In this week's podcast, we signal the end of the summer and the start of the new publishing season by revealing the longlist for the Guardian First Book award.
Lisa Allardice, chair of the prize, explains the thinking behind the list, which now goes out to reading groups around the country. And, to mark a new departure – allowing our readers to select the 10th title for the list – we pay a visit to the Edinburgh Bookshop to find out how its reading group got on with our readers' choice, Down the Rabbit Hole. With them to discuss the book is its Mexican author, Juan Pablo Villalobos, and his translator Rosalind Harvey.
Continuing the Latin mood, Xan Brooks talks to Francisco Goldman about the challenge of crafting a novel from the death of his young Mexican wife in a body-surfing accident.
Reading list:
Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman (Grove Atlantic)
Guardian first book award longlist:
The Possessed by Elif Batuman (Granta)
Chavs by Owen Jones (Verso)
Emperor of Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Fourth Estate)
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (Bloomsbury)
The Submission by Amy Waldman (Heinemann)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill)
The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock (Canongate)
The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed (Penguin)
Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (And Other Stories)
Sidereal by Rachel Boast (Picador)
