Take Four Books

Marlon James discusses his Booker-shortlisted novel The Disappearers, set in Jamaica after a brutal 1988 attack on a group of men rehearsing a play. The episode also traces the novel’s links to three influential books that helped shape its world and concerns.

Louise Kennedy discusses her new novel Stations and the literary influences she chose to place alongside it. With James Crawford, she traces how a teenage relationship in a small Irish town connects to books about memory, struggle and spiritual unease.

Donal Ryan discusses his novel Where Are The Kings, set in rural Ireland and centered on Jack, a boy coping with his mother’s sudden death and his own sense of guilt. With James Crawford, he also traces the novel’s links to Room, Angela’s Ashes, and Plainsong.

Sebastian Barry discusses his novel The Newer World, set in post-Civil War America and following Tennyson Bouguereau from danger at home to Nashville and on to Victorian England. With James Crawford, he also connects the novel to three influential historical books.

Valeria Luiselli joins James Crawford to discuss Beginning Middle End and the three works that shaped it. The episode connects a wildfire-scarred Sicilian journey with questions of family history, archaeology, storytelling, and a mother’s concern for her own mother in Mexico.