Bookends with Mattea Roach - CBC

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A priest and an artist walk into a bar Dec 03, 2025

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… and they can’t keep their hands off each other. That’s the premise at the centre of Brandon Taylor’s latest novel, Minor Black Figures. It’s about a painter named Wyeth who’s struggling to find his voice in New York’s politically charged art scene. It only gets messier when Wyeth has the perfect meet-cute at a bar … and starts falling for someone who has already devoted himself to God. Brandon joins Mattea to talk about his Alabama roots, grappling with a crisis in faith and the impossible question of who we make art for.

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Anarchists have bigger hearts than you think Nov 30, 2025

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What’s more romantic than planning an assassination together? You’d have to ask the radical activist Emma Goldman, who did just that with her revolutionary partner and lover, Sasha Berkman. Emma was a real historical figure and one of the best known anarchists and orators of all time … and the Canadian author Robert Hough fictionalizes her life in his latest novel, Anarchists in Love. The book follows Emma’s early years in New York City, where she meets Sasha, becomes a famed activist … and helps plan the assassination of an industry giant. This week, Robert joins Mattea Roach to talk about Emma’s remarkable life, what we have wrong about anarchists and why 2025 is the new Gilded Age.

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Leslie Jamison: Capturing Peggy Guggenheim in fiction and honouring a friend's dream

John Irving’s new novel returns to a familiar orphanage Nov 26, 2025

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John Irving’s books are on many readers’ list of favourites. He’s written novels like The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules, which you also might recognize from their beloved screen adaptations. John is known for writing generation-spanning novels about family, identity and contemporary issues. His latest book, Queen Esther, delivers on that promise. It follows a Vienna-born Jewish orphan named Esther Nacht, whose story is defined by her journey to live an unapologetically Jewish life … and fans of The Cider House Rules will recognize some familiar characters and settings. This week, John tells Mattea Roach about the dangers of idealizing small towns, revisiting old characters and how fatherhood changed his life.

Hear our interview with 2025 Giller Prize winner Souvankham Thammavongsa:

Can your nail tech throw a mean right hook?

This poem took 16 straight hours to write Nov 23, 2025

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It’s a bit of an understatement to say that Canisia Lubrin has a way with words. Last year, she took home the Carol Shields Prize for her debut novel, Code Noir. Now she’s back with a long-form poem called The World After Rain. The poem is an epic tribute to her mother and the passing of time, and it poured out of Canisia over the span of 16 hours. This week, Canisia joins Mattea Roach to talk about why she never intended to publish the poem … and why she felt she had no choice.

Check out our interview with 2025 Giller Prize winner Souvankham Thammavongsa:

Can your nail tech throw a mean right hook?

Here’s what you have wrong about teen moms Nov 19, 2025

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Leila Mottley was only 17 years-old when she wrote her debut novel, Nightcrawling … and she was 20 when she became the youngest author ever to make the Booker Prize longlist. After that incredible start, Leila is now back with her second novel, called The Girls Who Grew Big. It’s about a group of young mothers who navigate growing up and raising children in a town that ostracizes them. This week, Leila joins Mattea to talk about the nuances of teen motherhood, why she’s so focused on “home” and how she handles major success at a young age.

Check out these prize-winning authors:

Chris Hadfield — from astronaut to author Nov 16, 2025

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You might know Chris Hadfield, decorated astronaut and former Commander of the International Space Station. But do you know Chris Hadfield, the pilot, engineer, musician and author? His latest novel, Final Orbit, is a Cold War-era thriller set against the backdrop of the Space Race of the 1970s. The book draws from Chris’s own experiences in the stars … with a dangerous twist. This week, Chris tells Mattea Roach about going from rocket ships to novels, why his thrillers are based in history and what’s next for him.

Check out these prize-winning authors:

A fictional ad agency — and its very real ghosts Nov 12, 2025

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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.

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Kiran Desai’s novel is worth the 20-year wait Nov 09, 2025

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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.

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What is a stag dance? Nov 05, 2025

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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.

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Zadie Smith never thought she’d tell this story Nov 02, 2025

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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.

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