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Open Book

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

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Mariella Frostrup

Jane Smiley

Ellah Allfrey

Lynne Truss

Julia Franck

Open Book: Jane Smiley on Some Luck; Africa 39

Jane Smiley on Some Luck; Africa 39

09/11/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Jane Smiley on Some Luck; Africa 39

Mariella Frostrup talks to novelist Jane Smiley about her new novel Some Luck.

Mariella Frostrup talks to Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley about her new novel Some Luck, the first in a planned trilogy. Plus the best new writing from Africa.

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.

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