Your Chance to Meet the Hottest Authors of 2018

First, we delivered the latest news about last year’s chart topping books and which 2018 titles are up for awards. But did you know that Better Reading also interviewed the bestselling authors of 2018? If you’ve already read these brilliant books but would like to know more about the author and the ideas behind their work, their writing and their journey to publication, then tune in to Stories Behind the Story, a podcast that we release weekly on Omny, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

Here are our top five podcasts from five 2018 bestselling authors:

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a beautiful, haunting novel, based on the true story of Lale Sokolov, prisoner 34902. Sokolov was a Slovakian Jew, held prisoner during World War II in the Auschwitz prison camp. After being apprenticed to the camp Tätowierer, he eventually became the chief tattooist, a position that came with certain privileges – he had his meals in an administration building, was given extra rations and slept in a single room. Late also met the love of his life.

Cheryl is joined by Trent Dalton to discuss his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe – an utterly wonderful novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming-of-age, set in Brisbane’s violent working class suburban fringe. Together they talk about Trent’s past, and the experiences that led to him becoming a journalist, searching for answers and truth.

In this podcast, Cheryl Akle is joined by Leigh Sales, one of Australia’s most respected journalists, to discuss her new memoir about what happens when ordinary people, on ordinary days, are forced to suddenly find the resilience most of us don’t know we have. Together they talk about the remarkable endurance of humans who have suffered the unthinkable, and what we can learn from loss.

In this podcast, Cheryl Akle is joined by Christian White to discuss his debut novel, a combustible tale of trauma, cult, conspiracy and memory. Together they talk about the rise of debut fiction, the odd-jobs that Christian has had over the years to support his writing career, and the way in which male reading is often stigmatised.