World Book Club

Harriett speaks with Kaarina Parker about her debut novel set in ancient Rome - Fulvia.
The novel tells the tale of Fulvia, the daughter of a wealthy but inconsequential Roman family. Raised in the country, she yearns for excitement, for power. When her father dies and her inheritance is threatened, Fulvia makes her way to Rome to forge her own fate.
There she marries a young aristocrat named Clodius, who is more interested in his hedonistic pleasures than politics. Fulvia is drawn into his world of debauchery, and learns that the balance of power in the Republic is precarious. Her ambition drives them both to political power that draws the attention of the senate, as well as shadowy underworld opponents. The heart of the Empire proves to be a dangerous place, and Fulvia soon learns that her ambitions may come at a terrible cost.
Kaarina will be answering your questions about the place of women in Ancient Rome, how to balance historical back with unique storytelling, and why historical fiction from a female perspective is so popular with contemporary readers.

American author Rachel Kusher talks about her award-winning novel, The Mars Room. The novel follows Romy Hall, as she begins two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, after killing her stalker.
The story weaves between the two sides of Romy’s existence. First, the prison world where women struggle for the bare essentials of life. Second, the San Francisco of her youth, The Mars Room strip club where she once danced, and days spent with her angelic seven-year-old son, Jackson.
Gritty, daring and sometimes darkly comedic, The Mars Room is both a searing, and deeply empathetic exploration of the American penal system.
Rachel answers your questions about her years of research into prison life, how her protagonist came to be, and if wider societal structures mean some people are pre-determined to end up behind bars.
Presenter: Harriet Gilbert

World Book Club welcomes Karin Slaughter to answer your questions about her brutal, heart-rending thriller, The Good Daughter.
28 years after the murder of their mother, another horrific crime forces sisters Sam and Charlie Quinn to confront the truth about the night that shattered their family so long ago.
Karin will be asking your questions about her attitude to violence in her novels, the dynamics of sisterhood, and why saving public libraries is more important than ever in the modern world.

Harriett Gilbert welcomes John Connolly to World Book Club to answer your question on his beautiful, but twisted fairy tale - The Book of Lost Things.
Set in the Second World War. The novel tells the tale of twelve-year-old David, who mourns the death of his mother while shut up in his attic bedroom with only his books for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him, tempting him... As his family falls apart, David is drawn into a world peopled by heroes and monsters of fairytale and myth, ruled by a shadowy king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.
Not a fairytale for children, the novel is unnerving, psychologically gripping, and achingly tender in parts. It explores how we survive loss, how we can grow braver than we ever thought was possible, and how the stories we cling to can both save us, and scar us.
John will answer questions such as what is the hidden meaning behind the monsters young David must confront, why we return to fairy tales throughout our lives, and if he believes in ‘book magic’.

Octavia Bright talks to Ragnar Jónasson about his shocking thriller, The Darkness.
When Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is unceremoniously told she is being forced into early retirement, she is given the chance to work on one last Cold Case, anything she likes. The case she chooses to revive is centred on the death of a Russian asylum seeker, a 27-year-old woman who had been found dead on the icy shore a year before.
As Hulda reopens the case, she discovers that another young woman disappeared at the same time - and that crucial facts have been withheld. Witnesses are evasive, records incomplete, and even her fellow officers appear determined to stall her investigation. With only two weeks to uncover the truth, Hulda must uncover what really happened, even at the risk of her own life.
Ragnar answers listeners questions such as - how he created his detective, Hulda? How the Icelandic landscape shapes his characters and stories? And if he realised the ending of the novel would shock so many of his readers?