Yanis Varoufakis and Patrick McGrath

Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis and novelist Patrick McGrath join Harriett Gilbert to discuss books by Margaret Atwood, Nigel Balchin and Kiley Reid.

The Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis chooses Margaret Atwood's treatise on debt - Payback: Debt & The Shadow Side of Wealth as his go to book for students of economics. It examines money lending throughout the ages and how it has been portrayed in classic literature.

Patrick McGrath's choice is a novel by Nigel Balchin set during the London Blitz: Darkness Falls From The Air which he loves for its humour and for its stoic main character Bill Sarratt, a civil servant whose attempts to get anything done are thwarted by bureaucracy. Yanis describes Bill as a 'Sir Humphrey' from Yes Minister character and was unexpectedly delighted to discover the novel.

Harriett's choice is by Kiley Reid: a smart look at race politics in the USA through the story of a young black nanny and her white employer, white boyfriend and black friends. Such A Fun Age was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020.

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Darkness Falls From The Sky by Nigel Balchin
Publisher: W&N

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2021.