World Book Club

A dark modern fairytale set against the very real world of post-WWII Philadelphia, tracing the love between a brother and sister, their vanishing mother, distant father and jealous stepmother. Ann Patchett tells the story of a family over five decades with a finely balanced mixture of wit and heartbreak.

(Image: Ann Patchett. Photo credit: Emily Dorio.)

A dark fairytale set in post war America tracing a family across the decades

A dark fairytale set in post war America tracing a family across the decades.

Multi award-winning novelist Ann Patchett will be discussing The Dutch House. A dark modern fairytale set against the very real world of post-WWII Philadelphia, tracing the love between a brother and sister, their vanishing mother, distant father and jealous stepmother. Ann Patchett tells the story of a family over five decades with a finely balanced mixture of wit and heartbreak.

Recorded in the prestigious Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.

(Photo: Antonio Muñoz Molina. Credit: Elena Blanco)

Antonio Mu\u00f1oz Molina answers questions on his novel In the Night of Time

Antonio Muñoz Molina answers questions on his novel In the Night of Time, a panoramic portrait of Spain on the brink of civil war.

Recorded in the prestigious Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, Antonio Muñoz Molina answers questions from around the world on his novel In the Night of Time. The panoramic portrait of Spain on the brink of civil war follows the life of Ignacio Abel, master builder and architect, as he navigates an illicit love affair with an American woman as the darkness of war surrounds him.

Antonio Mu\u00f1oz Molina talks about his novel In the Night of Time.

Antonio Muñoz Molina talks about his novel In the Night of Time.

A compact and engaging exploration of some of the most fundamental ideas in modern physics this book takes readers on a captivating journey through seven concise chapters, each dedicated to a different topic. From the theory of relativity to quantum mechanics and the nature of time, Rovelli presents complex concepts with remarkable clarity, making them accessible to a wide audience.

Throughout the book, Rovelli weaves together the history of scientific discovery with his own personal reflections, creating a narrative that is both poetic and thought-provoking. Delving into the mysteries of the universe and examining our own place in the cosmos Rovelli invites readers to ponder the profound questions that physics raises about the nature of space, time, and existence itself.

(Photo: Carlo Rovelli. Credit: Christopher Wahl.)

A dazzling and mind-bending introduction to the wonders of modern physics

A dazzling and mind-bending introduction to the wonders of modern physics.

It's a story of grief and friendship; three women meet to clear their deceased friend's beach house and find themselves uncovering secrets and stirring up memories.

(Image: Charlotte Wood. Photo credit: Carly Earl.)

Charlotte Wood discusses her novel, The Weekend

The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.

Australian novelist Charlotte Wood joins Harriett Gilbert to discuss her novel, The Weekend - a story of grief and friendship.

World Book Cafe heads to Madrid to talk to writers about a new boom in feminist fiction.

From Jewish mysticism to Houdini to the Golden Age of Comic Books and WWII, Chabon's immersive novel deals with escape and transformation through the lives of two Jewish boys in New York. Josef Kavalier makes an impossible escape from Prague in 1939, leaving his whole family behind but convinced he's going to find a way to get them out too. He arrives in New York to stay with his cousin Sammy Klayman, and together the boys cook up a superhero to rival Superman – both banking on their comic book creation, The Escapist, to transform their lives and those around them, which in part he does. Their first cover depicts The Escapist punching Hitler in the face, and they wage war on him in their pages, but the personal impact of WWII is painfully inevitable.

The novel touches on the personal scars left by vast political upheaval, and the damaging constraints of being unable to love freely and live a true and authentic life. Chabon's prose is perfectly crafted – sometimes lyrical, sometimes intensely witty, and occasionally painfully heartbreaking.

(Picture: Michael Chabon. Photo credit: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images.)

Two Jewish boys in 1939 New York invent an anti-Fascist comic book hero

Percival Everett will be discussing his Booker-shortlisted novel The Trees. This powerful and fiercely funny satire centring on revenge and racial justice in America shifts genres between police procedural, magical realism and horror with wit and consummate skill. Percival Everett addresses some of America’s darkest history with an unusual mix of playfulness and political seriousness.

A powerful satire of revenge and social justice in America

The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.

Percival Everett will be discussing his Booker-shortlisted novel The Trees. This powerful and fiercely funny satire centring on revenge and racial justice in America shifts genres between police procedural, magical realism and horror with wit and consummate skill. Percival Everett addresses some of America’s darkest history with an unusual mix of playfulness and political seriousness.

A powerful satire of revenge and social justice in America

The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.

Almeida, a gay war photographer, recently deceased, with secrets aplenty, awakes to find himself sitting in line in an ethereal visa office, determined to find out who has murdered him. In a Sri Lanka beset by civil war, death squads and terrorist bombs, the list of suspects is long. He has 'seven moons' a week, to make contact with and steer his two closest friends to the evidence stash that could uncover the culprit and change the course of his country's destiny.

Navigating the afterlife with a mix of sardonic wit and streetwise sensibility Maali roams war-torn Columbo confronting the ghosts and murderers who haunt Sri Lanka, in a country where the past is never really dead.

(Photo: Shehan Karunatilaka. Credit: Dominic Sansoni)

Searing satire set amid the murderous mayhem of Sri Lankan civil war

In a Sri Lanka beset by civil war, death squads and terrorist bombs, the list of suspects is long. He has 'seven moons', a week, to make contact with and steer his two closest friends to the evidence stash that could uncover the culprit and change the course of his country's destiny.

Navigating the afterlife with a mix of sardonic wit and streetwise sensibility Maali roams wartorn Columbo confronting the ghosts and murderers who haunt Sri Lanka, in a country where the past is never really dead.

Twenty-three year old Zhuang – or Z as she's called in England because no-one can pronounce her name – arrives to spend a year learning English. The loneliness and strangeness of the city are overwhelming, but as she struggles through the challenges of nouns and verbs and the oddities of English speech, she meets and falls in love with an older English man. When he invites her to ‘be my guest' she brings round her suitcase and moves into his house.

Written in broken English that subtly improves throughout the novel, with perfectly funny insights into English cultural quirks and her own Chinese background, this is a romantic comedy about two people who neither speak one another's language nor understand one another's culture.

(Photo: Xiaolu Guo. Credit: David Levenson/Getty Images)

A romantic comedy told across the barrier of language and culture

A romantic comedy told across the barrier of language and culture.