Christmas time is approaching and so is the Mr B’s Christmas catalogue. Tom’s favourite book of the year, featured in the catalogue, is a novel set in Spain, written in Swedish and translated into English. Breat Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs is an inventive, edgy and darkly humorous tale in which the protagonist doesn’t get a voice of her own, and in which everyone is always telling a story about someone else. Lina Wolff, its author, came to the shop earlier in the year and sat down to chat to Jess about brilliant girls in literature, Spanish gossip, and why there are no Swedish characters in her novel.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
The Saga of Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Music by The Bookshop Band
Novelist Yann Martel, author of the Booker prize-winning Life of Pi, joins us for a conversation about books, reading and the endless scope of art in making sense of the world. His latest novel The High Mountains of Portugal is out in paperback this month - a gorgeous story about loss, and the sometimes eccentric ways in which we deal with it. We also finds out about a very peculiar guerrilla book group, conducted once upon a time by Yann himself…
Books mentioned in this episode:
The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Iliad by Homer, Transl. Stephen Mitchell
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Music by The Bookshop Band
The weekend after the Brexit vote we decided to create a podcast celebrating European fiction. We felt that the best way to move forward in uncertain times, was to embrace the cross-cultural creativity which underpins so much of the writing we love and champion in the shop. We also asked our listeners to contribute with their own favourite reading memories. We hope you're inspired to read the whole list. Spot the background seagulls!
Books mentioned in this episode:
All the Names by Jose Saramago, Transl. by Margaret Jull Costa
The Burnt-out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen, Transl. by Don Bartlett
The Howling Miller by Aarto Paasilinna, Transl. by Will Hobson
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, Transl. Michael Hoffman
Thinner than a Hair by Adnam Mahmutovic
Her Father’s Daughter by Marie Sizun, Transl. by Adriana Hunter
Arab Jazz by Karim Miské, Transl. by Sam Gordon
Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig, Transl. by Anthea Bell
Read about more of the extended Mr B family’s favourite European reads here.
We’ve been hosting a series of events under the theme of Revivals and Retellings. Here, Danielle, Kate and Jessica chat about some of the books that have grabbed their attention recently. As usual in our 'At Home' episodes, you can also expect a few palate-teasing tasters from the books themselves.
Books discussed in this episode:
Reader, I Married Him Ed. by Tracy Chevalier
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi
The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
Lunatics, Lover and Poets: Twelve Stories after Cervantes and Shakespeare, Ed. by Margarita Valencia and Daniel Hahn
In the inaugural episode (which is slightly longer than twenty minutes!) Jess, Nic and Naomi talk about what radio and podcasts mean to them in their reading life, and we also get to hear about six very different titles we’re excited about right now, re-discoveries as well as recent releases. One is a play inspired by the Lebanon hostage crisis in the 80s; another transports us to a gothic castle in an unknown European country. Enjoy!
Music by The Bookshop Band