Final Draft - Great Conversations podcast

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Jessica Dettmann’s Your Friend and Mine 36:51

for 21 dage siden36:51

36:51

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week .…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Naima Brown’s Mother Tongue 47:17

for 25 dage siden47:17

47:17

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. Naima Brown’s essays have appeared in Vogue, the Guardian, and more. She wrote, along with Melissa Doyle, the non-fiction book How to Age Against the Machine and is the author of The Shot. Mother Tongue is her second novel. Ever since the birth of her daughter Jenny, Brynn’s life has been ruled by The Schedule; a clockwork routine that means Jenny will love her and Brynn will be the mother she know she can be. Her husband Eric works hard for the family and Brynn will too. Her best friend Lisa always tells she has the perfect life and if Brynn doesn’t feel like that’s true well then maybe she just needs to work harder at it. Maybe it’s the working hard that did it. Why Brynn was outside on the icy step, taking the fall and then ending up in a coma. When Brynn awakes from her coma her life is still the same picture of suburban idyll. It’s just Brynn doesn’t seem to fit it anymore. She speaks fluent French, a thing called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and English is an effort. Suddenly her world feels strange. Brynn is a new person, and while Jenny still accepts her mother, no one else seems to. Eric is becoming withdrawn, even hostile. Her parents are avoiding her and Lisa thinks she might be faking and is eying of Eric. It’s all too much and so Brynn leaves… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Omar Sakr’s The Nightmare Sequence 43:07

for 5 weeks siden43:07

43:07

Omar Sakr’s The Nightmare Sequence Omar is an award winning poet and writer from Western Sydney. His works include the novel, Son of Sin and the poetry collection The Lost Arabs, which won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Omar joins us with his new collection The Nightmare Sequence, illustrated by Dr Safdar Ahmed…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Thomas Vowles’s Our New Gods 40:15

for 5 weeks siden40:15

40:15

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Thomas Vowles’s Our New Gods Thomas Vowles is a screenwriter and novelist. His debut novel is Our New Gods. Ash has recently arrived in Melbourne and is seeking to define himself outside of his small town existence. When he meets Luke it’s love-at-first-sight, at least for Ash. Luke is gorgeous and seems to be everything; great apartment, cool friends, hot boyfriend. Raf is something else; cool, in control, dangerous. At least according to Booth, and Booth is scared……

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Brandon Jack’s Pissants 3:55

for 6 weeks siden3:55

3:55

Brandon Jack is the author of the acclaimed memoir 28. He’s also a footballer, who played for the Sydney Swans and in his debut novel Pissants he combines his sporting prowess and literary flare into a unique and memorable narrative. At an unnamed footy club the reserves team are waiting for the call up to the big leagues. Calling themselves the Pissants, they train at least as much as they complain, honing the skills that keep them nominally in the club’s good books. In the meantime they will drink, take drugs, kidnap dogs and every now and then reflect on what they’re doing. On its surface, Pissants could be taken for a romp through the bad behaviour of footballers. We get to know each of the group by their nicknames; Fangz, Stick, Squidman, Big Sexy and Pricey. The nicknames, and the stories that coined them, get their own chapter leaving the reader in no doubt these guys have a knack for trouble. There’s not a lot of football being played here, much to the Pissants' chagrin. But that doesn’t the boys don’t train and party hard, making sure they diligently uphold club culture, even if they don’t always remember doing it. The antics of the group are laid bare in a range of chapters as innovative in their style as they are often depraved in their action. We are privy to the many and detailed rules of pub golf, a closed Whatsapp group that couldn’t withstand public scrutiny, and an anthropologically driven interpretation of sports media interviews. In these sections Jack plays with form even as he dives beneath the surface of the players we might otherwise see as louts at best and criminals at worst. Because Pissants tells us the tales that don’t make the papers. Whilst it offers us an inside view of the semi-pro locker room it, Pissants also shows us exactly how raw, stupid and unthinking these guys can be. Except they’re not unthinking. Beneath the ill-advised decisions and startling acts of group think we are given an insight into the personalities and developing characters of a group of young men who probably have too much free time. Pissants isn’t a morality tale. That wouldn’t ring true for the assembled group of players, many of whom come out worse the wear they put themselves through. The novel does offer the reader a look at how the players are not just the drug-addled brats they sometimes pretend to be. The offer of something more is exemplified by the novel’s counternarrative. Eliott is offered to the reader unadorned by a nickname and adrift from the club. He’s travelling through Europe and seems to possess none of the joie de vivre his playing companions take into every experience. In Eliott we are given a look at the personality behind the facade. His search for something outside the world that offered everything until it didn’t, mirrors the journey each of his player mates is inching towards. Pissants is a cleverly written and immensely readable novel. Its larrikin air both depicts and subtly critiques its subject matter, giving the reader a chance to pull back the dirty socks and find out a little more about the masculinity fueling Australian sporting culture.…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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First Nations Classics - Paul Collis’s Dancing Home 26:40

for 6 weeks siden26:40

26:40

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Samuel Wagan Watson is a poet of Munanjali, Birri Gubba, German, Dutch and Irish descent. He’s won the 1999 David Unaipon Award for Emerging Indigenous Literature, and The Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize amongst others. Paul Collis is a Barkindji man, born in Bourke in far western NSW on the Darling River. Dancing Home is his first novel and won the David Unaipon Award in 2016. The First Nations Classics series from UQP ranges across genres, including memoir, fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The series is inspired by the richness and cultural importance of First Nations writing, and aims to bring new readers and renewed attention to brilliant, timeless books that are as relevant today as they were on first publication. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Web - ⁠ https://2ser.com/final-draft/ ⁠ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Thomas Vowles’s Our New Gods 3:11

for 7 weeks siden3:11

3:11

Thomas Vowles is a screenwriter and novelist. Today we’ll be discussing his debut novel Our New Gods. Ash has recently arrived in Melbourne. Like so many who’ve come from a regional town he’s looking to define himself whilst feeling wary of being . When he meets James it’s love-at-first-sight, at least for Ash. James is gorgeous and seems to have everything; great apartment, cool friends, hot boyfriend. James may not want Ash for a lover but his friendship gives Ash entry to a cool new world, with an equally cool set of friends. Amidst this group is James’s boyfriend Raf. Raf is something else; cool, in control, dangerous. Ash sees this firsthand at a party and hears it from Raf’s ex Booth. Booth is scared, and Ash is desperate to find out why before James gets dragged into it. — Our New Gods is a stunning thriller with more twists than I rightly know what to do with in our short time together. On its surface we have a love triangle with James and Raf at the centre and Ash staring on, unrequited but willing to do anything for James. As James tries to find his footing in Melbourne’s gay scene he can’t help but acknowledge to the reader that it’s only James he wants. Thus Ash is flung into an increasingly ill-advised set of scenarios as he frantically scrambles to protect James from the danger he sees in Raf. The novel plays with the tension between Ash’s desperation and the very real set of escalating circumstances surrounding the young men’s lives. Everyone in Our New Gods feels poised on the cusp of something whilst living at the breakneck speed of your twenties when everything seems possible but nothing feels like it has consequences. When it all comes to a head we as readers must also accept that we’ve dragged along for the ride, but now things are going to get real. Our choices in identifying and feeling kinship with the characters will extract a toll on us as we have our expectations thrown to the wind in the novel’s third act. Our New Gods is exciting, fun reading. Vowles’s skill as a screenwriter is brought to bear in the pacing and visual styling of the novel. His writing compels, even as it beguiles and tricks the reader into placing their trust in smoke.…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Matt Rogers’s The Forsaken 37:59

for 8 weeks siden37:59

37:59

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Matt Rogers is the best selling author of more than thirty novels and is joining us today with his new novel, inaugurating his Logan Booth series, The Forsaken. You never know who your neighbours are behind closed doors. Logan Booth is counting on that. He doesn’t want to get chummy with the denizens of Brownsville and he doesn’t want them knowing anything about him. Especially not his past. It’s a Devil’s Bargain. One that will see Logan’s only friend killed before his eyes, forcing Logan back into a life he thought he’d left behind forever. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Sinead Stubbins’s Stinkbug 42:33

for 8 weeks siden42:33

42:33

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Sinead Stubbins is a writer, editor and cultural critic, and the author of In My Defence, I Have No Defence. Her debut novel is Stinkbug. The advertising agency where Edith works is going through a restructure. Everyone’s worried the new Swedish owners will bring their own team and they’ll be out of a job. With redundancies the hot topic round the watercooler, a select group of Winked employees are chosen for a corporate retreat. Edith’s made the cut and assumes this is her chance to show her worth. The assignment is simple; find a best work friend. Easy for Edith, she’s already got Mo and while she’s got some other stuff going on, surely she can fake her way through a weekend. Sure there’s dead birds at the perimeter and Edith is hiding a dark secret. But really, what could go wrong in a converted Convent watched over by a saint called Christina the Astonishing?! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Omar Sakr's The Nightmare Sequence 4:23

for 11 weeks siden4:23

4:23

Presenting a poem and reflection by Omar Sakr as part of his new collection 'The Nightmare Sequence'. *Content Warning - contains discussion of the genocide in Gaza

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Robbie Arnott’s Dusk 22:58

for 11 weeks siden22:58

22:58

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Robbie Arnott is the award-winning author of Flames, The Rain Herron and Limberlost, and as is appropriate for an award winning author, he is joining us today because his most recent novel Dusk has won the Literary Fiction Book of the Year at the ABIA Awards. Twins Iris and Floyd figure they are close to the bottom when they receive word of a bounty on offer for anyone who can stop a Puma killing stock and shepherds in the highlands. With no guns and no experience, but also no other choice the pair make the journey into the unknown Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Laura Elvery’s Nightingale 3:44

for 12 weeks siden3:44

3:44

Today I’m bringing a book so good I’ve already given my copy to my mum, and she’s loving it. Laura Elvery’s Nightingale. Laura Elvery is the author of Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter. As readers of Ordinary Matter will know, Laura has an interest in women who have been ignored, or perhaps misunderstood by history. Nightingale takes us into the final days of the life of iconic nurse, statistician and social reformer Florence Nightingale. At ninety years old, Nightingale knows how much she has achieved in her life. Yet as she lies in her bed, all of that still doesn’t compensate for the infirmity she feels. That and the fact her only visitor is Mabel, her housekeeper and nurse. At least the window is open, bringing in the lifegiving air she has sought out her entire life. At her age a knock on the door could as well be a dream, and so it is with some surprise that Florence welcomes into her home a young soldier. A man who says he met Florence in Scutari, a man named Silas Bradley. From here we are thrown back into Florence’s past as we revisit her time at Scutari, the military hospital where she made her reputation. We confront the horrors of war and the reality of women who sought to be more than the confines of the society that raised them. As I began reading Nightingale I reflected on how my understanding of Florence Nightingale exists in broad brushstrokes and contains perhaps as much myth as fact. Her historical figure can sometimes seem two-dimensional as the lady with the lamp, the founder of modern nursing. Of course she was also famed for her statistical work that helped identify the impacts of unclean environments in war mortality, significantly ahead of the development of germ theory. The novel acknowledges the legend as well as the woman in an intricate narrative exploring the very human factors of the work of nursing. Of course Nightingale is heralded for the lives her pioneering work saved, but the novel gives equal hearing to the lives lost and the impact these losses made on the life of Florence Nightingale. Florence’s story entwines with that of Jean, a young nurse in Florence’s care and that of Silas, equally young and a soldier in the war. That their lives are given central concern highlights the fact that so many like them were to die with their lives untold. Elvery’s narrative offers an ingenious trick of immortality in the telling of these exemplary lives and also offers us as readers a chance to wonder at the whole process of celebrating the brutality they were forced to be a part of. There’s a central conceit to Nightingale that I’m going to leave unspoken in this review. It asks the reader to consider the myth making as only one part of the story of Florence Nightingale and offers up a different type of endurance to the legacy of being so great in the face of so much horror. This conceit can be paired with the refrain ‘Let me tell you what it’s like’, wherein characters seek to explain, to offer up, or perhaps transfer something of their experience as form of bondage but also connection.…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Hilde Hinton’s The Opposite of Lonely 32:33

for 12 weeks siden32:33

32:33

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Hilde Hinton is the bestselling author of The Loudness of Unsaid Things, and A Solitary Walk on the Moon. Hilde is joining us today with her latest novel The Opposite of Lonely. Rose is grateful for her life. Her beautiful son and their little house. Her kind boss and caring inlaws. Rose is also aware that she’s not quite the person she thought she’d be, or used to be. Rose isn’t sure when life got off track, but feels inspired when a new friend comes into her life like a breath of fresh air and with the possibility of new things. Ellie is full of promises about enlarging Rose’s little life. Rose just has to figure out what size she is comfortable with. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Mandy Beaumont’s The Thrill of It 4:24

for 13 weeks siden4:24

4:24

Mandy Beaumont is the author of The Furies and Wild Fearless Chests. She’s been nominated for a slew of awards for her writing including the Stella Prize. Mandy’s latest novel is The Thrill of It. *Content Warning for Violence Against Women* In the late 1980’s Sydney is a long way from the global city we know today. From the beach to the Mountains awash with fluro tracksuits, hypercolour t-shirts, thongs and walkmans the harbour city can still feel like a village in your own little patch Emmerson gets to enjoys the best of it, with harbour views courtesy of a legacy from her grandmother, the socialite and designer Marlowe Kerr. But when the body of a woman in her eighties is discovered in the northern beaches the city will be thrown into chaos. Older residents lock themselves in their homes for fear the killer may strike again. Emmerson herself is thrust back to another legacy of her adored grandmother. Marlowe was killed in a strikingly similar way. A case that was never solved. Emmerson knows the police won’t make the link, and she doesn’t trust them to. But what does that mean for Marlowe and this other woman. More importantly, if the killer has returned after twelve years, could they kill again? — Mandy Beaumont has taken as the basis for her novel a series of murders committed against women in 1989-90 in Sydney. At the time the press dubbed the murderer ‘Granny Killer’, thereby robbing the women of their identities and reducing them to a vicious parody of their age. In Beaumont’s story it is the killer who will be reduced while the women are given their due and through the fictional figure of Marlowe Kerr, celebrated for all the mess and wonder of their storied lives. The Thrill of It has all the promise of true crime and mystery in its set up, yet is neither and offers a wholly original beast. Simultaneously thriller and social critique, a takedown of the establishment that failed these women and as Mandy describes it, a love-story between a granddaughter and the grandmother taken too soon. The character of Emmerson defies the literary conventions she seems destined to embody. As we begin the narrative she is listless, but quickly galvanises herself into action with the discovery of the first body. Emmerson has dreams of entering the police academy and avenging her grandmother, but these desires cannot simply overcome the fact that the late eighties was still dealing with gender equity (not that we’ve solved that one yet). The narrative swings between Emmerson’s story and the dark journey of the killer. In a grim but effective juxtaposition we travel along with the killer on his crimes and are given insight into the twisted psychology by which he justifies and exonerates himself. It’s a tremendous feat to carry such dark and violent impulses and Beaumont balances it without becoming gratuitous. The novel works within the historical setting and follows the case, whilst maintaining the distance of fiction. It allows us to see the problems that existed at the time and how limited perspective and oversimplification lead to so much death. I loved Mandy Beaumont’s The Furies for its righteous anger and driven storytelling. The Thrill of It offers the reader a completely different sort of tale, propulsed by the same energy and spirit.…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Shelley Burr’s Vanish 37:38

for 13 weeks siden37:38

37:38

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Shelley Burr is the bestselling author of Wake and Ripper. Her debut Wake won the UK Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award, the Australian Book Industry's Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year and the Australian Crime Writers Association's Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction. Shelley’s joining us today with her new novel Vanish It’s virtually impossible to be a private investigator from prison but that’s not stopping Lane Holland. When the opportunity to do some real investigating arrives, Lane jumps at the opportunity, even if it could jeopardize his parole. The Karpathy farm is full of outsiders but even still Lane is on the fringes as pokes around the spate of missing persons that have moved through the farm over the years. As Lane tries to figure out whether the organic, peace and love is for real or just a front, he must also contend with the possibility that someone knows his true purpose on the farm. That he might just be next person to vanish without a trace. ⁠ Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople ⁠ Want more great conversations with Australian authors? ⁠ Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week ⁠ . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Instagram - ⁠ https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ ⁠ Facebook - ⁠ https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ ⁠…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Sinead Stubbins’ Stinkbug 3:53

for 13 weeks siden3:53

3:53

Sinead Stubbins is a writer, editor and cultural critic, and the author of In My Defence, I Have No Defence. Her debut novel is Stinkbug. The advertising agency where Edith works is going through a restructure. Everyone is worried that the new Swedish owners will bring their own team and they’ll be out of a job. When a select group are chosen for a corporate retreat Edith assumes that this is her chance to show her worth. The assignment is simple; find a best work friend. Easy for Edith, she’s already got Mo and so the retreat should be a piece of cake. I mean what could go wrong in a converted Convent watched over by a saint called Christina the Astonishing?! — I found Stinkbug an absolutely wild ride. Full disclosure, I don’t work in the sort of corporate environment where you get sent on retreats, although I have done the odd team planning day. For all I know the narrative of Stinkbug could be an accurate reflection of modern corporate culture. I really hope not though. Stubbins has offered us up the perfect satire of the modern workplace. The sort of story that confirms all our worst fears whilst also inviting us to root for… probably Edith but at the very least that they all get out of this alive. As the team from Winked arrive at Consequi (yes, the names) we have already learned a little about the cast of misfits masquerading as the impossibly hip and talented. Our point of view, Edith is variously a complicated mess of neuroses, or an aloof and intimidating cool kid in the company. That all important perspective is going to become very important as we not only delve deeper into Edith’s psyche but also fall down the rabbit hole of Consequi’s attempts to break down the barriers of the Winked employees and make them a better family of creatives. Edith is fearful she is the perpetual outsider and this has made her an almost perfect cipher and corporate chameleon. I genuinely vacillated between loving and hating her machinations, and am still a little unsure how I feel about the narrative's resolution. The story treats us to the banal and unhinged things that can happen on a corporate retreat. The stakes are constantly being upped by the impossibly calm ‘Group Leaders’ and only Edith seems to get that something weird is going on. But then again, for all I know psychological warfare is completely normal in modern office settings. The uncertainty is part of the fun of Stinkbug and so maybe I should just say that this book had me giving the odd snort of laughter that I generally try to avoid unless I’m completely alone. As an outsider to the culture I found it fascinating; both hilarious and horrifying. I’m hoping to meet a corporate insider who can give me more insights into whether or not this really was just a fever dream!…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Vijay Khurana’s The Passenger Seat 41:33

for 14 weeks siden41:33

41:33

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Vijay Khurana is a writer and translator from German. He’s joining Andrew with his debut novel, The Passenger Seat, which was shortlisted for the Novel Prize. On the verge of their final year of high school, Adam and Teddy are looking for adventure. On a whim they pack some camping gear and drive north. Teddy isn’t sure whether his girlfriend will miss him, if they’ll even be a couple when he gets back Adam. Well Adam’s plan only points in one direction, and he has no intention of ever returning. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Laura Elvery’s Nightingale 44:56

for 15 weeks siden44:56

44:56

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Laura Elvery is the author of Trick of the Light and Ordinary Matter, which won the 2021 Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection. Laura’s joining me today with her first novel Nightingale. At ninety years old, Florence Nightingale knows how much she has achieved in her life. All of that still doesn’t compensate for the infirmity she feels. That and the fact her only visitor is Mabel, her housekeeper and nurse. At least the window is open. At her age a knock on the door could as well be a dream, and so it is with some surprise that Florence welcomes into her home a young soldier. A man who says he met Florence in Scutari, a man named Silas Bradley. ⁠ Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople ⁠ Want more great conversations with Australian authors? ⁠ Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week ⁠ . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Instagram - ⁠ https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ ⁠ Facebook - ⁠ https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ ⁠…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Gretchen Shirm's Out of the Woods 38:33

for 15 weeks siden38:33

38:33

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Gretchen Shirm is the author of Having Cried Wolf, Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room. You’ve met her on Final Draft before and today she joins us with her new novel Out of the Woods. Jess has taken a job in the Hague, working as the secretary to an Australian judge presiding over the trial of a man accused of war crimes. As she struggles to find an equilibrium listening to the horrors committed in war, Jess also struggles within herself to reconcile conflicting feelings about her role as mother and daughter, and what they mean to the people she loves. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Vijay Khurana’s The Passenger Seat 4:20

for 18 weeks siden4:20

4:20

Vijay Khurana is a writer and translator from German. His debut novel, The Passenger Seat, was shortlisted for the Novel Prize. Content warning for mentions of violence. On the verge of their final year of high school, Adam and Teddy are looking for adventure. On a whim they pack some camping gear and drive north. Adam’s got a drivers license and a truck. Teddy has a gun license and on their way out of town the boys stop at a camping goods store and buy a rifle. They’re not sure what they’ll encounter in the wild but they want to be prepared for anything. Teddy’s family don’t seem too fussed by the whole affair and he isn’t sure whether his girlfriend will miss him. It’s no0t that serious and he doubts they’ll even be a couple when he gets back Adam’s dad’s weirdly gotten worse since he stopped drinking. Teddy may be talking about school but Adam’s plan only points in one direction, and he has no intention of ever returning. The Passenger Seat begins with Adam and Teddy egging each other on to jump off the bridge outside their town. In this moment they are exploring the ways they can both push, and rely on each other. A sudden jolt before he is ready and Teddy is furious at Adam as he hurtles towards the water, only to emerge triumphant, laughing at his friend beside him. In this moment neither they, nor the reader suspect what is to come for them. They are simply two boys, or perhaps young men trying to understand their place in the world. Their road trip begins as all road trips begin, full of promise and the expectation that what comes next is unpredictable. We ride alongside Adam and Teddy, sleeping in the cramped tray of the truck and wondering exactly when they plan on washing. The titular passenger seat working as both a metaphor for who is in control, and a reminder of how uncomfortably close we are to the two in their self imposed exile. Now about now I’m going to acknowledge that I’m glossing over some events in the novel. This inflection point changes the journey for Adam and Teddy and forces both the boys and the reader to wonder exactly where the story could possibly go from here. Adam and Teddy’s journey is remarkable simply because it need not be remarkable. Khurana uses the everyman disaffection of the two boys to offer up a perfectly innocuous trip that spirals out of control. At a certain point we are privy to Adam’s gleeful reflection that when people come searching for answers their story will be devastatingly inscrutable. I found The Passenger Seat to be one of those genuinely unputdownable books. Much like the boys trip it takes on its own momentum and refused to let me go as I devoured it in a weekend. If I go too much into themes I run the risk of spoilers but I will say that it engages somewhat topically with the broader social conversation around young men and the forces that compel them in their actions. In this Teddy and Adam’s story is juxtaposed with a vignette of a seemingly minor character in the aftermath of the road trip. The two stories are seemingly disparate but highlight the same sense of control or relinquishing of one’s control that underscores so much of what makes male behaviour unconscionable. The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana is a tremendous novel; timely and urgent. Read it now and I suspect you’ll be ahead of the conversation to come as this book gathers momentum.…

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Book Club - Chris Flynn’s Orpheus Nine 4:38

for 19 weeks siden4:38

4:38

If I’ve learned anything in my time covering Australian writing it’s to never underestimate Chris Flynn. Chris is the award winning author of Mammoth - the story of a loquacious fossil, The Glass Kingdom - a drug fueled romp through outback Australia and perhaps the strangest of all Here Be Leviathans - a collection of Monkey’s, Platypuses and Sabretooth Tigers working well outside their pay grade. Chris is back with his new novel Orpheus Nine and he’s going to hold up the mirror once again whether we’re ready or not… And just a quick content warning that this narrative talks about death and pandemics, just in case you don’t want to hear about that… On a Saturday morning in the small coastal town of Gattan, families are gathered for the local under tens footy when it happens. One moment all eyes are on the action of the game, the next, confusion reigns as all the players, bar one stand stock still, frozen on the pitch. Next comes the eerie chorus from the players; a line in Latin from King Lear, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport” before all dropping dead. The horror inflicted on Gattan is repeated all over the world. Scientists are helpless to explain why children aged nine are dying when they reach their ninth birthday. In Gattan families are struggling to understand the tragedy and it quickly threatens community cohesion. Families of the dead are known as Orpheans and are pariahs in their own town. Meanwhile the families of ten year olds are regarded with suspicion, while those families of eight year olds desperately search for a way out. On its surface Orpheus Nine looks like a book about the pandemic. It certainly references Covid-19, even if it’s to show how much worse the Orpheus Nine crisis is becoming. Through the novel we see something of the calamity that could have been. More than the global terror that often felt so far removed from our everyday lives, Orpheus Nine shows us how we suffered at the personal and community level. By focussing in on the fictional town of Gattan, Flynn shows us the cost of the tragedy across the town. How the deaths were only the beginning as mistrust quickly spread and families and friends come to question their loyalties. The novel shows us the roots of the mistrust that festers when everything goes wrong and challenges the notion that banding together is protective, when people can be so quick to turn on each other and declare you now an outsider. There’s also something of a mystery at the heart of the novel. This isn’t the promised answer that we all secretly hope might save us in these impossible situations. Rather Orpheus Nine shows us how futile our situation is in the face of enormous threats. Or at least how futile things are when our best bet is just to continue with the same petty complaints we’ve always held.…

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Jane Caro's The Lyrebird 47:48

for 20 weeks siden47:48

47:48

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Book Club - Ann Dombroski’s After the Great Storm 3:55

for 20 weeks siden3:55

3:55

Ann Dombroski’s prize-winning short fiction has appeared in literary journals and anthologies. Her debut novel is After the Great Storm In the near future, Sydney is dominated by seemingly monolithic corporate structures. From prisons to transport and even medicine, the city skyline is overcome by these enormous structures that obscure the sky and channel the increasingly destructive storms that swamp the city.. Alice’s husband is locked in one of these high-rise prisons. Jailed for a crime he claims to be innocent of and vehemently protesting the cost cutting of the same corporations that have locked him away. Alice wants a baby but first she has to get her husband out of jail. There’s the legal costs and she’s not even sure she can afford to keep their house let alone pay for the experimental fertility treatments. With nowhere to turn Alice is increasingly desperate for respite. When another catastrophic storm hits on Alice’s way home from work she must hurry to escape the environmental destruction. In the morning as the neighbourhood takes stock of the latest damage, a strange and shadowy figure appears on Alice’s doorstep… Ann Dombriski’s future imperfect tale of a barely recognisable Sydney is a fascinating look at possible consequences of our rapid modernisation. While Alice lives in a townhouse in a so-called heritage neighbourhood, we are privy to the changes that have divided Sydney up into sectors and splintered the social fabric along ghettoized economic lines. Alice’s life is teetering on the verge of collapse and we are forced to watch on as blow after blow makes it seem increasingly unlikely that Alice will be the heroine who rides off into the sunset. The novel explores the seeming inevitable moral ambiguity of a world that has continued to develop and sell off its assets for increasing growth. All of the characters, Alice included must look to how they can best codify themselves or the things in their lives, to leverage the necessities and just survive. We are shown just how far technology can take us, even as we are challenged with a vision of capricious development for its own sake. Alice works in the field of medical research and advancements and we are challenged with the for-profit access to health and its impacts on care. Lurking behind all of this though is the secret hidden in Alice’s home. A secret that may represent the solution to her problems, even as it damns her. I feel deep into the world building of After the Great Storm and enjoyed traveling through this convincing, if chilling version of Sydney. I couldn’t see where there’d be room for 2ser in this corporate wonderland but reassuringly the aging millennials still sported fading tattoos. Even if the next generation disapproved. After the Great Storm is a fascinating deep dive into the future that strays only slightly from our current concerns. The personal becomes political and Alice’s story forces the reader to explore their own morality as we watch Alice consider what she would do for her family. There’s some terrific speculative and climate based fiction coming out of Australia and After the Great Storm is well worth your time for a glimpse towards tomorrow.…

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Chris Flynn’s Orpheus Nine 51:07

for 20 weeks siden51:07

51:07

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Chris is the award winning author of Mammoth - the story of a loquacious fossil, The Glass Kingdom - a drug fueled romp through outback Australia and perhaps the strangest of all Here Be Leviathans - a collection of Monkey’s, Platypuses and Sabretooth Tigers working well outside their pay grade. Chris is back with his new novel Orpheus Nine and he’s going to hold up the mirror once again whether we’re ready or not… And just a quick content warning that this narrative talks about death and pandemics, just in case you don’t want to hear about that… On a Saturday morning in the small coastal town of Gattan, families are gathered for the local under tens footy when it happens. One moment all eyes are on the action of the game, the next, confusion reigns as all the players, bar one stand stock still, frozen on the pitch. Next comes the eerie chorus from the players; a line in Latin from King Lear, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport” before all dropping dead. The horror inflicted on Gattan is repeated all over the world. Scientists are helpless to explain why children aged nine are dying when they reach their ninth birthday. In Gattan families are struggling to understand the tragedy and it quickly threatens community cohesion. Families of the dead are known as Orpheans and are pariahs in their own town. Meanwhile the families of ten year olds are regarded with suspicion, while those families of eight year olds desperately search for a way out. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Caro Llewelyn’s Love Unedited 39:51

for 23 weeks siden39:51

39:51

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Caro Llewellyn is the author of the Stella Prize shortlisted memoir Diving into Glass, and has worked with writers in publishing and as a Festival Director and human rights advocate. Her new novel is Love Unedited As an editor, Molly is used to receiving manuscripts. Even incomplete manuscripts, from mysterious authors aren’t completely out of the ordinary. But there is something about this new manuscript that has gotten under Molly’s skin… Maybe it’s the tale of lovers reuniting after decades apart, or the hearkening back to a literary world so familiar and yet so romantic. Or perhaps it’s Edna. Something about Edna that seems so familiar. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Naima Brown’s Mother Tongue 4:01

for 24 weeks siden4:01

4:01

Naima Brown’s essays have appeared in Vogue, the Guardian, and more. She wrote, along with Melissa Doyle, the non-fiction book How to Age Against the Machine and is the author of The Shot. Mother Tongue is her second novel. Ever since the birth of her daughter Jenny, Brynn’s life has been ruled by The Schedule; a clockwork routine that means Jenny will love her and Brynn will be the mother she know she can be. Her husband Eric works hard for the family and Brynn will too. Her best friend Lisa always tells she has the perfect life and if Brynn doesn’t feel like that’s true well then maybe she just needs to work harder at it. Maybe it’s the working hard that did it. Why Brynn was outside on the icy step, taking the fall and then ending up in a coma. When Brynn awakes from her coma her life is still the same picture of suburban idyll. It’s just Brynn doesn’t seem to fit it anymore. She speaks fluent French, a thing called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and English is an effort. Suddenly her world feels strange. Brynn is a new person, and while Jenny still accepts her mother, no one else seems to. Eric is becoming withdrawn, even hostile. Her parents are avoiding her and Lisa thinks she might be faking and is eying of Eric. It’s all too much and so Brynn leaves… Mother Tongue is about the expectations placed on women’s lives and how these narrow standards manage to choke everyone no matter your position or privilege. When Brynn wakes up speaking French she equates this as not just a second chance, but a second soul. Freed from so many of the conventions of her world, Brynn suddenly finds that this world is becoming intolerable to her. While those around her seek to gaslight her experience Brynn comes to raise that the only choice she may have is to opt out. Lisa is in many easy Brynn’s foil. Where Brynn opts out, Lisa will opt in. Taking Brynn’s place in the family she will allow Eric to use her for her labour to raise Jenny whilst never truly loving her or wanting her there. The novel only builds momentum from here exploring how each character’s lives unfold when they are untethered from their ‘typical’ everyday existence. I’d tell you more about the trajectory of the narrative, playing out over the next fourteen odd years, but you probably wouldn’t believe me. Mother Tongue is incisive in its wit even as its wildly dark and sardonic in its narrative twists. The personal is political here and Brynn’s choices, indeed all of the characters choices seem to play out against a wider social current of inclusive vs xenophobic impulses. While Brynn lands on her feet in Paris she is not free from the suspicion that drove her out of her home. Meanwhile back in Elderpool Eric is flirting with the absolute worst of humanity as his chance to escape his own personal malaise. Mother Tongue is clever, fun and wild. Even as it asks big questions, it offers a guiding hand on the journey to some kind of answer. As Brynn might say ‘C’est un grand livre. Je la recommande’…

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Rachael Johns The Bad Bridesmaid 50:44

for 24 weeks siden50:44

50:44

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Rachael Johns was an English teacher before making her dreams of becoming a novelist come true. Her book The Patterson Girls won the ABIA Award in 2016 for General Fiction and she has also won the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award twice. Rachael is joining us today with her new novel The Bad Bridesmaid Fred has the conviction of her beliefs. She’s writing a book on how not to catch feelings and is refreshingly honest with all her partners about where she stands on this. Fred’s also seen some things and she’s pretty keen on stopping her mum from catching feelings as well. So it’s with some surprise and consternation that Fred greets the news that her mother is getting married. Soon. And it’s a destination wedding. Fred’s practically trapped on Norfolk Island, but all is not lost when she finds a hot accomplice in Leo and together they set out to break up their parents… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Book Club - Karina May’s That Island Feeling 3:55

for 25 weeks siden3:55

3:55

The days are about to get shorter and the cold is already creeping in. So for today’s book club I’m taking us back to warmer times with Karina May’s That Island Feeling. Karina is the author of Duck a l’Orange for Breakfast (April 2023), which was longlisted in the Indie Book Awards for Best Debut Fiction, and Never Ever Forever. Karina, alongside her friend and author Clare Fletcher, is the founder and co-host of the successful That Rom Com Pod. Karina’s new novel That Island Feeling takes us to the secluded beaches of Pearl Island where Andie is determined to help her best friend Taylor through her divorce. A week on Pearl Island is just the beginning. Andie has an itinerary designed to help them forget men and melt away all their dramas. Except that Andie certainly hasn’t prepared for double booked bucks parties to crash their house. She’s underwhelmed by her friend's immediate gravitation towards these overbearing men. This week is meant to be about the girls and so she definitely hasn’t planned for any handsome, barefoot boat captains to come paddleboarding her way. Pearl Island is paradise for tourists and locals alike but that doesn’t happen without a little effort. Jack has been working any job he can ever since the Island’s oyster industry was decimated. The environmental catastrophe could quickly become a personal catastrophe if he can’t wrangle all the locals and support whatever industry the island has left, even if that means supporting the local resort. Jack’s been looking out for everyone else for so long he’s not sure he can trust his instincts when it comes to other people caring for him. There’s so much at stake and everyone else to look put for. Can Andie and Jack get out of their own way long enough to see what the other has to offer. So let’s do this a little differently today… I need all the fellas to lean in here. Because I know a bit about how books are marketed and I know that the powers that be are exactly expecting males to be picking up copies of That Island Feeling. People think straight men don’t go for meet cutes and we shy away from romance. But even if that were true let’s just look at the breakdown here; we’ve got a guy shouldering responsibilities and feeling overwhelmed but having difficulty asking for help. He loves to get out on the water and is handy but not too showy about it. He’s trying his best to be a gentleman and he looks out for his mum. I’m thinking we’d all like to identify with this bloke (except for the asking for help - why can’t we get better at that guys?!) I’m also thinking there’s more than a little to aspire to here, including the shirtless paddleboarding. It’s also time we shuck off the stereotype of not liking romance. Let’s all embrace our inner sweetheart and agree to surprise our significant others with a sweet gesture tonight. We love a little love and just need to overcome all the manosphere garbage and tap into our emotional selves with a delightful beach read. Now there is also Andie’s story and she’s great, but I think a lot of you already knew that. I bet you also know there’s going to be rough waters for the Andie and Jack, and will they or won’t they make it? The joy of these stories is in how we can constantly rediscover things we think we know and embrace the full spectrum of human emotion from the safety of our armchairs. Karina May’s That Island Feeling. Read it if you have a heart that you’re still regularly using……

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Eileen Chong's We Speak of Flowers 48:55

for 25 weeks siden48:55

48:55

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Eileen Chong is an award winning poet. You’ve met her on Final Draft with her last collection A Thousand Crimson Blooms and today she’s joining us with her new collection We Speak of Flowers. We Speak of Flowers comprises 101 interconnected fragments that can be read in any order, attempting to make sense of grief in the face of great pain. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week . Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/…

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Final Draft - Great Conversations

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Book Club - Andrea Goldsmith’s The Buried Life 3:46

for 26 weeks siden3:46

3:46

Andrea Goldsmith is the award winning author of novels including the Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlisted The Prosperous Thief and the 2015 Melbourne Prize for Literature, The Memory Trap. Her new novel is The Buried Life. Adrian’s colleagues affectionately call him Doctor Death. As a renowned scholar of death in the modern age he has surprisingly little insight into the impacts death has wrought in his own life. Kezi is a young artist torn between the freedom of her life and the tug of the fundamentalist christian life she escaped to lead it. Laura is a brilliant town planner anchored by her marriage to an underappreciated scholar. Each of these characters orbits the other, leading lives of quiet expectation. Adrian seeks to find a way forward after the breakdown of his relationship to Irene. Kezi hangs on to the possibility of forging a life outside of the church that rejected her for her sexuality. That she can reconcile and occupy the space carved out when she was so young. Laura is animated by a growing realisation that there is more to her cloistered world and she has been ignorant to what has been holding her back. The Buried Life takes place across Melbourne and into the lives of Adrian, Kezi and Laura. Here the city is a village inhabited by relationships near and far, and into which we are invited. There we discover how life can give us glimpses of possibility but stubbornly refuse to help us unless we first help ourselves. The novel is animated by the music and poetry that come to be central to the characters' existence. Adrian so long a rationalist has always enjoyed music but failed to appreciate how others can be in its thrall. Returning from a conference, he chances on a recording of Mahler in a coastal cafe and discovers a kind of transcendence that drives him forward. When he meets Laura he is similarly enthralled and comes to question the certainties of his life and come to favour living with passion and emotion. Each of these characters is shadowed by their buried life. Imagine, if you will, a sense of incompleteness. A gnawing worry that there is something more to do. That you are living in sepia but aware that brilliant technicolour is waiting if you could just see it. The Buried Life chronicles the journey into discovering that life and the journeys; both physical and spiritual we must take to get there. I found this novel both moving and challenging. Searching and yearning are such human traits but we all walk a tightrope of wishing ourselves and trying to live in our world. Within the novel we are confronted with pain and uncertainty and must consider if we can ever undo some of the damage we’ve lived through. I’m reluctant to suggest whether there’s a destination because so often it's the journey, cliched as that might sound. So to the novel as I found myself transfixed by the growing dynamic between Adrian, Laura and Kezi. As they become each other’s family I found myself increasingly concerned with where this might take then and less so if they got to go together.…

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