Book Reading

Transcript

This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.

2.05pm Mon - Fri
October 16 - November 11
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
Read by Richard Kelly
Remarque (1898-1970) was deeply affected by his service in the war. His book sold millions, being translated into 29 languages. It outraged the Nazis, who saw it as an attack on the greatness of the German nation, and in 1938 Remarque was stripped of his German citizenship, his novels having been destroyed in the infamous book-burning of 1933. All Quiet on the Western Front is perhaps the best known novel of World War 1.
Sound engineer: Simon Rose
Producer: Christopher Williams

2.05pm Mon - Fri
November 13 - December 1
The Women in Black
by Madeleine St John
read by Tammy McCarthy
This beautifully observed comic novel looks back to the Australia of forty years ago, and the intersecting lives of a group of very different women.
In the week before Christmas, the staff in Ladies Cocktail Frocks at F.G. Goode's Department Store are coping with more than just the crowds of shoppers and the intense heat of the season. In 1956, life in Sydney is changing fast. And the staff at Goode's wait stoically - or less patiently - for their own circumstances to change: for examination results to be known; for errant husbands to return; for Mr Right. By the time the New Year sales are over, each of these women in black will have seized her opportunity and made all the necessary adjustments.
The Women In Black was the first novel by Madeleine St John, an Australian writer living in London, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The Essence of the Thing.
Adapted and produced by Kate Bochner