Episode 5: Kathryn Heyman

In this week’s episode, John Purcell sits down for an intimate, deeply moving conversation with acclaimed Australian author Kathryn Heyman to celebrate the release of her luminously beautiful seventh novel, Circle of Wonders. Kathryn Heyman is the author of seven novels and the critically acclaimed memoir Fury. Her work has been nominated for the Orange Prize, the Scottish Writer of the Year, and the West Australian Premier’s Book Awards.

Set over the course of one emotionally charged lunar month in the Blue Mountains, Circle of Wonders follows a fractured family of women as they navigate a devastating focal point: Roni, a charismatic, fiercely independent, and flawed woman, is dying of cancer. Simultaneously, her estranged mother, Sylvie, is breathing her last just across the mountain ridge. As Roni tries to compile a "Book of Wonders" to capture the small, luminous moments she once overlooked.

Kathryn opens up about the painful real-life genesis of the book. The seed of the novel was planted during an incredibly intense month where she found herself moving between caring for both her own mother and her sister, who were dying at the same time. She shares how she consciously led with this raw life experience, but ultimately chose the canvas of fiction to shape the narrative. For Kathryn, fiction was the only vehicle capable of holding the universal chorus of voices she wanted to capture.