Popular fiction across space and time, and queer bush doof thriller in Thomas Vowles' Our New Gods

The latest best-selling novels from Taylor Jenkins-Reid (Atmosphere) and Fredrik Backman (My Friends) explore 1980s astronauts, ambition and romance; and teenage anguish, friendship and art. Emotive and cinematic, how often is popular fiction written for the screen?

Speaking of the screen, screenwriter Thomas Vowles’ debut novel Our New Gods takes us on a twisted psychological thriller through gay saunas, bush doofs, and the grit of Melbourne’s queer scene.

BOOKS

• Thomas Vowles, Our New Gods, UQP
• Fredrik Backman, My Friends (Translated from Swedish by Neil Smith), Simon and Schuster
• Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Atmosphere, Hutchinson Heinemann

(Keep scrolling to see all other books mentioned on the program)

GUESTS

Tegan Bennett-Daylight, author and teacher of creative writing, whose books include the novels Bombora and What Falls Away; the essay collection, The Details; the short story collection, Six Bedrooms; and the Young Adult novels Royals and (her latest) How to Survive 1985. She’s a Bookshelf regular.

Richard Aedy, longtime Radio National colleague (whose programs included The Money and Life Matters); now producing a podcast for the Productivity Commission: The ProdCast; Also a Bookshelf regular.  

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
• Holden Sheppard, King of Dirt
• Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards
• Tegan Bennett-Daylight, Royals
• Tegan Bennett-Daylight, How to Survive 1985
• Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove
• Fredrik Backman, Beartown
• Fredrik Backman, Anxious People
• Percival Everett, James
• Samantha Harvey, Orbital
• Ceridwen Dovey, Only The Astronauts
• Taylor Jenkins-Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
• Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Malibu Rising
• Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Carrie Soto is Back: A Novel
• Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time
• Kevin Barry, The Heart in Winter
• Kevin Barry, Night Boat to Tangier
• Sarah Holland-Batt, The Jaguar
• Michelle de Krester, Theory & Practice
• Sharleigh Crittenden, The Un-doing (Published in Island magazine #173)
• Ben Lerner, The Hatred of Poetry
• Ben Lerner, The Topeka School
• Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station
• Ben Lerner, 10:04

CREDITS

• Presenter, Kate Evans & Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans & Salome Lines-Morison
• Sound Engineer, John Jacobs & Anne-Marie de Bettencor
• Executive Producer, Rhiannon Brown