RNZ
Jenna chatted to Jesse Mulligan to chat exciting upcoming titles that are due later this year.
Kluge by Pip Adam (mid August)
American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (end of September)
The Starving Bride by Catherine Chidgey (8th October)
On the Calculation of Volume V by Solvej Balle (mid November)
Listen below:
Jenna called from boarding the Waiheke Island ferry for a fill-in review of Douglas Stuart’s John of John. Listen below for boat toots & a chat with Nine to Noon’s Kathryn Ryan.
Jenna phoned into the RNZ studio today to speak with Susie Ferguson about Josh Silver’s Fruit Fly.
Anyone can write a bestseller. Go gay. Go Dark. Go Sad.
Josh’s first novel for adults follows Mallory, an author with severe writer’s block, begins to use the life of a young, drug addicted man as inspiration for her next novel. Silver says this book is about the appropriation of pain, but also questions authenticity and who can tell the story of a life that’s not their own. For fans of Yellowface, this this both fun and dark and completely compelling.
A recent visitor to the Auckland Writers Festival (and to Time Out) we have very limited signed stock on the shelf now. Listen below!
On RNZ’s Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan, Jenna spoke about Daniyal Mueenuddin’s This is Where the Serpent Lives.
Set in Pakistan over 50 years, post-Partitian, Serpent hosts a wide range of characters demonstrating a deeply ingrained feudal class structure that appears not to be able to be shaken.
Vividly told - in descriptions of place, expertly weaved characters and symbols of betrayal and culturally rich, this is an epically told fable, full of corruption, that leads to a truly electrifying final 50 pages. Great for readers who have recently enjoyed Kiran Desai’s Sonia & Sunny or Andrew O’Hagan’s Caledonian Road.
Today on RNZ’s Nine to Noon, Jenna chatted with Kathryn about three of her 2025 highlights: Helen Garner’s How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978 - 1998, Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection and The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (And his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine.
Listen below!
Jenna popped into RNZ’s Culture 101 today to chat with Perlina Lau to chat long books of 2025 as well as some category favourites.
Listen below!
Today, on RNZ’s Nine to Noon book review, Jenna talked about Kiran Desai’s Booker shortlisted, The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny.
This is an epic & full tale of Sonia & Sunny, their families, East & West, India & America, love & loneliness. Listen to Jenna’s review with Kathryn below.
Jenna called into the RNZ studio to talk about Booker longlisted, Seascraper, by Benjamin Wood.
Set in a seaside town, in 1960’s England, a teenage shrimp scraper dreams of a life outside of his grueling work. When a film director comes to town, his world suddenly opens up.
This is a tightly written narrative. Immersive, insular, timeless modern classic that explores asperation vs. duty. A hot contender for the Booker shortlist!
Jenna chatted to Kathryn about Maria Reva’s Endling. This starts as an innocent narrative about snails, Ukraine’s romance tourism industry and a kidnapping. However, the Russian invasion explodes the novel’s structure; asking the question, how can one write and create art in a time of war?
This novel is genuinely funny, it’s adventurous, it’s sad. It’s meta. It asks the big questions. What are art and love in a time of tragedy? How can we have hope? And perhaps Reva gives that in the form of a left swirling snail.
This ‘true novel’ was published in French before Anne Berest's brilliant novel, The Postcard. Here, you can see where it all began.
Based on the authors' great grandparents, who were the great pioneers of cubism and the Dada movement, Gabriele is atmospheric, lively and captures an incredible time in art and world politics.
Listen below for the full review with Jenna and Susie Ferguson.
Today on Nine to Noon, Jenna was in the studio to chat to Kathryn about French author, Laurent Binet’s new novel. Perspectives is an epistolary novel that tells a playful tale of murder, art & moral panic in Renaissance Florence. Featuring real life figures such as Michelangelo, Vasari and the Medicis, this is one for the art history buffs.
Listen below for the full review.
Today on Nine to Noon, Jenna was in the studio to chat to Kathryn about some of her favourite 2024 reads.
Listen below for the full review.
Jenna chatted to Nine to Noon’s Kathryn Ryan, about Ali Smith’s new dystopian novel, Gliff.
The companion novel, Glyph, will be released in 2025.
Listen below!
Jenna phoned into the Nine to Noon studio today to talk about the fantastic memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club. Following the famous Dunne family, through celebrity, hilarity and then deep tragedy, this book has something for everyone.
A masterclass in storytelling! Listen below.
A cleverly told story which thoughtfully captures the uncomfortable space between the generational and gender divide of a daughter and a father.
Sophia’s father sits in a theatre to watch the debut of his young daughter’s play. But he soon realises the play is about him and a holiday they took together in Sicily.
For fans of Deborah Levy, Ian McEwan and Rachel Cusk!
Listen to Jenna chat with guest Nine to Noon host, Paddy Gower below.
Mongrel, a Time Out staff favourite for 2024, follows three women’s explorations of cultural identity. Moving between England and Japan, the threads that connect these characters are revealed.
This is a coming of age debut that features an expert hand of character development and an articulate and compelling exploration of cultural identity.
Listen to Jenna chat with Kathryn below.
Take What You Need follows an estranged stepmother and stepdaughter whilst commenting on the rural and urban divide, class, poverty and racism in America and the lives of artists.
It’s a fantastic read - compelling, nuanced and contemporary. Listen to Jenna chat with Kathryn below.
Set on the coast of Northern Ireland, Maguire’s debut novel Night Swimmers is another to add to the pile of great Irish writing. Local woman Grace, is known as a bit a grouch, who lives an independent life. However, after a meeting between two new village arrivals - Evan and his young son Luca - the three are drawn together, which may bring healing for them all.
The warmth of community and connections between strangers are highlighted in this novel about loneliness, with both humour and profound sorrow.
Listen to Jenna chat with Kathryn below.
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions tells the tale of a lifelong friendship and a schizophrenia diagnosis which leads to murder.
Told through a historical, political and scientifc context, mental health and American healthcare are explored.
Listen to Jenna chat with Kathryn below.
Jenna called into the RNZ studio to review My Brilliant Sister, a Trans-Tasman novel linking three women who observe balancing creativity and domesticity - all with a connection to Australian author and feminist, Stella Miles Franklin.
Listen to Jenna chat with Kathryn below.
