Category: 3-BookTalkSometimeCommentary

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World Book Club - World Book Club: Lionel Shriver

This month Harriett Gilbert talks to acclaimed American writer Lionel Shriver.

Her prizewinning novel, We Need to Talk about Kevin, is the profoundly disturbing story of a boy who, shortly before his 16th birthday, kills seven classmates in a high school massacre.

Grippingly but unreliably narrated through the letters from his mother to his absent father, the novel raises questions about culpability, the limits of maternal love and the nature of evil itself.

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Slate Books - Audio Book Club: John Cheever’s ‘The Swimmer,’ and Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard To Find’

Slate's Audio Book Club. Meghan O'Rourke, Katie Roiphe, and Troy Patterson discuss two short stories - John Cheever's 'The Swimmer,' and Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man is Hard To Find.' We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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World Book Club - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Half of a Yellow Sun

In this month's World Book Club Harriett Gilbert will be at London’s South Bank Arts Centre talking to internationally acclaimed writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about her bestselling novel Half of a Yellow Sun. Winner of the UK Orange Prize for fiction in 2007 Half of a Yellow Sun charts the stories of three intersecting lives turned upside down by the Biafran war in the late 1960s.

Village boy Ugwu comes to work for a charismatic professor. The professor’s glamorous girlfriend Olanna forgoes her life of luxury to live with him and Englishman Richard is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. Meanwhile the shadow of this most horrific of civil wars, whose repercussions are still felt in Nigeria today, looms ever larger.

(Photo: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) (Credit: Jeff Overs/BBC)

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World Book Club - Nawal El Saadawi – Woman At Point Zero

Harriett Gilbert talks to internationally acclaimed Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi about her classic novel Woman at Point Zero.Recorded in 2009.

Written over 30 years ago but still resonating clearly today Woman at Point Zero is a dark and powerful account of the life of a young woman awaiting execution in a Cairo prison for murdering her pimp. Her crime, borne of anger at her lifelong mistreatment at the hands of men, is one she confesses to with no shame. The urgency and passion of the writing in this book is more than matched by the author’s response to the questions posed by you, our World Book Club listeners, around the world.

(Photo: Nawal El Saadawi, 2012) (Credit: MARINA HELLI/AFP/Getty Images)

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World Book Club - Episode 1

This month Kate Grenville talks about her best-selling novel The Secret River. Her first work for five years since she won the Orange Prize, The Secret River was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize soon after publication. Set in 1806 and based on the true story of Kate’s first Australian ancestor, this is a dramatic and evocative historical novel set between the slums of nineteenth-century London and the convict colonies of Australia. Told through the eyes of William Thornhill and his family The Secret River examines the timeless themes of ownership, belonging and identity against a backdrop of Aboriginal Australia.

Book list:

Title: The Secret River Author: Kate Grenville Publisher: Canongate Books ISBN-13: 978-1841956824

If you'd like to take part in a future World Book Club, here's your chance.

Lionel Shriver will be discussing his bestselling novel We Need to Talk Kevin on Tuesday 12th May 2009.

Please submit your question for Lionel Shriver in the comment section on the form below or ring us on (+44) 207 5571619.

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World Book Club - Mohsin Hamid – The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid talks to Harriett Gilbert and an invited audience about his bestselling novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007 Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a sparse, gripping, short novel that tackles the complex issues of Islamic fundamentalism and America's 'war on terror' with sympathy and balance.

Book list:

Title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist Author: Mohsin Hamid Publisher: Penguin ISBN-13: 978-0-141-02954-2

If you'd like to take part in a future World Book Club, here's your chance.

Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi will be talking about her classic novel Woman at Point Zero on Friday 3rd April 2009 and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be discussing her bestselling novel Half of a Yellow Sun on 7th April 2009.

Please submit your question for Nawal El Saadawi or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the comment section on the form below or ring us on (+44) 207 5571619.