Open Book

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BBC Radio 4 LW

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

BBC Radio 4 FM

Open Book: Mary Lawson

Mary Lawson

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Mary Lawson

Elizabeth Day talks to award-winning novelist Mary Lawson, and asks what makes a great fictional character.

Elizabeth Day talks to award winning Canadian writer Mary Lawson, whose new novel A Town Called Solace is a moving portrait of parenting and secrets.  The story centres around Clara, a young girl whose sister is missing, her elderly neighbour Elizabeth who is in hospital and the mysterious Liam who moves into Elizabeth's house.   As the novel unfolds, we discover more about the events of the past that have  brought them together in a remote town in northern Canada.
Also on the programme a March book recommendation and psychoanalyst Josh Cohen and novelist Ayisha Malik discuss what makes a great fictional character.

Book List – Sunday 28 February and Thursday 4 March

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson 
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson 
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Road Ends by Mary Lawson 
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward 
How to Live, What to Do by Josh Cohen
This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik
Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Luster by Raven Leilani
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding 
Peanuts by Charles Schulz

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