The Libreria Podcast

In this episode we welcome Colum McCann, the National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin, and the Booker Prize-nominated Apeirogon, to discuss his first non-fiction book, American Mother. which tells the story of Diane Foley – mother of beheaded journalist James Foley – who has come face-to-face with her son’s killer and continues to campaign for the safety of journalists and revised government hostage policy.   

Colum McCann’s seven novels and three collections of short stories have been published in over forty languages and received some of the world’s most prestigious literary awards and honours.

Libreria wishes to thank Bloomsbury publishing and Colum McCann for the opportunity to record this conversation at Bloomsbury’s headquarters in London. 

In this episode we are listening to Benjamin Moser and Lauren Elkin discuss Ben’s recent publication The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters, which was recorded in October 2023, live in the bookshop. With the company of some of the finest artists known, Benjamin Moser discusses art, life, and death, with the passion of a knowledgeable guide who dismantles the hierarchical barrier that art can invoke in many of us. 

Benjamin Moser is a biographer and translator. His work Sontag: Her Life and Work won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020. 

Lauren Elkin is the author of Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London, and Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art. 

Libreria wishes to thank Allen Lane and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to host this live discussion at the bookshop.

In this episode we are listening to Marie Darrieussecq and Brian Dillon discuss Marie’s recent publication Sleepless, which was recorded in October 2023, live in the bookshop.

Plagued by insomnia for twenty years, Marie Darrieussecq recounts her own experiences alongside those of fellow insomniacs, mostly fellow writers like Ovid, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, Franz Kafka, and Georges Perec. With inimitable humour, which ranges between autobiography, clinical observation and criticism, Sleepless is a graceful, inventive meditation by one of the leading voices of contemporary French literature

Libreria wishes to thank the publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions for the opportunity to host this live discussion at the bookshop.

In this episode we are listening to Lars Iyer and Jon Day discuss Lars’ recent novel My Weil, which was recorded live in the bookshop in September 2023. 

My Weil is the third in a loose trilogy of novels, where significant continental thinkers are brought into contemporary academic scenarios that skewer academia, and the parochial ways of British life. Bordering on the unruly and brimming with satire – Lars’ novels are the work of a distinctive voice in British literature. 

Libreria wishes to thank publishers, Melville House for the opportunity to host this live discussion at Libreria bookshop.

In this episode Libreria welcomes Pulitzer Prize winner, MacArthur Fellow and esteemed sociologist, Matthew Desmond. Matthew is the author of Poverty, by America, and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. 

Libreria wishes to thank Allen Lane publishers of the Penguin Random House group for the opportunity to host a live discussion with Matthew Desmond at Libreria bookshop.

In this episode the microphone is passed on to Libreria bookseller Buitumelo, who has invited debut author Santanu Bhattacharya, to chat about his recent novel One Small Voice, which was published by Fig Tree. 

Santanu Bhattacharya’s debut novel One Small Voice introduces us to the epic tale of a young man's life and journey through India, starting in the early 90s. We bear witness to Shubhankar’s life from a boy - who witnesses a hate crime that no one around him addresses or wants to acknowledge - to a man nicknamed, Shabby - who is faced with his own fragility and yearning for a freedom that sometimes feels unattainable. 

This intimate, delicately narrated novel will hold each reader by the hand and heart. Bhattacharya is rightly deserving of one the Observers Best Novels for 2023.

In this episode Libreria welcomes established writer and poet JJ Bola ahead of the publication of his new novel, The Selfless Act of Breathing. In this wide-ranging and candid conversation, we jump off from JJ’s recent work to discuss masculinity, purpose, searching, discovery and failure.

During the conversation, JJ cites the following books and authors:

bell hooks - The Will to Change
bell hooks - We Real Cool
Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score
Thomas E. Joiner Jr. - The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide