Host Megan Labrise presents two of her favorite fiction conversations from 2025.
Happy holidays, Fully Booked fans! On this week’s special episode, we reflect on our eighth year of podcasting with gratitude. Thank you for listening, week after week, and supporting this work we love to do. Thanks, too, to our guests, the authors who shared the stories behind their stories; and our producer Cabel Adkins and recording engineer Chelsea Hayden, who always ensure we sound our best.
Choosing my top two interviews from a year’s worth of amazing conversations is always a tall order. That’s why, this year, we’ve decided to choose four. In this episode, we’re featuring fiction; next week, it’ll be nonfiction. I’m excited to reintroduce our first pair of remarkable authors to you now:
In August, I had the extraordinary privilege of speaking with Rabih Alameddine, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) (Grove, Sept. 2), whose remarkable novel went on to win this year’s National Book Award for fiction. Alameddine is the author of the novels The Wrong End of the Telescope;The Angel of History; An Unnecessary Woman; The Hakawati; I, the Divine; and Koolaids; the story collection The Perv; and one work of nonfiction, Comforting Myths. The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a tragicomic mother-son story, set (mostly) in Lebanon, that Kirkus calls “a sharp exploration of resilience in dark times.” In a stimulating conversation, we discussed the importance of devotion, the complexities of love, Alison Bechdel, W.G. Sebald, hypotaxis, unforgettable author photos, and the irrepressibility of the human spirit.
In February, I had the honor of speaking with National Book Award finalist Karen Russell. Her polyphonic novel The Antidote(Knopf, March 11)focuses on a quartet of characters—a farmer, a photographer, a high school basketball star, and a prairie witch—in the aftermath of the great Black Sunday dust storm of 1935. Kirkus calls The Antidote, “a storytelling tour de force that lives up to the promise of its name” (starred review). Russell, the author of Swamplandia!,Vampires in the Lemon Grove, and Orange World and Other Stories, was ready to roll. Fittingly, we began by discussing roller-skating. We tackled the Great Depression, the emotional arcs of characters, whether she considers herself a logophile, and much more.
Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.
