Sunday 16:00-16:30, repeated Thursday 16:00-16:30, except first Sunday in the month when it is replaced by Book Club.
Open Book spotlights new fiction and non-fiction, picks out the best of the paperbacks, talks to authors and publishers, and unearths lost masterpieces.
This week
11 January and 15 January 2009
Jay McInerney on betrayal and snobbery; why Scandinavian crime is a boom industry; and US Presidents' bedtime reading.
Jay McInerney Mariella talks to the American writer Jay McInerney, whose acid take on Manhattan society has been entertaining readers since his debut novel Bright Lights, Big City twenty-five years ago. He explains why betrayal, snobbery and the aftermath of 9/11 dominate his new collection of short stories.
Jay McInerney's The Last Bachelor is out now in hardback, published by Bloomsbury.
Presidential Reading In an article published earlier this week, the former presidential aide Karl Rove revealed intimate details of George W. Bush's bedtime reading. John Freeman joins Mariella to discuss the reading habits of American Presidents past, present and future.
Anthony Quinn Anthony Quinn's first novel The Rescue Man, set in wartime Liverpool, depicts the horrendous conditions braved by squads who volunteered to recover those trapped in bomb-damaged buildings. He talks to Mariella about these often overlooked heroes, and how the architecture of Liverpool inspired his fiction debut.
Anthony Quinn: The Rescue Man is out now in hardback, published by Jonathan Cape.
Scandinavian Crime In the wake of the TV adaptation of Henning Mankel's Wallander detective novels, there's a new wave of writing from Scandinavian crime writers reaching these shores. Michael Carlson offers a reader's guide.
