Take Four Books

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.

Presenter James Crawford speaks to award‑winning American author Elizabeth Strout - winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a two‑time Booker Prize nominee - about her new book The Things We Never Say and its three key literary influences.
In Elizabeth's latest novel, we are taken to the New England coast, where we follow the life of history teacher Artie Dam, who is struggling to cope with the way the modern world is changing around him.
Elizabeth’s three influences are The Stories of William Trevor by William Trevor (1983), Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925), and Middlemarch by George Eliot (1872).
Producer: Rachael O’Neill
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 bestselling author of Hamnet returns with her tenth novel - Land - which is a soaring history set in Ireland in the years before and after the Great Famine.
Maggie has sold more than eight million books worldwide and is translated into 44 different languages. She won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020.
For her three influences Maggie chose: Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea from 2002; Marie Heaney’s Over Nine Waves from 1994, which is a retelling of many of the Irish myths; and the non-fiction book, Map Of A Nation, by Rachel Hewitt from 2010.
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.