follows his lauded genre-bending debut Grimmish about a boxer and a talking goat. It also made Australian literary history in 2022 as the first self-published novel to ever be shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Griefdogg is about a man who makes the unexpected decision to live as the family pet when the pressures of modern life get too much for him; in the conversation, Michael reflects on the appeal of "a dog's life".
Kae Tempest is a British musician, poet, playwright and novelist who - since he was a teenager - has built an international reputation in rap and spoken word poetry. Kae's second novel, Having Spent Life Seeking follows Rothko who's newly released from prison and has returned to the hometown where everything fell apart. Claire also speaks to Kae about the challenges of writing a novel while maintaining a demanding schedule of live performances and musical projects.

David Malouf was a giant of Australian writing who was known and loved for his iconic debut novel, Johnno, about a young Brisbane man during World War 2; a book partly inspired by his own life.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, David wrote plays, poetry, libretto, and more novels, including The Great World, and his Booker Prize shortlisted, Remembering Babylon.
And today, on this special episode of The Book Show, we're remembering David who has died at the age of 92.
Claire Nichols revisits her very special interview with David in 2025 in which he discusses his early life, sharing books with his mother, that first novel and the benefits of a daily walk on the beach.
This interview was first broadcast on 25 September 2025.

Twins separated by the role of a dice, the rise of AI, and a mystery behind lives trying to hold it together in a lonely fractured world.  These are just a few of the themes discussed with Claire Nichols about A Rising of the Lights, the latest darkly comic novel from the Booker Prize shortlisted author Steve Toltz.
Ian Kemish has used his considerable knowledge as a former Australian diplomat to write a debut that is ultimately about compassion. In Two Islands a young man flees the Balkan conflict to an isolated island on the west coast of Scotland. What does he find there and is he safe?