The Pulitzer prize winning novelist Jane Smiley talks to Mariella Frostrup about her new novel, Some Luck, the first in a planned trilogy. It opens in 1920 and follows the fortunes of an Iowa farming family through the turbulent events of first half of the 20th century: the Great Depression, the Second World War and the McCarthy era.

Also on the programme, Mariella discusses the best new writing from sub-Saharan Africa with Ellah Allfrey, the editor of a new collection, Africa 39, Lynne Truss reveals the book she'd never part with and some ideas on the best German reading for an A Level student from Julia Franck. Show less