Episode: Ep181: Chris Power; Online Dating in Fiction; Postcard from Delhi

Elizabeth Day talks to Chris Power, writer of the short story collection Mothers, about his debut novel A Lonely Man. Robert Prowe is a struggling writer living in Berlin with his wife and two young daughters. One night he meets Patrick, a stranger with a story to tell, who is a ghostwriter for a Russian oligarch who is now being followed. Robert finds himself seduced by Patrick's dramatic story, wondering if it might provide the inspiration he needs for his own novel, and becomes caught up in a paranoid world of threats that may or, may not, be real.

Swipe Right is Radio 4's series of short stories written by young writers under 30; Caleb Nelson, Bryan Washington, Naoise Dolan, Rebecca Watson, and Beth O'Leary. The series explores relationships and sex in the modern world, characters searching for love in a myriad of ways. Novelists Beth O'Leary, Flatshare, The Switch, and Okechukwu Nzelu, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, share their thoughts of the joys and challenges of writing love stories in an online world.

And Trisha Sakhlecha whose novel Can You See Me Now is a pacey, psychological thriller exploring female friendship against a backdrop of Indian politics, sends a literary postcard from Delhi.

Book List

A Lonely Man by Chris Power The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary The Switch by Beth O’Leary The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu The Fourth Hand by John Irving Less by Andrew Sean Greer The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang Can you see me now by Trisha Sackhlecha We That Are Young by Preti Taneja Society by Mahesh Rao The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara