Podcasts about Do Not Say We Have Nothing

As a child, Madeleine Thien loved to sit on her father's lap as he flipped through the newspaper. Later on, she became fascinated by the newspaper archives at the Vancouver Public Library. Her exploration of history and storytelling continues with novels such as Do Not Say We Have Nothing. Now she's back with her long-awaited new novel, The Book of Records. The book questions the very nature of time, asking how great thinkers like Hannah Arendt lived through catastrophes of the past — and what they can tell us about surviving today. Want to know why Madeleine loved our interview with Cory Doctorow? Take a listen here:We can still avoid a tech dystopia — here's how

In 2020, the Canadian writer Madeleine Thien was working on her next novel, the follow-up to her prize-winning 2016 book Do Not Say We Have Nothing. But it was difficult to find the internal peace and privacy to begin again, especially after being catapulted into the public eye by the previous novel's success. Paul Kobrak followed her over several months as she created the first drafts of the new novel. It is a process which moves from Berlin to Brooklyn and finally to Portugal's capital city Lisbon. Five years later, the novel, called The Book of Records, is being published.

Madeleine Thien joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Cafeteria in the Evening and a Pool in the Rain,” by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder, which was published in The New Yorker in 2004. Thien's books include the novels “Dogs at the Perimeter” and “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” which won the Governor General's Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. 

Amanda and Jenn discuss books about being non-binary, Maggie Nelson comps, historical fiction about real women, and more in this week's episode of Get Booked. Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Feedback Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's novels A Kind of Freedom and The Revisioners (rec'd by Sibyl) The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner (C/a for physical / emotional abuse of minors) and Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (rec'd by Gina) Books Discussed The Moon Within by Aida Salazar Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, illustrated by Phoebe Kobabe The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish (cw: bullying, ableism) Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, transl. by Ginny Tapley Takemori Hold Me by Courtney Milan Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston Blow Your House Down by Gina Frangello (tw violence against women) White Magic by Elissa Washuta (cw: intimate partner violence, PTSD, ableism, racism, disordered drug use) Matrix by Lauren Groff Maud's Line by Margaret Verble (cw: death of animals) Llama Llama Nighty Night by Anna Dewdney Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Madeleine Thien reads her story “Lu, Reshaping,” from the December 20, 2021, issue of the magazine. Thien is the author of four books of fiction, including the novels “Dogs at the Perimeter” and “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” which won Canada's Governor General's Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.

Our bodies hold memory: they contain narratives that exceed the present moment and extend back generations. This episode calls upon writer and host Linda's personal experience to understand and explore Madeleine Thien's remarkable novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, published by Knopf (a division of Penguin Random House). The Take-Away for this episode involves two collections by the Italian-Canadian poet, Gianna Patriarca -- Italian Women and Other Tragedies and Daughters for Sale, both published by Guernica Press.Episode Credits:Writer and host: Linda MorraAssociate Producers: Linda Morra and Marco TimpanoMusic: Rafael Krux Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is one of the very earliest Biblio File interviews. Please excuse the audio. (Listening to it - I'm embarrassed to learn that I wasn't able to read all of Certainty before conducting the interview - despite not having had much time to prepare [This would never happen today - well, except in the case of Eimear McBride's A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, but that's another story] ).  Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver. She is the author of the story collection Simple Recipes (2001), and three novels,  Certainty  (2006); Dogs at the Perimeter (2011), shortlisted for Berlin's  International Literature Prize and winner of the Frankfurt Book Fair's 2015 Liberaturpreis; and Do Not Say We Have Nothing  (2016), about musicians studying Western classical music at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s, and about the legacy of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. Her books and stories are published in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, and have been translated into 25 languages.  Do Not Say We Have Nothing won the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2016 Governor-General's Literary Award for Fiction, and an Edward Stanford Prize; and was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and The Folio Prize 2017. The novel was named a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2016 and longlisted for a Carnegie Medal.

In this episode, we hear from our host Erin about what she is currently reading, what books she's added to her queue and why, as well as a brief review of the book A Gentleman in Moscow by author Amor Towles.  As you've heard from previous reviews of books like Do Not Say We Have Nothing and Pachinko, this book opened up another new world, the world of 1922 Russia.  A bonus, Erin gives us her rave review of the new Ben Affleck movie, The Way Back.

The Canadian writer Madeleine Thien is working on her next novel, the follow-up to her prizewinning 2016 book Do Not Say We Have Nothing. But she’s finding that it’s difficult to find the internal peace and privacy to begin again, especially after having being catapulted into the public eye after the previous novel’s success. As the narrative and characters shift and evolve in the author’s mind, there’s much painstaking research and many rewrites to be done. How can Madeleine blend the aspects of past and present which are pre-occupying her at the moment? And will she ever be satisfied enough with the novel to allow it to see the light of day? Paul Kobrak follows her over several months as she creates different versions of the first draft of the new novel. It’s a process which moves from Berlin in Germany (and a coffee shop which is central to Madeleine’s writing process) to Brooklyn USA (where she teaches Creative Writing to University students) and finally to Portugal's capital city Lisbon, where she hopes to complete it.

Bab terbaru podcast buku dari Podcast Main Mata sudah bisa kamu dengarkan! Di bab ini @patricia.wulandari dan dua teman pembaca, @marinareads19 dan @frappannisa, merekomendasikan tiga buku tentang perempuan yang ditulis oleh penulis perempuan dan meraih penghargaan sastra internasional, yaitu: 1. Milkman (2018) karya Anna Burns: pemenang Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2018, National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction 20182. 2. The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan (2014) karya Jenny Nordberg: pemenang J Anthony Lukas Book Prize 2015 3. Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016) karya Madeleine Thien: pemenang Giller Prize 2016, nominasi Man Booker Prize 2016 Tiga buku ini menceritakan kisah menjadi perempuan di tiga negara yang berbeda dengan keterbatasan yang mereka miliki, entah itu karena konflik negara, budaya patriarki, maupun latar belakang sebagai imigran.

We take stock of another year of book club books and square off to choose an official Book Club Book of the Year. On the list: Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman, Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles, Educated by Tara Westover, Swing Time by Zadie Smith, Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara, Lullaby by Leila Slemani, A Horse Walks Into A Bar by David Grossman, Dr Fischer of Geneva by Graham Greene, East West Street by Philippe Sands, A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark, The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, Less by Andrew Sean Greer and The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell.  

Amanda and Jenn discuss novels about the Balkans, contemporary YA, really weird books, and more in this week's episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, Legendary by Stephanie Garber, and Megabat by Anna Humphrey, illustrated by Kass Reich.   Questions   1. Hello Ladies! My friend and I are going on a trip to the Balkans (Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Belgravia, Macedonia and Albania). We love historical fiction or narrative non-fiction and would love to read more about these countries before visiting. Thanks! -Britany   2. Looking for an interesting essay collection for the Read Harder Challenge! -Rachael   3. Hello from Canada! I love your show :) I'm looking for book recommendations for my sister. She's in her late 20s, and has described herself as "enjoys reading, not books shopping, but only likes weird stuff". She seems to like John Wyndham books...Books that are weird, creepy, not very sci fi, and not very magical- something more in between. I suggested the Library at Mount Char (one of the weirdest I own), but she was turned off due to the title and perhaps my poor pitch. She will pick up Dark Matter, and the Southern Reach Trilogy due to my persistence. but I'm not sure they are right for her. Please help! -Dominique   4. Hi ladies! I just finished Retta’s So Close To Being The Sh*t Y’all Don’t Even Know and loved it. I was hoping you could recommend something similar. I loved the behind the scenes stories and comedic tone. I’ve also read and enjoyed books by Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling and Anna Kendrick. -Whitney   5. Hello ladies!! Love your podcast and look forward to listening to it every week at work!! I love your passion for books and helping people find new books!! Anyways, I am in the process of pursuing my dream and writing my first novel, however I would love your thoughts on books for creativity and writing. I've read Big Magic, and Stephen King's novel on writing, so anything that could help with encouragement and motivation would be lovely! Open to nonfiction and fiction! Thank you so much!! -Kaitlin   6. Hello, I love to listening to YA novels and could use some new recommendations. I have recently listened to and enjoyed When Dimple Met Rishi, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, And What I Saw and How I Lied. I also really enjoy Rainbow Rowell. Eleanor & Park is the only one I have left to read and it is currently on my to be listened to list, as well as Dumplin'. Thanks! -Megan   7. Thanks to Read Harder, I've read 2 books this year - Pachinko and Do Not Say We Have Nothing - which really made me realize that I know very little about 20th century East Asian history. I'm looking for nonfiction to give me some more grounding in the topic. It doesn't have to specifically be about the Japanese colonization of Korea or the Cultural Revolution, I'd be happy with anything compelling and readable about 19th or 20th century China, Japan, Korea, or even southeast Asia. Thanks! -Laura   Books Discussed Girl At War by Sara Novic The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht The Fire This Time edited by Jesmyn Ward How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee (tw: child abuse) The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley The Book of M by Peng Shepherd This is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union (tw: rape) Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley (rec’d by Attica Locke on Recommended) Valley Girls by Sarah Nicole Lemon Anger is a Gift, narrated and written by Mark Oshiro Wild Swans by Jung Chang The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin

This week, Liberty discusses Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Hot Milk, and more great older books. This week's episode was sponsored by Book Riot Insiders.

In 1956, John Okada wrote the first Japanese-American novel, No-No Boy, a story about a Nisei draft-resister who returns home to Seattle after years in prison. It should have been a sensation: American literature had seen nothing like it before. But the book went of print, Okada never published again, and the writer died in obscurity in 1971. That would have been the end of the story, were it not for a band of Asian-American writers in 1970s California who stumbled upon the landmark novel in a used bookshop. Frank Abe, one of the co-editors of a new book about Okada—and a friend to the “CARP boys” who discovered him—joins us to talk about the era in which No-No Boy was written and what the novel can teach us about our own moment in history.Go beyond the episode:John Okada: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No BoyNo-No Boy by John OkadaWatch Frank Abe’s film about the Japanese-American draft resisters, Conscience and the Constitution An incomplete list of the best literature about the hyphenated American experience:Americanah by Chimamamda Ngozi AdichieThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael ChabonThe House on Mango Street by Sandra CisnerosBreath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge DanticatMiddlesex by Jeffrey EugenidesThe Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin HamidThe Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong KingstonThe Comfort Women by Nora Okja KellerLucy by Jamaica KincaidInterpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa LahiriNative Speaker by Chang-Rae LeeThe Sympathizer by Viet Thanh NguyenThe Joy Luck Club by Amy TanDo Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (close enough!)Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It has been called her finest novel, but what did Laura's book club make of Zadie Smith's Swing Time? In our regular interview we talk to The Divas, a close-knit group of women based in north-west London, about books, friendship and travel. And we finish as always with some fresh recommendations for your next book club read. • Get in touch with us at thebookclubreview@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram @thebookclubreviewpod, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or leave us a comment on iTunes. Drop us a line – we'd love to hear from you. Subscribe and never miss an episode. • Our bookseller recommendation comes from Carrie and Becca of The Bookstore Podcast. If you want to hear more check out their show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts: we love it. •
 Books mentioned in this episode were Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, Feel Free by Zadie Smith, You are Free by Danzy Senna and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Plus if you stay listening for our extra bit at the end we discuss The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (we've come up with an ending – be the first to hear it!), Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward, Exit West by Mosin Hamid, Educated by Tara Westover and the collected works of Gerald Durrell. • 
Next up on The Book Club Review is Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.

Spanning decades and diasporas, Madeleine Thien’s stories “remind us what fiction can do” (New Statesman). She takes the UWRF stage to discuss the Booker-shortlisted Do Not Say We Have Nothing, … The post In-Conversation // Madeleine Thien: Do Not Say We Have Nothing appeared first on Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

As part of Canada 150, a week of programmes marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the nation, Michael Berkeley talks to Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien. Born in Vancouver, she is the daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants to Canada and her writing explores the history of the Asian diaspora. She is the author a short story collection 'Simple Recipes' and the novels 'Certainty', 'Dogs at the Perimeter' and 'Do Not Say We Have Nothing' -about musicians studying Western classical music at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s and about the legacy of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Scotiabank Giller Prize 2016 and the Governor General's Award 2016. Her books and stories have been translated into 23 languages. Madeleine talks to Michael about the history of Western of classical music in China and its suppression during the Cultural Revolution. Countless instruments were destroyed, including more than 500 pianos at the Shanghai Conservatory. The bravery of its director, He Luting, a Debussy scholar, in resisting the Red Guards was an inspiration to her as she wrote the book and she chooses a piece of his music. She tells Michael how her love of music was reborn as she listened to Bach whilst writing Do Not Say We Have Nothing, and we hear Bach's music played by the Chinese pianist Zhu Xiao Mei. She also chooses music from fellow Canadians Glenn Gould and Leonard Cohen. Producer: Jane Greenwood A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3 CANADA 150: a week of programmes from across Canada, marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of the nation and exploring the range and diversity of Canadian music and arts.

In addition to the usual weekly episode of chat between a friend and I, this week I'm bringing you a shorter, special episode with four guests. In this episode, I talk to four amazing female authors ahead of the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. You can see the full list of 6 shortlisted authors at www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk. Those authors are: Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing Linda Grant, author of The Dark Circle Ayobami Adebayo, author of Stay With Me Naomi Alderman, author of The Power

The authors of three historical novels discuss the way research and family history have informed their fiction in a discussion recorded at the Hay Festival chaired by New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon from the University of Cambridge. Jake Arnott has set novels in the 1960s, the 1940s and the 1900s and in his latest novel The Fatal Tree he depicts the criminal world in 18th century London. Madeleine Thien's novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing explores the impact of the Cultural Revolution on two generations of musicians. It has won prizes in her native Canada and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Sebastian Barry won the Costa Book of the Year for his novel Days Without End, which imagines the gay relationship between soldiers caught up in the American Civil War. Producer: Zahid Warley.

Welcome to the second episode of The Bookcast Club where Alice and Jenny talk current reads, favourite summer reads and books that changed our lives.Send any future questions or topics you would like us to cover to @bookcastclub on Twitter or email thebookcastclub@outlook.comBooks mentioned - Idaho, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Falling Leaves, American Gods, Bird Box, The Secret History, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, A Little Life, The Goldfinch, The Essex Serpent, Birdsong, Just Mercy, Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, The Versions of Us, Wild, Station Eleven, When Breath Becomes Air, The North Water, Suspicions of the Witcher, The Cormoron Strike novels, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, The Opposite of Loneliness, How to Breath Underwater, No One Belongs Here More than You, Suite Francaise, Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, This I Know: Notes on Unravelling the Heart.Support the show

Welcome to the first episode of The Bookcast Club where Alice and Jenny talk current reads and literary prizes.Send any future questions or topics you would like us to cover to @bookcastclub on Twitter or email thebookcastclub@outlook.comBooks mentioned - How to Be a Grown Up, Happy: Finding Joy in Everyday and Letting Go of Perfect, The Roanoke Girls, The Essex Serpent, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, A Whole Life, A Little Life, The Goldfinch, The Sellout, A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Luminaries.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bookcastclub)

Madeleine Thien talks about art and music under totalitarianism, along with her novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; Scholar managing editor Sudip Bose explains how Neville Marriner, conductor of the now-ubiquitous Academy-of-St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, used to be a rebel; and beloved former Scholar blogger Jessica Love catches us up on the radical changes she’s made to her book on psycholinguistics. Mentioned in this episode: • Listen to the Spotify playlist we curated to accompany Do Not Say We Have Nothing, featuring every recording mentioned in the novel (that’s 23 hours and 40 minutes of music!) • Read Sudip Bose’s ode to the great Neville Marriner in our Winter 2017 issue • Check out the archives of

Madeleine Thien talks about art and music under totalitarianism, along with her novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; Scholar managing editor Sudip Bose explains how Neville Marriner, conductor of the now-ubiquitous Academy-of-St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, used to be a rebel; and beloved former Scholar blogger Jessica Love catches us up on the radical changes she’s made to her book on psycholinguistics. Mentioned in this episode: • Listen to the Spotify playlist we curated to accompany Do Not Say We Have Nothing, featuring every recording mentioned in the novel (that’s 23 hours and 40 minutes of music!) • Read Sudip Bose’s ode to the great Neville Marriner in our Winter 2017 issue • Check out the archives of

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Madeleine Thien, Author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, her third novel published this month by Norton and currently shortlisted for the Man Booker Award. Madeline was born in Vancouver. Her story collection is Simple Recipes, and she has also written Certainty and Dogs at the Perimeter. Since 2010 she has been part of the international faculty at the MFA program at City University of Hong Kong. So. Do Not Say we Have Nothing. First and usually somewhat daunting to me, there is a family tree. Which sometimes elicits a bit of a shudder. But this family tree is seamless and informative from the outset. A few flipping back and forths and you have a pretty good idea of the cast of characters. In brief summary: There is Big Mother Knife, a boisterous and matriarchal leader of a frequently fractured and torn asunder family. Her husband Ba Lute is equally boisterous and full of strength but in at least superficially, different ways. Swirl, Big Mama’s sister is a lovely woman, whose life is torn apart, as are many in the book and millions in real life by Mao’s cultural revolution. Her husband is Wen the Dreamer, who brings love, romance and the Book of Records, an unfinished series of notebooks around which much of the novel flows. Swirl’s previous life before Wen, is tragic in many ways. Big Mama and Ba Lute have three kids, Da Shan and Flying Bear, both again boisterous and good at heart. Their third son forms a part of one of the two groupings in the book. This is Sparrow an accomplished composer. His cousin Zhuli is a virtuoso violinist whose true heart is her music and she doesn’t waver from that. And his best friend is Jiang Kai, another gifted musician, a pianist whose path is somewhat different. Sparrow’s daughter Ai-Ming and Jiang Kai’s daughter Marie, together work to piece together the past and try to make sense of tragedy, heroism and a society torn asunder by the efforts of one man and the cult of his personality, that led to a conflagration of epic proportions. Maybe that is a mouthful, but it all slides together and forms, through the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a seamless whole that as we do our work creates a picture of a world that is gone but must be remembered.

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Madeleine Thien, Author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, her third novel published this month by Norton and currently shortlisted for the Man Booker Award. Madeline was born in Vancouver. Her story collection is Simple Recipes, and she has also written Certainty and Dogs at the Perimeter. Since 2010 she has been part of the international faculty at the MFA program at City University of Hong Kong. So. Do Not Say we Have Nothing. First and usually somewhat daunting to me, there is a family tree. Which sometimes elicits a bit of a shudder. But this family tree is seamless and informative from the outset. A few flipping back and forths and you have a pretty good idea of the cast of characters. In brief summary: There is Big Mother Knife, a boisterous and matriarchal leader of a frequently fractured and torn asunder family. Her husband Ba Lute is equally boisterous and full of strength but in at least superficially, different ways. Swirl, Big Mama’s sister is a lovely woman, whose life is torn apart, as are many in the book and millions in real life by Mao’s cultural revolution. Her husband is Wen the Dreamer, who brings love, romance and the Book of Records, an unfinished series of notebooks around which much of the novel flows. Swirl’s previous life before Wen, is tragic in many ways. Big Mama and Ba Lute have three kids, Da Shan and Flying Bear, both again boisterous and good at heart. Their third son forms a part of one of the two groupings in the book. This is Sparrow an accomplished composer. His cousin Zhuli is a virtuoso violinist whose true heart is her music and she doesn’t waver from that. And his best friend is Jiang Kai, another gifted musician, a pianist whose path is somewhat different. Sparrow’s daughter Ai-Ming and Jiang Kai’s daughter Marie, together work to piece together the past and try to make sense of tragedy, heroism and a society torn asunder by the efforts of one man and the cult of his personality, that led to a conflagration of epic proportions. Maybe that is a mouthful, but it all slides together and forms, through the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a seamless whole that as we do our work creates a picture of a world that is gone but must be remembered.

In this edition of the Granta Podcast, editor Ka Bradley speaks with Madeleine Thien about her book, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which has recently been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. They talk about translating the sensation of music for a reader, the importance of writing about women of colour, and the Chinese conceptual framework of time.

Madeleine Thien describes her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing and why Canada ‘is a great place to be an artist.’

On Tuesday, the Man Booker Prize Shortlist was announced. For those of you not in the know, the Man Booker is a prize given for what the judging panel deems to be the best novel written in English and published in the UK each year. For many including myself, the Booker is the Prize to watch, the AFL Grand Final for nerds. This year's shortlist consists of:Paul Beatty's The SelloutDeborah Levy's Hot MilkGraeme Macrae Burnet's His Bloody ProjectOtessa Moshfegh's EileenDavid Szalay's All That Man IsMadeline Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing The Booker somewhat controversially opened the prize up to all english speaking countries in 2015 (previously only awarding the prize to those in the Commonwealth), and this years longlist contained notably more american authors than the one that preceded it. For the next six weeks I'm going to be looking at each of the Man Booker Shortlist picks, with occasional help from some of your other favourite Smitteners, talking about why these might have made the shortlist and who might take out the final prize. I am excited and a little scared and I hope you all enjoy the journey. Now onto my first review. Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeline Thien, has somewhat cynically been described by many as the classic Man Booker pick, for its complex, political, intergenerational narrative. The novel begins in the voice of our youngest character, Marie: "In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life." From here, Thien takes us back to the start of the Chinese Communist Revolution, through the Cultural Revolution and up to the Tiananmen Square Riots. I think from the distance of the West, it is easy to lose the human impact of international tragedies, particularly when they star people of colour. I am one of few people I know who was presented a unit on modern Chinese History in high school, and even this had gaping holes in it. If you do not already know a little about the events Thien is describing you will not be completely lost, however you will probably find yourself compelled to seek further reading once you've put the book down. Through Thien's characters, the widespread devastating personal impact of these events is impossible to miss. There is an almost folktale like character to the events of the distant past that is slowly stripped away as we are brought through the horrors that her characters sustain. Thien explores characters that are often not wholly good or evil, but shaped by circumstance. She carefully examines those who are influenced into acts of violence and betrayal, treating them with care but without total forgiveness. Her characters cannot be completely redeemed from what their political context has condemned them to. Music is heavily weaved through one generation of the families in particular. Studying classical music, I am often wary of novels that invest parts of their narratives in music. To me, it can often feel like pretentious name-dropping at best and often adds little to the story. To get a bit less literary, it sometimes feels like the scene in Pitch Perfect where Beca acts like David Guetta is some underground, unappreciated genius. To me, Thien was not too heavy handed. The pieces referenced were not the absolute standards and were described in terms of the emotions they induced rather than just as name-drops to remind the reader that the characters enjoyed music. Knowing the works was a bonus but not necessary to understand what she was trying to evoke in mentioning them. I will say some of these references went over even my head, as, as a self-centred violinist, I am less familiar with piano works that were often discussed. The books one weakness was something common to many works coving such a large time period and cast. Although for the most part, Thien's characters felt remarkably well realised, Marie, whose voice starts and ends the book, was not as strong as I would have liked. We see small snippets that are supposed to provide character—that she studies maths for instance—however we never truly get to understand her in the way we do her predecessors. When we start to delve well and truly into the past I was not quite content to leave the present, and whilst details of the dual narratives slowly serve to illuminate one another, I never felt like I was quite done witnessing Marie's own experiences. I think it's also worth mentioning that Thien's prose is impeccable. Although she moves between different styles of story telling, no voice felt less powerful than any other and the choices made in differentiating them did not feel arbitrary. She pushes the narrative forward with a compelling lucidity that makes the book difficult to put down, no mean feat for such a complex work. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a powerful book on an important topic, however it is not for this reason along that I believe it has been shortlisted for the Booker. Weeks after reading it, I still feel profoundly affected by Thien's writing and characters in a way that is rare. Although I am a little disappointed Marie's character wasn't explored more deeply, I would still not be at all upset if this book ended up taking home the top prize. Written by Adalya HusseinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Tuesday, the Man Booker Prize Shortlist was announced. For those of you not in the know, the Man Booker is a prize given for what the judging panel deems to be the best novel written in English and published in the UK each year. For many including myself, the Booker is the Prize to watch, the AFL Grand Final for nerds. This year's shortlist consists of: Paul Beatty's The Sellout Deborah Levy's Hot Milk Graeme Macrae Burnet's His Bloody Project Otessa Moshfegh's Eileen David Szalay's All That Man Is Madeline Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing The Booker somewhat controversially opened the prize up to all english speaking countries in 2015 (previously only awarding the prize to those in the Commonwealth), and this years longlist contained notably more american authors than the one that preceded it. For the next six weeks I'm going to be looking at each of the Man Booker Shortlist picks, with occasional help from some of your other favourite Smitteners, talking about why these might have made the shortlist and who might take out the final prize. I am excited and a little scared and I hope you all enjoy the journey.  Now onto my first review. Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeline Thien, has somewhat cynically been described by many as the classic Man Booker pick, for its complex, political, intergenerational narrative.  The novel begins in the voice of our youngest character, Marie:  "In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life."  From here, Thien takes us back to the start of the Chinese Communist Revolution, through the Cultural Revolution and up to the Tiananmen Square Riots.  I think from the distance of the West, it is easy to lose the human impact of international tragedies, particularly when they star people of colour. I am one of few people I know who was presented a unit on modern Chinese History in high school, and even this had gaping holes in it. If you do not already know a little about the events Thien is describing you will not be completely lost, however you will probably find yourself compelled to seek further reading once you've put the book down. Through Thien's characters, the widespread devastating personal impact of these events is impossible to miss. There is an almost folktale like character to the events of the distant past that is slowly stripped away as we are brought through the horrors that her characters sustain. Thien explores characters that are often not wholly good or evil, but shaped by circumstance. She carefully examines those who are influenced into acts of violence and betrayal, treating them with care but without total forgiveness. Her characters cannot be completely redeemed from what their political context has condemned them to. Music is heavily weaved through one generation of the families in particular. Studying classical music, I am often wary of novels that invest parts of their narratives in music. To me, it can often feel like pretentious name-dropping at best and often adds little to the story. To get a bit less literary, it sometimes feels like the scene in Pitch Perfect where Beca acts like David Guetta is some underground, unappreciated genius. To me, Thien was not too heavy handed. The pieces referenced were not the absolute standards and were described in terms of the emotions they induced rather than just as name-drops to remind the reader that the characters enjoyed music. Knowing the works was a bonus but not necessary to understand what she was trying to evoke in mentioning them. I will say some of these references went over even my head, as, as a self-centred violinist, I am less familiar with piano works that were often discussed. The books one weakness was something common to many works coving such a large time period and cast. Although for the most part, Thien's characters felt remarkably well realised, Marie, whose voice starts and ends the book,  was not as strong as I would have liked. We see small snippets that are supposed to provide character—that she studies maths for instance—however we never truly get to understand her in the way we do her predecessors. When we start to delve well and truly into the past I was not quite content to leave the present, and whilst details of the dual narratives slowly serve to illuminate one another, I never felt like I was quite done witnessing Marie's own experiences. I think it's also worth mentioning that Thien's prose is impeccable. Although she moves between different styles of story telling, no voice felt less powerful than any other and the choices made in differentiating them did not feel arbitrary. She pushes the narrative forward with a compelling lucidity that makes the book difficult to put down, no mean feat for such a complex work. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a powerful book on an important topic, however it is not for this reason along that I believe it has been shortlisted for the Booker. Weeks after reading it, I still feel profoundly affected by Thien's writing and characters in a way that is rare. Although I am a little disappointed Marie's character wasn't explored more deeply, I would still not be at all upset if this book ended up taking home the top prize. Written by Adalya Hussein

As Casualty, the BBC's medical drama, prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a feature-length episode, co-creator, Paul Unwin, and series producer Erika Hossington, discuss how a show about an overstretched, under-resourced emergency department has continued to surprise and challenge its audience.Canadian author Madeleine Thien talks about Do Not Say We Have Nothing her epic novel charting China's revolutionary history, which has earned her a place on the Man Booker long list. Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell star in Bad Moms, the new film from the writers of The Hangover. Film critic Catherine Bray reviews. German director Thomas Ostermeier discusses his Schaubuhne production of Richard III is which is being performed as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.