27 April 2007
Friday 27 April 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Playlist
Richard Flanagan
One of Australia's leading novelists, Richard Flanagan, joins Ian Macmillan on The Verb. His new book, 'The Unknown Terrorist' paints a dark and frightening picture of his homeland.
Materialistic, racist, terrorised by an hysterical media and an over-zealous security state, Flanagan's vision of Australia is a long way from the sun-kissed 'down under' of the country's popular image.
Richard Flanagan talks to Ian McMillan about disguising a literary novel as a thriller, and explains his concerns about Australia, and his vision of the writer's role in the modern world.
Australian TV journalist, Rafael Epstein gives an insider's response to a controversial book.
'The Unknown Terrorist' by Richard Flanagan is published by Atlantic books.
Michael McGill
Poet Michael McGill gives a performance of his explosive blend of ventriloquism and social comment.
McGill is a Scot who performs in the persona of an American woman, obsessed with shopping malls.
Michael McGill's poetry is in the anthology 'Writing on Water', published by Ragged Raven Press.
Tan Twan Eng
Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng talks about his first book, a philosophical family saga set at the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore.
Tan Twan Eng's novel 'The Gift of Rain' dramatises the confrontation between two different views of existence: western notions of free will versus Eastern beliefs in predestination.
'The Gift of Rain' by Tan Twan Eng is published by Myrmidon Books.
Predestination Eartoon
Peter Blegvad responds to Tan Twan Eng's book with another 'Eartoon', an audio cartoon on predestination.
Marty Himmelfarb
And the concluding chapter of Elena Lappin's three part story of Marty Himmelfarb, a man whose will insists that he should be a great novelist, but whose destiny is that of an email spam writer.
