Our dearest podcast listeners - we have a special, important message for you from our founder Damian Barr, as we say a very fond but sad farewell to the Literary Salon...

Some of you have come along in person or online or listened to our podcast for years. Thank you for being there—readers bring a book to life, and that’s what you’ve done for Salon. It’s been fifteen years since our first night at Shoreditch House and we’ve grown beyond any dream Damian dared have.

So in this special final episode, Damian shares his decision with you, takes us on a joyful trip down memory lane, and gives you a sneak peek of the next chapter...

Damian Barr's Literary Salon was founded 15 years ago by award-winning writer, columnist and broadcaster Damian Barr. Find out more about Damian and subscribe to his personal newsletter on his website - www.damianbarr.com.

Follow Damian on Twitter/X - @Damian_Barr

Follow Damian on Instagram - @mrdamianbarr

Podcast produced and edited by presenter/producer Megan Bay Dorman. For any podcast production or presenting enquiries, email Megan on [email protected]

Podcast programmed by Sales, Marketing & Publicity Director Matt Casbourne. For any enquiries email Matt on [email protected]

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Before the summer is out we wanted to share a page-turning holiday read on the podcast. The Orchid Hour takes us back to New York City, 1923, when Zia De Luca’s life is about to be shattered. She lives with her in-laws in Little Italy and works at the public library, but when an unassuming patron is murdered, the police investigation focuses on Zia...

After another tragedy strikes even closer to home, she learns the crimes are connected to a new speakeasy in Greenwich Village. When the police investigation stalls, Zia decides to find her own answers. As she’s pulled in deeper and deeper, will Zia be able to bring the killers to justice before they learn her secret?

This is a great book for anyone who enjoyed Broadway Butterfly by Sara Divello and Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman.

The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau is published by Lume, an imprint of Joffe Books, and available now. If you enjoy the work we do and would like to support the Literary Salon podcast, you can get a copy (at a discounted price!) from our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman. W: www.meganbaydorman.com E: [email protected] Insta: @meganbaydorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne. Insta: @indiepublishermatt

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Our Book of the Week is a spellbinding debut novel by writer and commissioning editor on The Observer newspaper, Kathryn Bromwich. In At the Edge of the Woods, Laura lives alone in a cabin deep in the Italian Alps. When she isn’t translating documents, she spends her days climbing the mountains exploring the woods. But while she reconnects with nature, Laura is hiding from the violence of her past. The village where she purchases supplies grows wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasingly odd behaviour...

With a deft hand and slow-burn tension, At the Edge of the Woods is a captivating novel for anyone who enjoyed Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller or Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm.

‘An exceptional debut; uncanny, unsettling, original and subtle.’ - Robert Macfarlane

At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich is published by independent press Two Dollar Radio and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman. W: www.meganbaydorman.com E: [email protected] Insta: @meganbaydorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne. Insta: @indiepublishermatt

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Our Book of the Week will have you laughing and crying in equal measure! Stand-up comedian Jo Caulfield’s hilarious memoir, The Funny Thing About Death, is about two unconventional girls growing up in the 1970s.

Six years ago, Jo was about to go on stage when she found out that her big sister Annie had cancer. Not the best way to start a nationwide comedy tour. But the tour turns out to be a welcome distraction for them both. As Jo reports back from various hotels and service stations, they revisit their childhood and adolescence while navigating Annie's illness, learning through trial and error how to behave when someone you love gets sick.

'It’s a wildly satisfying and moving read... I loved this special book' - Graham Norton

The Funny Thing About Death by Jo Caulfield is published by Polygon, an imprint of Scottish independent press Birlinn, and available now. You can get yourself a copy while supporting the Literary Salon and UK indie bookshops by buying from our shop on Bookshop.org.

And if you fancy meeting Jo in St Andrews, pop along to a special event with her at Toppings bookshop on 20th September!

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman. W: www.meganbaydorman.com E: [email protected] Insta: @meganbaydorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne. Insta: @indiepublishermatt

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This week we’re joined by Paul Dalgarno reading from his thoughtful, existential novel, A Country of Eternal Light.

Margaret Bryce has been having a hard time since dying in 2014. In a liminal place, we join Margaret as she revisits her life, from her Aberdeen prefab childhood to the birth of her twin girls, through Thatcher’s Britain, the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, the death of Princess Diana and the COVID pandemic. But as Margaret struggles to remember her past, there is something she’s also fighting to forget...

An emotional journey, A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno is published by Polygon (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd) and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can support the Literary Salon's work by visiting our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne

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In this week's episode, Catherine Taylor reads from her new book The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time, a story about coming of age in the north of England during the 1970s and 80s. Historical events were happening all around her: from the pursuit and capture of the Yorkshire Ripper, to the anti-nuclear protests and Miners’ Strike. But there were also pressing concerns at home, including her parent’s divorce and a debilitating illness that would define her late adolescence...

We're so excited about this memoir and we hope you enjoy this reading from Catherine!

Damian will be in-conversation with Catherine this August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The Stirrings is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and available now. If you'd like a copy, you can support the podcast by buying from our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne

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In this week’s episode, Booker award-winning author Ben Okri combines fiction, essay and poetry in Tiger Work. This incredible collection, inspired by environmental activism, displays his classic blend of storytelling, fantasy and magic in tales that imagine messages sent to us from beyond the end, from those who saw it coming - exhorting us to change now. 

'Both a work of lyrical imagination and a warning about the dangers we will face unless we take immediate action' - New Yorker

This is an important and incredible collection, and we hope you enjoy Ben's special reading for us.

Tiger Work by Ben Okri is published by Apollo, an imprint of Head of Zeus, and available now. We recommend visiting your local indie bookshop or you can support the Literary Salon by getting a copy from our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne

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From the Booker longlisted author, and an Irish Times No.1 bestseller - Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island is a searing, jubilant novel about four generations of women and the stories that bind them. On a council estate in County Tipperary, Ireland, the Aylward women stick with each other through thick and thin, and always with a wicked sense of humour.

The head of the family, Nana, is a woman who has buried two sons. Her daughter-in-law, Eileen, is estranged from her own parents, having 'shamed' them and given birth to Saoirse. And then there's Saoirse herself, eavesdropping on lives she cannot comprehend. It is only when they must battle for the inheritance of Dirt Island - a narrow strip of land adjacent to Eileen's childhood home - that they truly understand the roots that bind their lives together.

Listen now for an exclusive reading from Donal himself.

'Beautiful, compassionate... Donal Ryan at his inimitable best' - MAGGIE O'FARRELL

The Queen of Dirt Island is published by Transworld and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can support the work we do and the podcast by visiting our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast programmed by Matt Casbourne

Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

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Our next guest on the podcast is Essie Fox, reading from her instant Sunday Times bestseller, The Fascination. It’s a Victorian story about the estranged grandson of a wealthy collector of human curiosities, who becomes fascinated with teenage twin sisters, leading them into a web of dark obsessions... And we love this dazzlingly gothic novel from the bestselling author of The Somnambulist.

‘A magical, macabre masterpiece’ - A.J. West, author of The Spirit Engineer 

This is a perfect pick for anyone who enjoyed Laura Shephard-Robinson's The Square of Sevens or Liz Hyder's The Illusions. (And if you’d like a non-fiction book on the subject of Victorian circuses and curiosities, then read John Woolf’s The Wonders.)

The Fascination by Essie Fox is published by independent publisher Orenda Books and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org. Or you can grab a special signed and numbered first edition with beautiful sprayed edges from our indie bookshop friends Goldsboro Books.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne

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We’ve got a literary thriller in store for you this week! In the seaside town of Kinlough, Ireland, three old friends are thrown together for the first time since the disappearance of their friend Kala...

Fifteen years later Helen has reluctantly returned for her father's wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician back in town for a gig; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother's café. When two more girls go missing, the past and present collide as these estranged friends are forced to confront the events that led to Kala's disappearance, and to try to stop history from repeating itself...

Colin Walsh’s debut novel Kala is published by Atlantic Books and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.

'A gritty heartbreaker of a thriller... Part heartfelt coming-of-age tale, part brutal Irish noir, this is a spectacular read for Donna Tartt and Tana French fans.' - Kirkus

Podcast programmed by Matt Casbourne

Produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

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Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The tragedy that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever...

Heralded as a new masterpiece and the most important Brazilian novel of this century, Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior merges folklore with the plight of Afro-Brazilian subsistence farmers, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath. It has received the Prémio Leya, a prestigious Portuguese literary prize, and is Itamar’s English language debut novel. This gripping tale has been skilfully translated by Johnny Lorenz, who also reads this exclusive extract for us on the podcast.

A perfect story for lovers of The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, or Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor.

Crooked Plow is published by independent publisher Verso and available now. We recommend buying a copy from your local indie bookshop or you can visit our shop on Bookshop.org.

Podcast produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman

Programmed by Matt Casbourne

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