Podcast appearances and mentions of Madeleine Thien

It took author Madeleine Thien nearly a decade to write her new novel The Book of Records. In the story, 7-year-old Lina and her father take refuge at an imagined place called the Sea. There, buildings serve as a waystation for people who are fleeing one place to make home in another. Thien says she wanted to set her novel in a location where centuries and histories might converge. In today's episode, Thien talks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about her personal relationship to the three historical thinkers who enter the story: Hannah Arendt, Baruch Spinoza, and Du Fu.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Madeleine Thien is the author of four books, including Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. She lives in Montreal.  Her new novel is The Book of Records. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Book of Records is many things: a book of historical fiction and speculative fiction, a meditation on time and on space-time,  on storytelling and truth, on memory and the imagination, a book that impossibly conjures the lives and eras of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu and the political theorist […] The post Madeleine Thien : The Book of Records appeared first on Tin House.

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

The Lion Witch Wardrobe - Wexford Festival Opera 2025 - Madeleine Thien

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.

David Wright Faladé joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Lu, Reshaping,” by Madeleine Thien, which was published in The New Yorker in 2021. Falade is the author of the novels “Black Cloud Rising” and “The New Internationals,” and the nonfiction work “Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers.” He's been publishing fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker since 2020. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For this live taping of the literary podcast Between the Covers—recorded at Jewish Currents's daylong event on September 15th and presented in partnership with On the Nose—host David Naimon convened a conversation with renowned writers Dionne Brand and Adania Shibli about contesting colonial narratives. Rooted in their long-standing literary practice and in the demands of this moment of genocide, they discuss the vexed meanings of home, how to recover the everydayness of life erased by empire, and what it means to imagine togetherness beyond the nation-state.This episode was produced by David Naimon, with music by Alicia Jo Rabins. Thanks also to Jesse Brenneman for additional editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).Texts Mentioned and Additional Resources:Minor Detail by Adania ShibliA Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne BrandCivil Service by Claire SchwartzThe Blue Clerk by Dionne BrandAdania Shibli in conversation with Hisham Matar at the 2024 Hay FestivalAdania Shibli in conversation with Madeleine Thien and Layli Long Soldier at the Barnard Center for Research on Women“Writing Against Tyranny and Toward Liberation,” Dionne Brand“Dionne Brand: Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems,” Between the Covers“Adania Shibli: Minor Detail,” Between the Covers“prologue for now - Gaza,” Dionne Brand, Jewish Currents“Duty,” Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review of Books“A Lesson in Arabic Grammar by Toni Morrison,” Adania Shibli, Jewish CurrentsInventory by Dionne BrandRecognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad“Isabella Hammad: Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative,” Between the...

For the conclusion of Writers and Company, the tables are turned and author Madeleine Thien interviews Eleanor Wachtel. Recorded at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival in Montreal last spring, Thien speaks with Eleanor about her early life in Montreal, memorable moments from her career and more. They also look back on Eleanor's conversations with Antiguan American novelist and memoirist Jamaica Kincaid and British neurologist Oliver Sacks. Plus, Jeopardy! superchamp Mattea Roach joins Eleanor to talk about hosting CBC's new author interview show, Bookends.The entire Writers and Company archive will gradually be made available on the Simon Fraser University Library's Digitized Collections website. You can find it here: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/writersandcompany-collection/writers-company

In dieser Episode ist Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee zu Gast im Murakamy Podcast. Felix ist Professor für Business Administration an der Havard Business School und Autor des Buches “Better Simpler Strategy”. Der Titel des Buches verspricht nicht zu viel, denn Felix ist es gelungen ein einfaches Konzept zu entwickeln um Strategie greifbar zu machen. Dabei geht es vor allem darum, die Erfolgstreiber des Businesses zu verstehen und auf unterschiedliche Ebenen anzuwenden. Felix erklärt den “Value Stick” als den zentralen Teil seines Modells. Dieser wirkt vor allem darauf ein die Preisbereitschaft der Kunden zu steigern und die Preisbereitschaft von Lieferanten oder Mitarbeitende zu senken. Das Gespräch liefert einen hervorragenden Einblick, wie Strategie greifbar und anwendbar wird! Diese Folge findest du auch als Podcast auf: https://murakamy.com/blog/podcast-79-better-simpler-strategy-felix-oberholzer Alle bisherigen Folgen findest Du hier: https://murakamy.com/blog/tag/Podcast Besuche uns auch auf https://murakamy.com Links zu Prof. Felix Oberholzer Gee: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-oberholzer-gee/ “Better, Simpler Strategy”: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Felix-Oberholzer-Gee-ebook/dp/B08CRZ5R62 Havard Business Review “Eliminate Strategic Overload”: https://hbr.org/2021/05/eliminate-strategic-overload Podcast “After Hours”: https://harvardafterhours.com/ HBS Online Kurs “Business Stretegy”: https://online.hbs.edu/courses/business-strategy/ Links zur Folge: Youngme Moon “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd”: https://www.amazon.de/Different-Escaping-Competitive-Youngme-Moon/dp/030746086X Madeleine Thien “Do Not Say We Have Nothing”: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Madeleine-Thien-ebook/dp/B01BXSB8D0/ref

Widely recognized as one of the finest and most influential authors writing in English today, Zadie Smith speaks about her acclaimed latest novel, The Fraud, with her internationally-renowned Canadian contemporary, Madeleine Thien. This event was presented in 2023 in partnership with UBC School of Creative Writing and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, and with the support of Penguin Random House Canada.

This week's guests are the coeditors (and contributors to) Letters to a Writer of Color. Listen in to hear the profound insights and inspirational origin story that led to Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro's collaboration on their powerful anthology. Contributors to this collection include Kiese Laymon, Myriam Gurba, Madeleine Thien, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and others. Our conversation this week circles how writers of color write and talk about and translate their experiences, the ways writers can get hemmed in and how they refuse to be hemmed in, and also the power of commonalities across experiences, even when those experiences are so varied. Not to be missed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story in The New Yorker's November 27, 2023, issue is “Beauty Contest,” by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Steven Snyder. Ogawa was not able to read her story for The Writer's Voice, but, on a recent episode of the New Yorker Fiction Podcast, the writer Madeleine Thien read and discussed Ogawa's 2004 story “The Cafeteria in the Evening and a Pool in the Rain,” and we wanted to share that episode with you instead. We hope you enjoy it. 

Guest host Roxane Gay (no mean cook herself) presents three stories centered on food. In “Three Great Meals” the late New Yorker humor writer Donald Barthelme tells you how to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner from a terrifying medley of fast food and low-end canned goods. The story is read by Nate Corddry. In "Simple Recipes," author Madeleine Thien weaves together evocative memories of traditional meals prepared by her father, with more complex images of a family in conflict. The reader is Cindy Cheung. And finally, a Roald Dahl classic, “Lamb to the Slaughter.” This tale of a model housewife's response to a marital crisis will make you view your Sunday roast in a whole new light. She's embodied by Catherine O'Hara.

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. 

In this episode the novelist Madeleine Thien and Samantha Rose Hill discuss loneliness, friendship, and writing. “Hannah Arendt: Between Worlds” is a coproduction of the Goethe-Institut and the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. This podcast is part of “Hannah Arendt: Thinking is Dangerous,” a project for thinking with Hannah Arendt about our world today.

This week, we start out with a rousing round of Listening Limbo and then we move on to our three topics:Join us for our Book Club of Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Amazon)FAKE VIOLIN BUSKING SWEEPS THE NATIONNBC 4 News StoryProfessional violinist reacts to fake busking (YouTube)Reddit ThreadViolinist.com articleTHE VOICE BREAK CHOIR DOCUMENTARYThe documentary on YouTube Accompanying New Yorker articleCLASSICAL MUSIC'S DRINKING PROBLEMI Care If You Listen's “Casting Light” Series CLASSICAL MIXTAPEThe full playlistKenshoStenhammar, Serenade in F MajorTiffanyValerie Coleman, Umoja (wind quintet version)WillJ. S. Bach, Magnificat: “Esurientes”THINK YOU CAN STUMP US? GO AHEAD AND TRY!Google Form for “Name that Tune: Stump the Hosts Edition” You can reach us at classicalgabfest@gmail.com and on social media:FacebookTwitterInstagram

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.

Guest host Roxane Gay (no mean cook herself) presents three stories centered on food.  In “Three Great Meals” the late New Yorker humor writer Donald Barthleme tells you how to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner from a terrifying medley of fast food and low-end canned goods.  The story is read by Nate Corddry.   In "Simple Recipes," author Madeleine Thien weaves together evocative memories of traditional meals prepared by her father, with more complex images of a family in conflict.  The reader is Cindy Cheung.  And finally, a Roald Dahl classic, “Lamb to the Slaughter.”  This tale of a model housewife's response to a marital crisis will make you view your Sunday roast in a whole new light.  She's embodied by Catherine O'Hara. Join and give!: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/symphonyspacenyc?code=Splashpage See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Bentornati in Bookatini - il podcast per chi è ghiotto di libri. Nell'episodio 10, dedicato alle letture asiatiche, abbiamo chiacchierato di questi libri: - Neve di primavera, di Yukio Mishima, Feltrinelli editore - Non dite che non abbiamo niente, di Madeleine Thien, 66than2nd editore- Il Paese dei suicidi, di Miri Yu, Atmosphere Libri editore- Piccoli suicidi tra amici, di Arto Paasilinna, Iperborea editore- La virtù femminile, di Harumi Setouchi, Neri Pozza Editore- Memorie di una geisha, di Arthur Golden, TEA Editore- Lesley Downer Potete contattarci, scrivere commenti, suggerimenti, domande e condividete con noi le vostre letture sul tempo contattandoci nella pagina Instagram Bookatini_podcast o scrivendoci alla mail bookatini@gmail.com

Throughout the 10 stories in Land of Big Numbers, Te-Ping Chen — a founding member of NüVoices — sketches the interior lives of her protagonists, who live in (or are connected to) China: a man determined to strike it rich in the stock market, a migrant worker employed at a flower shop who is infatuated with a customer, and a government employee being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. Inspired by her years living in Beijing and Hong Kong as a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Chen drew upon her travels and the remarkable lives of people she met to construct a world that didn't fit neatly into news reports. The debut author speaks with NüVoices chair Joanna Chiu and New York chapter member Megan Cattel on her observations of modern China, the transferable skills of journalism to fiction, and advice on navigating the publishing industry. Recommendations: Te-Ping: Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien, and Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, by Maile Meloy.Joanna: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, Invisible, by Paul Auster, and The Woo-Woo, by Lindsay Wong. Megan: Notes of a Crocodile, by Qiu Miaojin (English translation by Bonnie Huie), I Was Their American Dream, by Malaka Gharib, and The Wedding Banquet, directed by Ang Lee.

Click here to buy: Coming Soon Narrators: Shvorne Marks Frank Laverty Damian Lynch Laila Pyne Gabrielle Glaister Rebecca Yeo With contributions by: William Boyd, Candice Carty-Williams, Imtiaz Dharker, Roddy Doyle, Pico Iyer, Robert Macfarlane, Andy Miller, Jackie Morris, Jan Morris, Sisonke Msimang, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Michael Ondaatje, David Pilling, Max Porter, Philip Pullman, Alice Pung, Jancis Robinson, S.F.Said, Madeleine Thien, Salley Vickers, John Wood and Markus Zusak 'This story, like so many stories, begins with a gift. The gift, like so many gifts, was a book...' So begins the essay by Robert Macfarlane that inspired this collection. In this cornucopia of an anthology, you will find essays by some of the world's most beloved novelists, nonfiction writers, essayists and poets. 'You will see books taking flight in flocks, migrating around the world, landing in people's hearts and changing them for a day or a year or a lifetime. 'You will see books sparking wonder or anger; throwing open windows into other languages, other cultures, other minds; causing people to fall in love or to fight for what is right. 'And more than anything, over and over again, you will see books and words being given, received and read - and in turn prompting further generosity.' Published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of global literacy non-profit, Room to Read, The Gifts of Reading forms inspiring, unforgettable, irresistible proof of the power and necessity of books and reading. Inspired by Robert Macfarlane Curated by Jennie Orchard Produced with the authority of ROOM TO READ

This week, to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival (where Chinese people eat lots of mooncakes and stuff themselves with other delicious treats) Jessie and Helen talk about Chinese poets who lived during the Tang Dynasty - Li Bai and Du Fu. They also finish off the episode by reciting their favourite poems. For Helen; it's Robert Frost's THE ROAD NOT TAKEN. For Jessie, it's Dorothea Lasky's POEM TO AN UNNAMEABLE MAN. Also discussed: Jessie weeps while listening to these articles read to her from her favourite app AUDM: “Out there, Nobody Can Hear You Scream”, By Latria Graham, Outside Magazine (21 September 2020) “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court's Feminist Icon, Is Dead at 87” By Linda Greenhouse (18 September 2020) The letter Ruth's husband Marty wrote on his deathbed to her: “My dearest Ruth,” it began. “You are the only person I have loved in my life, setting aside, a bit, parents and kids and their kids, and I have admired and loved you almost since the day we first met at Cornell. What a treat it has been to watch you progress to the very top of the legal world.” Madeleine Thien's article on Ha Jin and David Hinton's new books on Du Fu and Li Bai “Poems Without an ‘I'”, October 8 Issue, 2020 Du Fu - Poetry Foundation Profile Li Bai - Poetry Foundation Profile Chiang Hsun - TED X TALK (Taipei, 2012) Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken Dorothea Lasky: Poem to an Unnameable Man Purchase Jessie's Book : Jessie Tu | A Lonely Girl Is A Dangerous Thing   Purchase Zoya's Book: Zoya Patel | No Country Woman   · Facebook | Asian Bitches Down Under · Instagram | Asian Bitches Down Under · Asian Bitches Down Under Email: asianbdownunder@gmail.com  

I avsnitt 87 låter Åsa och Sissel sig, som brukligt är, inspireras av temat för den årliga bokmässans i Göteborg. Eftersom vi år blev inbjudna till en onlinebaserad digital bildningshubb, valde vi att klä av temat och fokusera på böcker vi lärt oss något av. Är du på lag Sissel och älskar att få ny kunskap, särskilt genom läsning, eller går du hellre med i lag Åsa som tycker att läsning i utbildningssyfte är en fråga om osexig inställning och att läsning ska var en lek? Lyssna för att få mer kännedom om vad båda två egentligen menar. Oavsett om det är med flit eller av re slump så har båda lärt sig massor, haft kul på vägen och har titlar som bevis. "Förgiftad : Berättelser om fasor, formler och fiaskon" av Ulf Ellervik i inläsning av Torsten Wahlund berättar om konsten att giftmörda. Du får ruggig och häpnadsväckande kunskap om giftiga gaser och växter och radioaktivitet och det spelar ingen roll om du blev underkänd i kemi, du kommer att förstå ändå. E-boken "Djupsinne" av Peter Godfrey Smith är fullspäckad av intressant bläckfiskfakta och i avsnittet får du ta del av tre av de mest intressanta sakerna genom att uppslukas i ett bläckfiskrollspel i en sval jazzklubb på havets botten. Detta bör du inte missa!Andra informationsrika och underhållande böcker som behandlas är bland annat "Året med 13 månader av och med Åsa Linderborg", "Ålevangeliet" av Patrik Svensson inläst av Hannes Meidal, "Sparskolan" av och med Johanna Kull, "Do not say we have nothing" av Madeleine Thien inläst av Angela Lin och "Panopticon" av J C Koldemo inläst av Disa Östrand.Feedback kan du ge på podcast@storytel.com eller i Storytel-appen och följ gärna @poddensnackaomljudbocker på Instagram! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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.

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.

Art critic Alastair Sooke, in the company of some of the leading creatives of our age, continues his deep dive into the stunning works in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, whilst exploring what it really means “to see” art. Today's edition features a work by a Latvian-American visual artist best known for photo-realistic paintings and drawings of natural environments and phenomena such as the ocean, spider webs, star fields, and rocks. Award-winning novelist Madeleine Thien has chosen "Bikini" Celmins's depiction of an atomic blast which took place in Bikini Lagoon on 25 July 1946, part of the United States' Operation Crossroads – one of a series of twenty-three nuclear detonations in the western Pacific. What has drawn the novelist's eye to this work - and how does she see it? Producer: Paul Kobrak Main Image: Vija Celmins, Bikini, 1968. Graphite on acrylic ground on paper, 13 3/8 x 18 1/4" (34 x 46.4 cm). Gift of Edward R. Broida. Museum of Modern Art, NY, 673.2005. © 2019 Vija Celmins

Alex Leslie talks about her new book, Vancouver for Beginners (Book*hug, 2019). Andrew is stoked to record with Alex's dog, Lucas. It's an absolute blast. ----- Click here to check out Page Fright's live recording in Vancouver on December 7th (6-8pm @ Massy Books)! ----- Alex Leslie was born and lives in Vancouver. She is the author of Vancouver for Beginners (Book*hug, 2019) and two short story collections: We All Need to Eat, a finalist for the 2019 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and People Who Disappear, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction and a 2013 ReLit Award. She is also the author of the prose poetry collection, The things I heard about you (2014), which was shortlisted for the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Award for innovative poetry. Alex's writing has been included in the Journey Prize Anthology, The Best of Canadian Poetry in English, and in a special issue of Granta spotlighting Canadian writing, co-edited by Madeleine Thien and Catherine Leroux, and has received a CBC Literary Award, a Gold National Magazine Award, and the 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers. ----- Andrew French is an author who was born and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. French holds a BA in English from Huron University College at Western University, and is pursuing an MA in English at UBC. He writes poems, book reviews, and hosts this very podcast. ----- Listen to more episodes of Page Fright here.

This is House of SpeakEasy Foundation's The SpeakEasy Podcast where writers come together to eat, drink, and share stories on a range of themes. Hosted by SpeakEasy’s co-founders, Amanda Foreman and Lucas Wittmann, episodes will feature previously recorded storytelling performances from our live Seriously Entertaining shows at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in New York City as well as new audio segments from our outreach programs, including our bookmobile outings and work with high school students. This episode features Man Booker Prize-shortlisted Madeleine Thien who will show us both sides of the blade, poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Alexander who will give us The Light of the World, and bestselling author James Rebanks will share with us The Shepherd’s View...all at the Razor's Edge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neil MacGregor visits different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as members of their broader communities, see Britain. In Canada, Neil hears from French-Canadian film director, Denys Arcand; writer and Booker Prize nominee, Madeleine Thien; and Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland.

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.  

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.

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.

My guest is Stephanie Feldman. She co-edited Who Will Speak For America? (https://www.amazon.com/Will-Speak-America-Stephanie-Feldman/dp/1439916241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514208101&sr=8-1&keywords=who+will+speak+for+america), with Nathaniel Popkin. The editors and contributors to Who Will Speak for America? (https://www.amazon.com/Will-Speak-America-Stephanie-Feldman/dp/1439916241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514208101&sr=8-1&keywords=who+will+speak+for+america)are passionate and justifiably angry voices providing a literary response to today’s political crisis. Inspired by and drawing from the work of writers who participated in nationwide Writers Resist events in January 2017, this volume provides a collection of poems, stories, essays, and cartoons that wrestle with the meaning of America and American identity. The contributions—from established figures including Eileen Myles, Melissa Febos, Jericho Brown, and Madeleine Thien, as well as rising new voices, such as Carmen Maria Machado, Ganzeer, and Liana Finck—confront a country beset by racial injustice, poverty, misogyny, and violence. Contributions reflect on the terror of the first days after the 2016 Presidential election, but range well beyond it to interrogate the past and imagine possible American futures. Who Will Speak for America? (https://www.amazon.com/Will-Speak-America-Stephanie-Feldman/dp/1439916241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514208101&sr=8-1&keywords=who+will+speak+for+america) inspires readers by emphasizing the power of patience, organizing, resilience and community. These moving works advance the conversation the American colonists began, and that generations of activists, in their efforts to perfect our union, have elevated and amplified. Stephanie Feldman is the author of the novel The Angel of Losses (https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Losses-Novel-Stephanie-Feldman/dp/0062228919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530902123&sr=8-1&keywords=the+angel+of+losses)(Ecco), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, winner of the Crawford Fantasy Award, and finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, and is the co-editor of the forthcoming multi-genre anthology Who Will Speak for America? (https://www.amazon.com/Will-Speak-America-Stephanie-Feldman/dp/1439916241/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530902155&sr=1-1&keywords=who+will+speak+for+america) (Temple University Press) Her stories and essays have appeared in, or are forthcoming from, Asimov’s, Electric Literature, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Rumpus, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn. She lives outside Philadelphia with her family. Special Guest: Stephanie Feldman.

The New York Times called it a 'powerfully expansive novel' and it was shortlisted for the Booker, but what did Laura's book club make of 'Do Not Say We Have Nothing' by Madeleine Thien? For our regular book club interview we get radical with London's Radical Reading Group 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. • Books mentioned on this episode were 'The Concubine's Children' by Denise Cheong, 'The Noise of Time' by Julian Barnes, 'The Rest is Noise' by Alex Ross, 'Ru' by Kim Thuy and 'Brother' by David Chariandy. Terri Jane of the Radical Reading Group talked about 'Close to the Knives' by David Wojnarowicz, 'Your Silence Will Not Protect You' by Audre Lorde and 'Too Much and Not in the Mood' by Durga Chew-Bose. To find out more about the Radical Reading group find them on facebook under Radical Reading London. And if you keep listening to our extra bit at the end we discuss 'Children of Blood and Bone' by Tomi Adeyemi, 'Bleaker House' by Nell Stevens and 'Cartes Postales' by Victoria Hislop. • 
Next up on The Book Club Review is A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark

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.

Madeleine in conversation with Professor Paul Hetherington, exploring this epic and resonant novel about the far-reaching effects of China's revolutionary history, told through the stories of two interlinked musical families, from the 1940s to the present day.

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

It’s the Thanksgiving episode! Jacke and Mike respond to listener feedback and discuss some literary things to thankful for. Authors discussed include Edith Wharton, John Fowles, Ernest Hemingway, Vu Tran, Lydia Davis, Gary Snyder, Walt Whitman, Elena Ferrante, Walker Percy, Madeleine Thien, James Wood, Harold Bloom, and more!  Show Notes:  Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail at 1-361-4WILSON (1-361-494-5766).  You can find more literary discussion at jackewilson.com and more episodes of the series at historyofliterature.com. Check out our Facebook page at facebook.com/historyofliterature. Music Credits: “Handel – Entrance to the Queen of Sheba” by Advent Chamber Orchestra (From the Free Music Archive / CC by SA). “Darxieland” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 the Booker prize announces a shortlist that's long on surprises, we talk to Deborah Levy and assess the contenders for this year's award

In the third episode of our 2016 series, we bring you a snapshot of the Edinburgh festival season. First, host Joe Haddow catches up with two of our longlisted authors, Wyl Menmuir and Madeleine Thien, who were at the Edinburgh International Book Festival whilst he was in town. Then we go behind the scenes at the Man Booker International Prize event* and hear from 2016 judge Daniel Medin and winning translator Deborah Smith, who discuss the vibrant reception to The Vegetarian in South Korea (including billboards of Han Kang's face). Joe meets with author and former book festival ticket ripper Maggie O'Farrell, who reveals how the festival has changed over the years. Finally, Joe heads to the Fringe, where he speaks to comedian and author Mark Watson who explains why novels should be seen as much more than a holiday occupation. Join in the conversation @ManBookerPrize with #ManBooker2016 and #FinestFiction *Credit: Edinburgh International Book Festival

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.

Madeleine Thien wanted to be a writer at a very young age. The daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants, she has published short stories and novels about the immigrant experience in Canada. Her latest novel is "Dogs at the Perimeter".