Take Four Books

The award-winning writer Louise Kennedy speaks to Radio 4's Take Four Books about her latest novel, Stations, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works.Stations follows Róisín McCaffrey as she meets and Red Camelin as a teenager in their small Irish hometown in 1982. Red's reputation for trouble precedes him – but Róisín finds herself swept up in his storm, and soon their connection deepens.For her three influences Louise chose: I Could Read The Sky by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke (1997); The Grass Arena by John Healey, now printed as a Penguin Classic, (1988); and J.D Salinger's Franny and Zooey (1961). Louise Kennedy grew up a few miles from Belfast. She is the author of the acclaimed short-story collection, The End of the World Is A Cul de Sac which won the John McGahern Prize. Her debut novel Trespasses, published in 2022, has been translated into over twenty languages. It won Eason Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, Best Debut at the British Book Awards and the McKitterick Prize, and was also shortlisted for several awards including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and Barnes and Noble Discover Prize. In 2025, Trespasses was made into a limited TV series by Channel 4, starring Lola Petticrew, Tom Cullen and Gillian Anderson. Before starting her writing career, Kennedy spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She lives in Sligo.Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The award-winning Irish writer Sebastian Barry speaks to Take Four Books about his latest novel, The Newer World, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other books. The Newer World takes us back into post-civil war America as we follow the character of Tennyson Bouguereau, a formerly enslaved man, and nascent singer as it turns out, who is forced to leave his home for fear of being killed, and heads to Nashville, until a surprising trip to Victorian England changes things.Sebastian Barry was the laureate for Irish Fiction from 2018 to 2021 and is a two-time winner of both the Costa Book of the Year and the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction. For his three influences he chose: The American Spelling Book by Noah Webster (1783); Army Life in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1869); and A Journey in the Back Country by Frederik Law Olmstead (1860).Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Presenter James Crawford speaks to award-winning Mexican American novelist and essayist Valeria Luiselli about her latest novel, Beginning Middle End, and its three key literary influences. In the novel, a mother and her twelve-year-old daughter travel across a wildfire-stricken Sicily in search of family history, archaeology, and the inner-workings of story itself. Along the way, the mother remains in contact with her own mother in Mexico, who may be beginning to experience dementia. Valeria’s three influences are Natural History by Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), Dart by Alice Oswald (2002), and On Nature by Empedocles (c.450 BC).The audio extract comes from the audiobook of Beginning Middle End.Producer: Rachael O'Neill Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Presenter James Crawford speaks to American author and humourist David Sedaris on his new collection of essays, The Land and Its People. From navigating the realities of ageing to reflecting on his personal relationships, Sedaris explores a wide range of experiences across the book's 28 essays. He also discusses the three works that inspired the collection: Raymond Carver's Cathedral (1981), Joy Williams's Taking Care (1982), and Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (1988).Producer: Rachael O’Neill Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The award-winning Irish writer, Liz Nugent, speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, The Truth About Ruby Cooper, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other works of fiction. Ruby Cooper and her sister, Erin, live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston. But when Ruby is sixteen, she is involved in an incident that causes her family’s world to implode.For her three influences Liz chose: Ian McEwan's Atonement from 2001, the book was later adapted into a film of the same name starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy; Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy from 1992; and Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel, Perfume.This episode was recorded in front of an audience at the Hay Festival 2026. Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The Bangladeshi-born British writer, Tahmima Anam, speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, Uprising, and together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other works of fiction. Set on a fictional, sinking island, Uprising, is told from the perspective of a group of children who witness their mothers living lives of cruelty and servitude. Tahmima Anam is a multi-award-winning writer and journalist. In 2013 she was named as one of the 'Best Young British Novelists' by Granta. She also holds a PHD in anthropology from Harvard University.For her three influences, Tahmima chose: The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, from 2012; Sultana’s Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain from 1905; and Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, also from 2012.This episode was recorded at the Hay Festival. Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The Booker Prize-winning Scottish author, Douglas Stuart, speaks to Take Four Books about his latest novel, John Of John, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other works of fiction.John Of John follows the character of John-Calum Macleod who, when his art school education comes to an end, catches the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.For his three influences Douglas chose: The Lost Language of Cranes, by David Leavitt from 1986; Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, from 2004; and John McGahern’s Amongst Women, from 1990.This episode was recorded at the Hay Festival 2026.Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was an BBC Audio Scotland production.

The award-winning writer Deborah Levy speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, My Year In Paris With Gertrude Stein, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its three key literary influences. The new book follows three female friends in Paris. There's Eva an artist in a long-distance marriage, Fanny, a sexually adventurous financier, and making up the trio, is our unnamed narrator, who is attempting to write an essay about the avant-garde American poet and art collector, Gertrude Stein. The three friends cook, walk, argue and attempt to find a lost cat.Deborah's three choices in this episode are: Virginia Woolf's fifth novel To The Lighthouse from 1927; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, from 1961; and the poem Still I Rise by Maya Angelou which was published in 1978.Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Presenter James Crawford speaks to award-winning novelist Amitav Ghosh about his new book, Ghost Eye, and its three key literary influences.Ghost Eye is told through the memories and recollections of its narrator, Dinu, who grew up in Calcutta and now lives in New York. Set during the COVID pandemic, the story unfolds as Dinu recalls a story his Auntie Shoma once told him - one that takes place in Calcutta in 1969. At the time, Shoma was a psychiatrist investigating cases of the reincarnation type, and her work led her to a particular case involving Varsha, a three-year-old girl.Amitav Ghosh was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize for his novel Sea of Poppies, and for the International Booker Prize in 2015 for his entire body of work. He was also awarded the Erasmus Prize for his writing on climate change in 2024. For his three influences, Amitav chose: The Hungry Stones by Rabindranath Tagore (1895); The Willows by Algernon Blackwood (1907); and Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (2025).Producer: Rachael O’Neill Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

Presented by James Crawford Take Four Books speaks to the writer Solvej Balle from her home on an island off the coast of Denmark about her latest instalment of the 'On the Calculation of Volume' series. The novels tell the story of Tara Selter, an antiquarian bookseller who wakes up one morning to find she is endlessly reliving the same day: the 18th of November. Solvej's influences for this episode are all Danish. She chose: Stories About Tacit by Cecil Bødker from 2016, which is a novel about social outcasts who form a reluctant alliance on an abandoned farm in 1850s Denmark; Inger Christensen's poetry collection, Alphabet, from 1981; and a book of philosophy first published in the year 1843 - Either/Or - by the man often described as the 'father of existentialism' - Søren Kierkegaard.Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This is a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The much-loved Canadian writer and former Booker Prize winner, Yann Martel, speaks to Take Four Books this week about his new novel, and first for a decade - Son Of Nobody - and together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works. The book follows a classical scholar, Harlow Donne, as he gets a chance to study at Oxford and uncovers a lost account of the Trojan war. The fictional Homeric poem unfolds across the top of the page, while Harlow's often heartfelt footnotes, addressed to his young daughter, Helen, run below.Yann, who won the Booker in 2002 for his novel Life Of Pi, chose as his three influences: Stephen Mitchell's 2011 translation of The Iliad; Alice Oswald's Memorial, which is her translation of the Iliad's "atmosphere" and was also published in 2011; and Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, which was first staged in 1962.Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.

The writer Susan Choi speaks to Take Four Books about her novel Flashlight, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works.The novel, which began life as a short story in the New Yorker in 2020, and won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in 2021, begins with ten-year-old Louisa and her father taking a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned. The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother, Anne, return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels. The book was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize and has recently been longlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize. For her influences, Susan chose: Jenny Erpenbeck’s Visitation, from 2010; the Selected Stories of Alice Munro from 1996; and George Eliot’s Middlemarch, from 1871.Producer: Dominic Howell Editor: Gillian Wheelan This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.