In Aurora Stewart de Peña's debut novel, Julius Julius, ads are inescapable … which isn’t far off from real life. If you ever feel unsettled by the way that marketing influences us, you’ll probably resonate with Julius Julius. It's a satirical look at the advertising industry and a finalist for this year’s Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Aurora herself is a veteran of the advertising world, so her novel is an insider's point of view through an inventive fictional gaze. This week, Aurora joins Mattea to talk about her own career, finding the absurd in advertising and what blonde sausage dogs have to do with it all.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Helen Phillips: In a world run by AI, what makes us human?
• Pasha Malla: Parodying a wellness resort with horror and humour

Not many people can say that a Booker prize nomination feels like deja vu … but Kiran Desai is one of those rare people. Twenty years after her first win, Kiran is back on the Booker shortlist with her long-awaited new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. It’s an expansive book that traces the paths of two young Indians as they criss-cross the world and each others’ lives. It’s a love story, a family saga, and an exploration of the things that bring us together… and the forces that keep us apart. This week, Kiran joins Mattea to talk about crafting a novel for two decades, being the daughter of a writer and the wonder of loneliness.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s triumphant return to fiction
• What would it take to become the first Cherokee astronaut?

Torrey Peters was in the woods building her own sauna when she came up with the titular story in her new collection, called Stag Dance. The story is about a lumberjack at the turn of the 20th century … and it’s a sharp turn from her debut novel Detransition, Baby, which was a huge success with both readers and critics. The stories in Stag Dance explore desire, sexuality and the very idea of transformation through some surprising points of view. This week, Torrey joins Mattea to talk about finding the lumberjack voice, defying genre and why transition is more universal than you might think.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Judith Butler: Breaking down why people fear gender
• What makes Montreal a transgender city?

It’s hard to believe that Zadie Smith was just 24 years old when she wrote White Teeth, the book that made her a literary star. 25 years later, Zadie is still finding new stories from her life to reflect on — and she shares many of those in her latest essay collection, Dead and Alive. The book combines art criticism with musings about technology, parenting and the writers who've inspired her. This week, Zadie joins Mattea Roach to talk about the collection, what it’s like to look back on 25 years of writing … and that time she fell out of a window.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s triumphant return to fiction
• Alison Bechdel on making money and seeing Fun Home in a new light

In the new novel Pick a Colour, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The debut novel from Souvankham Thammavongsa centres on Ning, the owner of a nail salon. Before she was a nail technician, Ning was a boxer … and she hasn’t completely shrugged off those instincts from the ring. Souvankham won the Giller Prize in 2020 for her story collection How to Pronounce Knife, and her new novel is shortlisted for this year’s prize. She joins Mattea Roach to talk about her fondness for nail salons, the weight of names and what being in the boxing ring taught her about herself.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Ocean Vuong finds beauty in a fast food shift
• For Indigenous players, ice hockey is a ceremony of its own

A century from now, how will historians look back on your life? In his latest novel, What We Can Know, Ian McEwan imagines the future in 100 years. In a world altered by climate change and nuclear war, human beings are looking back at our current age with a mix of nostalgia, envy and contempt … which is why a scholar becomes fixated on finding a lost poem from 2014. You might know Ian from his breakout hit Atonement, which was made into an Oscar-winning film. This week, he joins Mattea Roach to talk about crafting his own dystopia, his concerns about AI and why we just might be living in a golden age.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Jeff VanderMeer: How his blockbuster Southern Reach series reflects our own fight against climate change
• What if your dreams could land you in jail?

The bunnies are back … and they’re bloodier than ever. In We Love You, Bunny, Mona Awad returns to the surreal world of her best selling novel Bunny. A deliciously deranged mix of fairy tale, satire and horror, Bunny was loved by critics and readers alike. But what do the villains of that story — a clique of mean girls called the Bunnies — have to say about it? We Love You, Bunny provides a dark, hilarious answer. Mona joins Mattea Roach to talk about expanding the Bunny universe, getting into the heads of her characters and taking inspiration from drag queens.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Why Heather O’Neill believes in magic
• Pitbull, Scarface and a whale walk into a book

Soju, kimchi, gun fights, car chases … and profound reflections on the Korean diaspora. Whether you’re hungry for food or for action, Jinwoo Park’s debut novel has it all. Oxford Soju Club is about a group of Korean spies carrying out their missions in Oxford. At the centre of it all is The Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in town. Like any good spy novel, the book delivers on secrets and intrigue … but it’s also a story about what it means to be Korean, no matter how far away from home you are.

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

• Reimagining the lost stories of Chinese Canadians during WWII
• In Booker Prize finalist Creation Lake, an agent provocateur faces deep questions about how to live