US author Percival Everett talks about his new novel, James - a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, told from the point of view of runaway slave, Jim.

Plus, writing openly about the challenges of motherhood, and doing so with humour. Shahidha talks to two authors who have done just that, in the short story form: Naomi Wood, winner of the BBC Short Story Award, and author of a new collection, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and to Helen Simpson who has written stories about motherhood in books such as Motherhood, and Hey Yeah Right Get A Life over 20 years previously.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Emma Wallace

Book List – Sunday 14 April and Sunday 21 April

James by Percival Everett
The Trees by Percival Everett
Erasure by Percival Everett
Huckleberry Flynn by Mark Twain
Wild Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Foe by JM Coetzee
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Naomi Wood
Motherhood by Helen Simpson
Hey Yeah Right Get A Life by Helen Simpson
Dear George by Helen Simpson
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
I Don’t Know How She Does it by Allison Pearson
My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley
Openings: Thirteen Stories by Lucy Caldwell
Sudden Traveller by Sarah Hall
Madame Zero by Sarah Hall
The Collected Stories of Grace Paley
The Squire by Enid Bagnold Show less