Episodes

  • Femi Kayode

    Femi Kayode
    May 20 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Femi Kayode’s debut novel, Lightseekers, introduced the world to Philip Taiwo, a U.S.-trained forensic psychologist investigating crime and corruption in Nigeria. It became an international bestseller and its sequel has been eagerly anticipated. Gaslight certainly doesn’t disappoint. Like Lightseekers, it’s a tense thriller inspired by real events, this time revolving around a Nigerian megachurch with a global reach. By turns hard-hitting and emotionally sensitive, the book not only probes the underbelly of Nigerian society but also explores wider questions of faith and identity. Join Femi and Red as they discuss the corruption of power and the portrayal of diversity in fiction.
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    56 mins
  • John Vaillant

    John Vaillant
    May 6 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. It was the most costly and destructive disaster in Canada’s history. The 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire reduced Alberta’s fourth-largest city to ash, displaced 90,000 people and took 15 months to put out. Miraculously the death toll was extremely low, but as John Vaillant argues in his internationally best-selling book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, the inferno that consumed Fort McMurray is a harbinger of our near future. Combining a flair for storytelling that reads like the screenplay of a disaster movie, and a searing examination of mankind’s exploitation of fire and the fossil fuels that feed it, John explains how we have supercharged our atmosphere and now live in a world that is more explosively flammable than at any time in human history. Join Red and John as they discuss the history of fire, the role of the fossil fuel industry in global warming, and some of the extraordinary stories of those caught up in the Fort McMurray fire.
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    56 mins
  • Sylvie Bigar

    Sylvie Bigar
    Apr 15 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. In 2008, award-winning food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar accepted an assignment to write about cassoulet, France’s ancestral bean and meat stew. Little did she know that this seemingly bland story would lead her to re-examine her privileged but dysfunctional childhood in Switzerland and force her to reckon with her identity and her own dramatic family history. Her resulting memoir, Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France, Family and The Stew that Saved My Soul, has garnered rave reviews around the world. And with three recipes for the famed French stew, it’s a feast for the body and the mind. Join Sylvie and Red as they discuss heritage, heartache and beans!
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    56 mins
  • N.V. Peacock

    N.V. Peacock
    Apr 1 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by N.V. Peacock, who by her own admission has "a curiously dark mind" that is driven by a fascination with the "What if" question. In her latest thriller, The Brother, she asks, what if you found out you were adopted and that one of your blood brothers was a serial killer? What follows is a fast-paced game of cat and mouse, as her protagonist tries to establish which of her new-found siblings is a murderer. It’s full of twists and turns and references to the true crime cases that first inspired Nicky Peacock to pick up the pen. And with dual first-person narratives, it’s ideally suited for audio. Join Red and Nicky as they discuss the fascination of true crime, and the power of psychological profiling and forensic genealogy to solve cases.
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    56 mins
  • Christine Higdon

    Christine Higdon
    Mar 18 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode Red is joined by Christine Higdon, a Canadian author whose latest novel, "Gin, Turpentine, Pennyroyal, Rue," is a vivid portrayal of life in Vancouver during the early 1920s. It tells the story of four working-class sisters living in the wake of the First World War and the ensuing Spanish flu pandemic that robbed them of their only brother. It’s a man’s world of speakeasys and strict codes of conduct, bootleggers and back-room abortions, where having a child out of wedlock or being gay is considered a crime. As the sisters struggle to find justice, agency, and love in this often hostile world, Christine Higdon invites us to examine questions of choice and inclusion in our society 100 years later. Join Christine and Red as they discuss the power of historical fiction to cast light on contemporary issues, and the place of talking animals in literature!
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    55 mins
  • Mallory Tater

    Mallory Tater
    Mar 4 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Mallory Tater, whose debut novel, The Birth Yard, has attracted both praise and comparisons with The Handmaid’s Tale. Like Margaret Atwood’s classic story, The Birth Yard is a dark and cautionary tale of patriarchal control and the abuse of women’s rights. But Mallory’s novel doesn’t take place in a dystopian future. Instead, it is set firmly in present-day Canada, in a commune cut off from the ordinary world, where women have no agency and serve as brood mares. Join Mallory and Red as they explore cults, misogyny and contemporary Canadian fiction.
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    56 mins
  • Meg Howrey

    Meg Howrey
    Feb 20 2024

    This time, Red is joined by Meg Howrey, who was a professional ballet dancer before she took up the pen. Her background in the performing arts is evident both in the subject matter of her novels, and in their deft pacing.

    Her latest book, They’re Going to Love You, is a pitch-perfect tale of creative ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice.

    Set across three decades, from New York City during the 1980s AIDS crisis, to present-day Los Angeles, the story unfolds through the memories of its now middle-aged protagonist as she moves towards its final act, revealing the secret that lies at its heart.

    Meg and Red delve into the choreography of writing a novel, and discover Meg’s comedy thriller side as co-author of the Magnus Flyte books.
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    56 mins
  • Max Wallace

    Max Wallace
    Feb 5 2024
    Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Max Wallace, the Canadian journalist, filmmaker, human rights activist, and best-selling author. Max’s most recent work, After The Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller, offers a new perspective on an individual who remains an international icon nearly 150 years after her birth. But whereas previous biographers have concentrated on the sentimental story of Keller’s struggles as a deafblind and mute child, portraying her teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker and so making Keller a secondary character in her own story, Max focuses on Keller’s achievements as an adult. Join Max and Red as they discuss Helen Keller’s lifelong commitment to racial justice, socialism, and disability rights, as well as her love of movies and dirty jokes!
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    56 mins