Podcast
Bookends with Mattea Roach
Hosted by CBC · EN
When the book ends, the conversation begins. Mattea Roach speaks with writers who have something to say about their work, the world and our place in it. You’ll always walk away with big questions to ponder and new books to read.
54episodes
Episodes
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How long could you lie about who you are?
Mar 2500:25:20Tap to summarizeIn Tara Gereaux’s new novel, Wild People Quiet, a Métis woman works tirelessly to hide her identity for years … until everything starts to come crashing down. It’s the early 1900s when Florence realizes she can pass as white. Longing for a comfortable life free of discrimination, she decides to leave her entire family and culture behind. Decades later, her carefully constructed facade is challenged by a group of Métis farmhands who come through town, and she begins to wonder if her rigid, lonely life was worth it after all. This week, Tara joins Mattea to talk about Florence’s complexity, life for Métis people in the mid-20th century and exploring the beauty of beadwork in the novel. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:In the Caribbean, secret lives come at a cost What would it take to become the first Cherokee astronaut?Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →Why Tayari Jones fights for her stories
Mar 2200:33:59Tap to summarizeWhat does family mean to two motherless daughters? That question is at the centre of Kin, a new work of historical fiction by Tayari Jones. It’s about the bond between two girls in the American South as they end up on starkly different paths, and a deeply human look into life for Black Americans on the brink of the civil rights movement. You might know Tayari from her novel An American Marriage, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019. Until Kin, Tayari called herself a “committed” contemporary novelist. But when those two characters from the 1950s came to her, she had no choice but to write a historical novel that ended up on Oprah’s list. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Strip club … or culture hub?An opera singer gives voice to the Grenadian revolutionCheck us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →Inside Toronto’s most notorious women’s prison
Mar 1800:28:07Tap to summarizeToronto’s most infamous women’s prison was meant to rehabilitate women … but its real history tells a much darker story. Heather Marshall dives headfirst into the Mercer Reformatory in her latest novel, Liberty Street. The book follows Emily Radcliffe, a 1960s journalist who goes undercover to expose the prison’s harsh conditions and abuse of inmates. Over 30 years later, after the prison’s closing, a detective revisits one of the its sinister mysteries … and these intertwining narratives tell a story of female resilience and strength. This week, Heather tells Mattea Roach about the history of the prison, the real journalists that inspired the story and what it means to be an “incorrigible” woman. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Who was the woman Kafka loved?Emma Donoghue boards a train destined for disasterCheck us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →For Jeanette Winterson, stories are essential to survival
Mar 1500:37:01Tap to summarizeIf you had to tell a story to stay alive … what story would you tell? Jeanette Winterson’s new book, One Aladdin Two Lamps, is a nonfiction exploration of storytelling, culture, politics and the things that make us human. It’s based on the One Thousand and One Nights, the famous collection of Middle Eastern folk tales home to characters like Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba. At the centre of it all is Scheherazade, a woman who tells a vengeful Sultan stories for 1001 nights to stop him from executing her. Like Scheherazade, Jeanette sees storytelling as a means of survival. In the book, she uses those tales to muse on the way that stories shape our identities and our lives … and how they’re a tool to better ourselves and the world around us. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Zadie Smith never thought she’d tell this story Ian McEwan has hope for humanity — here’s why Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →What is boyhood to a Palestinian teen?
Mar 1100:30:40Tap to summarizeWhat does it mean to come of age in a place where violence is a daily fact of life? Ashraf Zaghal’s debut novel, Seven Heavens Away, is about a Palestinian teen named Aziz. Like any teen, he’s growing up, working part-time and learning how to navigate love and loss … but he’s also living through escalating violence and unrest in Jerusalem. When Aziz's friend is killed, he grapples with grief and an uncertain future. While his involvement in Palestinian resistance efforts grows, he also starts to harbour feelings for a Jewish girl named Dafna. This week, Ashraf tells Mattea about being a teenager living through constant tragedy, the role of religion in the story and how it felt to return to Palestine while writing the novel.Liked this conversation? Keep listening:What happens to fiction in times of war? V.V. Ganeshananthan: Exploring the complexity of Sri Lanka's civil war in her prize-winning novel, Brotherless Night Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →Strip club … or culture hub?
Mar 800:34:19Tap to summarizeWhat happens behind the closed doors of a strip club? Pole dancing, booming basslines … and in Nic Stone’s new novel, the chilling mystery of a missing exotic dancer. In Boom Town, the manager of a fictional Atlanta strip club sets out to find a missing dancer named Charm. The book offers a shadowy taste of Atlanta’s notorious adult entertainment scene … but it’s also a look into the lives of the regular women who live and dance in the city. This week, Nic joins Mattea Roach to talk about growing up in Atlanta, why strip clubs are cultural epicentres and writing her first novel for adults. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Pitbull, Scarface and a whale walk into a bookHere’s what you have wrong about teen moms Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →Rage and love at the end of apartheid
Mar 400:29:39Tap to summarizeCan you inherit fury? Kagiso Lesego Molope’s new novel, We Inherit The Fire, follows a mother and daughter at the end of apartheid in South Africa. Kewame is a famous freedom fighter who is haunted by the trauma of apartheid and her time as a political prisoner. Her daughter Kelelo is a regular teenager who resists being defined by her mother’s heroics … but is struggling to connect with her mother at home. The two voices intertwine to tell a story about memory, history and the ways we inherit resilience and pain. This week, Kagiso tells Mattea about her own youth in South Africa, writing about motherhood and how Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren informed her characters. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:An opera singer gives voice to the Grenadian revolutionWhat would it take to become the first Cherokee astronaut? Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →The beauty and despair of Appalachia
Mar 100:35:52Tap to summarizeWhat do you know about Appalachia? Fancy Gap is the debut novel by Zak Jones, and it challenges the preconceptions we might have about the region. The story follows three generations of an Appalachian family as they navigate poverty, illness, extreme religion … and the eternal struggle of finding one’s place in the world. There’s no better person to tell the story than Zak, who grew up in the region and has deep connections to its culture. This week, Zak joins Mattea to talk about his upbringing, how religion shapes the culture and why you might be wrong about Appalachia.Liked this conversation? Keep listening:Meth and murder in rural America Ocean Vuong finds beauty in a fast food shift Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and tiktok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →Meth and murder in rural America
Feb 2500:35:54Tap to summarizeWhen Chris Kraus became fixated on a murder case in a Minnesotan town, she decided to try her hand at a true crime novel ... but the project soon evolved into something much bigger. The Four Spent The Day Together weaves together the stories of an impulsive murder carried out by three teens, a marriage torn apart by addiction and the reality of life in working class America. Much like Chris’s hit novel I Love Dick, the story and its protagonist draw heavily from her own life experiences. This week, Chris tells Mattea Roach about her interest in the crime, how addiction can shape a relationship and why she’s finally exploring her childhood in fiction.Liked this conversation? Keep listening:When young men murder, what can we learn? Buffoon or genius? What makes a cult leader? Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and tiktok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →Meet hockey’s greatest (fictional) goon
Feb 2200:28:06Tap to summarizeDid the Olympics get you in the hockey spirit? If not, here’s a book that certainly will. Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard is a novel about small town life and Canada's favourite pastime … and it’s also one of this year’s Canada Reads picks. The story follows Adam, a failing sportswriter who goes back to his hometown to interview a notorious retired hockey goon. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, with one catch. The goon is actually Adam’s estranged father … and he can’t run away from his past forever. This week, Tyler joins Mattea to talk about who inspired the titular Terry Punchout, why growing up is so complicated and the warmth of small town Nova Scotia. Liked this conversation? Keep listening:For Indigenous players, ice hockey is a ceremony of its own Here’s what you have wrong about teen moms Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks
Transcribe →