Backlisted

Recorded live in Galway in 2021, we were joined by novelist Mary Costello for a special episode recorded live at Galway International Arts Festival in Ireland. The book we're debating is Elizabeth Costello (2003) by South-African born Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee, a novel that politely asks the reader to consider, amongst other matters, animal rights, the power of faith and th...

Returning to a show we made in 2022. The Ice Palace or Is-slottet by Tarjei Vesaas is a 20th century classic by one of Norway’s greatest modern writers. First published by Gyldendal in 1963, it went on to win the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 1964. In 1966, it was published in Elizabeth Rokkan’s English translation by Peter Owen who described it as the best novel he ever p...

In light of it's republication by Faber this month, we are replaying this wonderful episode where author Rose Ruane first brought Gaining Ground A.K.A. Abra (1978) by Canadian feminist writer Joan Barfoot to our attention back in 2024.
One day, seemingly on a whim, a woman walks out of her home and her marriage, forsaking her family for a life of near-solitude and self-s...

Just in time for the summer holidays, the Backlisted team recommend six books we have enjoyed recently: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee; Boulder by Eva Baltasar; Flashlight by Susan Choi; The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley; The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly; and The Gilt Kid by James Curtis. New and not-so-new reading for the months ahead, as we take a brie...

Over here in the UK, we are well and truly into summer: some of us have World Cup fever, and others... have not. To celebrate the continuing balm, we are rerunning one of our classic summer reading episodes from 2023, where John, Andy and Nicky choose six books, old and new: O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker; Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale; The Stirrings: A ...