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The Shakespeare and Company Interview

Shakespeare and Company

The Shakespeare and Company Interview

Shakespeare and Company

Discover your next favourite book, or take a deep dive into the mind of an author you love, with The Shakespeare and Company Interview podcast. Now also the home of Editions: A Shakespeare and Company x Faber Production. Long-form interviews with internationally acclaimed authors, recorded from our bookshop in the heart of Paris. Hosted by S&Co Literary Director, Adam Biles. Discover all our upcoming events here. If you enjoy these conversations, you can order The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews here. Past guests include: Ottessa Moshfegh, Ian McEwan, Ali Smith, Hari Kunzru, Rachel Kushner, Katie Kitamura, Elif Shafak, Claire-Louiose Bennett, Leïla Simoni, Ian Dunt, David Runciman, Richard Powers, Eimear McBride, Armando Iannucci, Lauren Grodd, Lauren Elkin, Recebcca Solnit, John Berger, Hollie McNish, Michael Pedersen, Rob Doyle, Philippe Sands, George Saunders, Edouard Louis, Rachel Cusk, Preti Taneja, Alejandro Zambra, DBC Pierre, Meg Mason, Sandra Newman, David Simon, Jo

Jul 22

Paris, Deconstructed: Amit Chaudhuri’s Château Rouge

Amit Chaudhuri joins Adam Biles to discuss his new novel Chateau Rouge, set not in the postcard Paris of Hemingway and Midnight in Paris, but in the neighbourhood around Gare du Nord — a Paris that resists being known, curated, or confirmed. Chaudhuri tal...

Paris, Deconstructed: Amit Chaudhuri’s Château Rouge

Jul 08

The End of Everything, with M. John Harrison

M. John Harrison returns to the Shakespeare and Company Podcast to talk with Adam Biles about his new novel, The End of Everything, a disaster story set in a "wrong UK" where societal collapse coincides with the arrival of an alien presence, and the strang...

The End of Everything, with M. John Harrison

Jun 24

Alain Delon, Murder and Paris ’68, with Edward Chisholm

Edward Chisholm joins Adam Biles to discuss Murder in Paris '68, his deep-dive into the Markovic Affair, one of the most explosive scandals of postwar France. In October 1968, the dismembered body of Stevan Markovic, a Yugoslav immigrant and bodyguard to A...

Alain Delon, Murder and Paris ’68, with Edward Chisholm

Jun 15

BLOOMCAST: 🎬Ulysses Movie Watch-along Special🎬

Recorded for Bloomsday 2026. If you're in Paris and it's still June 16th, join us between 2pm and 5pm at Shakespeare and Company, 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, Paris. Find the film here: https://vimeo.com/408613317 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7xAM_eXuuk...

BLOOMCAST: 🎬Ulysses Movie Watch-along Special🎬

Jun 10

Fear Less: Tracy K. Smith on Poetry in Perilous Times

Tracy K. Smith comes to Shakespeare and Company for a conversation with Adam Biles. They discuss her book Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times, a bold manifesto on poetry as a tool for deeper living, clearer thinking, and more compassionate citizenship. Dra...

Fear Less: Tracy K. Smith on Poetry in Perilous Times

May 27

Editions - Episode 1 - Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes with Taìno Mendez

In the debut episode of Editions, a podcast from Shakespeare and Company and Faber, literary director Adam Biles and Faber Editions curator Ella Griffiths are joined by novelist and performer Taìno Mendez to discuss Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes by Henry...

Editions - Episode 1 - Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes with Taìno Mendez

May 20

Lea Ypi: Dignity, Fiction, and the Lives History Erases

Philosopher and author Lea Ypi joins Adam Biles at Shakespeare and Company Paris to discuss her latest book Indignity: A Life Reimagined, an extraordinary work blending biography, history, and fiction. When a photo of her grandparents' 1941 honeymoon went ...

Lea Ypi: Dignity, Fiction, and the Lives History Erases

Apr 29

Shelter and Storm: Arundhati Roy on Writing Her Mother

An edited version of this conversation is now available as part of our collaboration with The Yale Review. Read it here: https://yalereview.org/article/shakespeare-and-company-interview-arundhati-roy Recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, Paris, Adam ...

Shelter and Storm: Arundhati Roy on Writing Her Mother

Apr 15

Ben Lerner on Transcription

Recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, Adam Biles speaks with Ben Lerner about his novel Transcription, a formally inventive meditation on technology, memory, and human connection. Beginning with the novel’s deceptively simple premise (a writer loses ...

Ben Lerner on Transcription

Apr 02

Why Translate Homer Again? Daniel Mendelsohn on his new Odyssey

Why Translate Homer Again? Daniel Mendelsohn on his new Odyssey This conversation explore’s Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation of The Odyssey. Mendelsohn reflects on why this endlessly retranslated text still invites fresh interpretation, describing Ody...

Why Translate Homer Again? Daniel Mendelsohn on his new Odyssey

Mar 26

Rare Book Collecting with Ben Brown

In this special edition, we revisit three conversations with Shakespeare and Company rare book dealer Ben Brown, originally recorded in 2022. Across these episodes, Ben guides us into the fascinating, often mysterious world of book collecting. We begin w...

Rare Book Collecting with Ben Brown

Mar 23

Going South: Tash Aw on Inheritance, Identity, and Escape

This week Adam Biles speaks with Tash Aw about The South, his novel of inheritance, identity, and quiet upheaval. Set on a decaying farm in southern Malaysia, the story follows a family confronting generational fracture, class tension, and the uneasy weigh...

Going South: Tash Aw on Inheritance, Identity, and Escape

Mar 04

Booker Prize Winner David Szalay on Agency, Violence, and Restraint

An edited version of this conversation is now available as part of our collaboration with The Yale Review. Read it here: https://yalereview.org/article/shakespeare-and-company-interview-david-szalay This week Adam Biles sits down with Booker Prize–winner...

Booker Prize Winner David Szalay on Agency, Violence, and Restraint

Feb 19

Murder, Mannerism and the Medicis with Laurent Binet

Recorded live in the bookshop, this conversation dives into the inventive world of Perspectives, Laurent Binet’s historical novel that transforms Renaissance Florence into the scene of a gripping whodunnit. The discussion explores how a real painter’s deat...

Murder, Mannerism and the Medicis with Laurent Binet

Feb 04

George Saunders: Fiction, Free Will, and the Question of Redemption

George Saunders returns to the Shakespeare and Company Podcast to talk with host Adam Biles about Vigil, his long-awaited new novel. Set on the threshold between life and death, Vigil follows a dying oil executive and the ghost tasked with comforting him, ...

George Saunders: Fiction, Free Will, and the Question of Redemption

Jan 21

Narrative Amid Trauma: Emily LaBarge in conversation

In this wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful conversation, writer Emily LaBarge speaks with host Adam Biles about Dog Days, her groundbreaking new work of nonfiction. Rooted in the 2009 hostage event she and her family survived while on holiday in the Caribb...

Narrative Amid Trauma: Emily LaBarge in conversation

Jan 07

See It, Say It, Sorted: Jonathan Coe’s Genre-Bending Novel

In this episode, Adam Biles welcomes Jonathan Coe to Shakespeare and Company in Paris for a rich, funny, and wide-ranging conversation about Coe’s genre-bending novel The Proof of My Innocence. What begins as a playful pastiche of a cozy crime mystery evol...

See It, Say It, Sorted: Jonathan Coe’s Genre-Bending Novel

2025/12/24

Books Matter More Than Ever: A Conversation with Ian Patterson

In this episode of the Shakespeare and Company Podcast, Adam Biles speaks with poet, translator and critic Ian Patterson about Books: A Manifesto, his passionate defence of reading in all its forms. What begins with the construction of a personal library i...

Books Matter More Than Ever: A Conversation with Ian Patterson

2025/12/11

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, with Ian Leslie

In this live conversation at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, Adam Biles speaks with writer Ian Leslie about John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Leslie’s acclaimed exploration of the creative and emotional bond at the heart of The Beatles. Together they tra...

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, with Ian Leslie

2025/11/27

When Stories Fall Apart: Miriam Robinson on Love, Loss, and Truth

In this intimate conversation recorded at Shakespeare and Company, novelist Miriam Robinson joins Adam Biles to discuss her remarkable debut, And Notre Dame Is Burning. Together, they explore the novel’s fractured structure and the emotional aftermath of b...

When Stories Fall Apart: Miriam Robinson on Love, Loss, and Truth