Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Wally Lamb, the author of novels including She’s Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, and The Hour I First Believed. His new novel, his first in nearly a decade, is The River is Waiting. It’s about Corbin Ledbetter, Corby to his friends, husband to Emily and father to twins Maisie and Niko. Corby’s at the precipice of mid-life when he makes a terrible, terrible mistake. It’s the kind of mistake most of us would struggle to imagine ever coming back from, but that’s what Corby has to figure out as he endures punishments from society, family, and the harshest judge of all, himself.

Wally Lamb on wading into autobiography for The River is Waiting

Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with Eliza Reid, author of the novel Death on the Island. It’s a mystery set on a remote island in Iceland where a dinner party of diplomats turns fatal for the deputy ambassador of Canada.

And it just so happens that the elements of this story—Iceland, diplomacy, and the perils of being a Canadian out in the world—these are all things that Ottawa-born Eliza Reid knows well from the 8 years she spent as the First Lady of Iceland.

Eliza Reid on paying homage to the difficult work of diplomacy

Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with poet and novelist Aaron Kreuter. His new book is Lake Burntshore, which tells the story of the summer of 2013 at a Canadian Jewish summer camp that’s just fired a several camp counsellors after they're caught smoking (then-illegal) marijuana. The enterprising son of the camp's owner springs into action and comes up with a surprising solution to their sudden staffing needs: a group of charming and very young Israeli soldiers.

Aaron Kreuter finds new possibilities in summer camp