The American writer Ben Lerner won huge praise for his first novel Leaving The Atocha Station. He talks to Mariella about the follow up, 10:04 - a playful and complex book about time, story telling and friendship.

Thriller writer Charles Cumming has set his latest book in Istanbul where his disgraced agent Thomas Kell has to find a traitor in the ranks of the secret service. Charles Cumming, and critic Jake Kerridge talk to Mariella about writing contemporary thrillers in a time of fast-changing global politics.

Our Reading Clinic offers advice to a listener in search of well written memoirs and Boualem Sansal sends a literary postcard from Algeria. Show less