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Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. 

In this episode we’re talking to Craig Silvey about his novel Honeybee, a tender coming-of-age story about a transgender teenager called Sam, a chance encounter she has with a man called Vic, and the ways in which both lives are changed by their unlikely friendship. 

‘For readers of all levels of sophistication, [dialogue] is the element of a novel that no one passes over. Everybody reads dialogue. It's so revealing of a character and it's the best way for us to understand characters – when they speak purely to us. It's a way to make them feel distinct and unique, and a way to have a text feel dynamic because we're shifting away from that narrative voice and we're introducing different tones and different rhythms. It’s a vital piece of the puzzle… and something I’ve always delighted in’.

Honeybee is out now through Allen & Unwin.