Host of ABC program 'The Bookshelf' discusses books featured at the Sydney Writers' Festival

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Kate Evans, from ABC Radio National's 'The Bookshelf', was at the Sydney Writers' Festival and has all the recommendations.

Transcript

00:00it really is the highlight of my year these festivals because it's full of

00:06readers writers ideas and I'll just quickly tell you about some that really

00:11excited me Mariana Enriquez she is an Argentinian writer who writes body

00:17horror it's very unusual it's very fresh it manages to make ghosts political

00:22political really really exciting how do you do that okay body horror is a thing

00:27at the moment isn't it really hot right yeah Tori Peters is a trans writer from

00:33America stag dance is the name of her latest and again she plays around with

00:39genre there's a there's a a macho Timbergetta who is gender fluid it's

00:44surprising it's fresh it's really worth reading Colm Tobin the Irish writer has

00:49been around for a very long time and he is a very very fine writer and thinker

00:54this one follows on from Brooklyn which you might remember that was a film yeah

00:59with Sisha Ronan well this is what happens next beautiful beautiful book and I did

01:04meet this New Zealand writer at the Sydney Writers Festival too her name's Catherine

01:09Chidgy I think this is maybe her ninth novel she's written a whole lot of things

01:14again she doesn't fit in any really fixed holes she always does something fresh

01:21there's a set of triplets who are identical in a big spooky house in an alternative

01:27England but the townspeople shun them oh and we're not quite sure why and they are

01:33not sure why so it's told very much from the perspective of these these young people and

01:38it's quite surprising that sounds very intriguing very very intriguing that one

01:44um what about Gail Jones the name of the sister that's another recommendation you've got

01:48for us yes she's an Australian writer and she's a literary writer this is a new one it's actually

01:54only out I think tomorrow or the next day and um a woman you've already got your sticky notes on them

01:59well I'm only halfway through so I haven't quite found out what's happening but a woman is found

02:05on the side of the road in Broken Hill yeah um she doesn't speak she doesn't remember what's

02:11happened to her the police don't know what's happened to her and there's a freelance journalist

02:14in Sydney watching this story and she is really intrigued and she decides to write a piece on it

02:20but in the end it's not just about this lost woman it's about all the missing people and you know

02:27members of the public sort of project their ideas they say oh that's my sister oh you know that's

02:32wow I lost somebody 20 years ago so the way that people project which you must see as journalists

02:38people sort of project themselves into the news cycle yeah yeah and she explores this so it's not a crime

02:43novel it's something else it's thoughtful it's it's and she is a beautiful beautiful writer

02:49I love the concept of it I love it I love the idea of it now you've got some light relief there do you

02:54ladies night yes now this is a this is a young adult one okay and I read it in the midst of all of my

03:01deadlines for the writers festival and it's about two teenage girls one is a blacksmith of course

03:06who really wants to be a knight and the other will win the hand of whoever wins this great

03:12dragon tournament but the two of them make an alliance and the the girl Gwen who wants to

03:19be a knight she fights in this oh wow so it's fun it's a run like it's very good for young girls

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