A Good Read

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A Good Read: Donna Leon and Margaret Heffernan

28/03/2023

Donna Leon and Margaret Heffernan

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Donna Leon and Margaret Heffernan

A crime author and a writer-entrepreneur talk books they love.

The crime author and the writer-entrepreneur on books they love with Harriett Gilbert. Including a detective story, an anti-Western novel and a book set in the birth of Bangladesh.

The author of the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series, Donna Leon, is joined by writer-entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan and the presenter Harriett Gilbert.

Donna has chosen a book by an author she greatly admires, Ross MacDonald, who she read before she became a writer herself. His 1971 noir novel, The Underground Man, follows a detective as he tries to track down a missing child, whilst a mysterious fire rages through the hills of Southern California. Margaret loves Butcher's Crossing, the lesser-known book by John Williams, the author of Stoner. Set in 1871, this is about a young Harvard drop-out who heads out into the American West to discover a new way of living and which Margaret describes as an 'anti-Western' novel. Meanwhile Harriett's choice is A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam, which follows a mother's struggle to protect her children as Bangladesh fights for independence.

Produced by Eliza Lomas.
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