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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from newstalksb.

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Speaker 2: Eighteen pastor leaving you with Jack Daime on News Talks,

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Speaker 2: they'd be time to catch up with our book reviewer,

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Speaker 2: Katherine rain Scalder. Catherine, Morning Jack. I know so many

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Speaker 2: people are really excited about this one. Graham Norton has

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Speaker 2: just published his latest so tell us about Frankie.

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Speaker 3: So this book has been described as utterly absorbing and

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Speaker 3: I have to agree. And the main character is a

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Speaker 3: woman called Miss Frankie Haff and she's this elderly lady

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Speaker 3: and she has a fall and she requires an in

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Speaker 3: home nurse and the person seems to look after as

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Speaker 3: a young Irish career a guy called Damien, and he

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Speaker 3: happens to be working in London at the time, and

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Speaker 3: Frankie's extremely prickly at first, she's a very independent woman,

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Speaker 3: but actually they end up forming this friendship and to

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Speaker 3: pass the time, Frankie tells Damien her life story and

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Speaker 3: she's had a long life and there's lots of errors

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Speaker 3: and he gets sort of motion and connection and it

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Speaker 3: spans decades from postwar Ireland to nineteen sixties London, then

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Speaker 3: to New York and back to London again to the

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Speaker 3: late as to the present day, and the story unfolds

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Speaker 3: and parts from her girlhood to her old age and

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Speaker 3: her life and the lows and highs and heartaches and

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Speaker 3: the victories, and in particular she talks about the AIDS

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Speaker 3: epidemic in New York in the nineteenties, and it's just

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Speaker 3: Graham Norton deals with it with such compassion and the

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Speaker 3: impact on his characters and how you feel about it

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Speaker 3: when you're reading. And it has such wonderful characters, and

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Speaker 3: it's a novel of friendship, and particularly Frankie herself and

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Speaker 3: her best friend Laura, and the unfolding tale of her

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Speaker 3: life and her remarkable life. And the writing is incredibly

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Speaker 3: insightful and very engaging.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh sounds wonderful. Isn't he just an absurdly talented person, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, like he is?

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Speaker 3: He is?

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Speaker 2: I mean it is broadcasting. I wa was is broadcasting.

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Speaker 2: And as someone with you know, a bit of experience

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Speaker 2: in broadcasting, although nothing on that scale, I just look

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Speaker 2: at him and I'm in awe when I see him working.

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Speaker 2: See how clever he is at bringing people in when

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Speaker 2: they need to be brought in and just man, all

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Speaker 2: of those people at once, but then to know that

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Speaker 2: he can write fiction like this as well, it's just like,

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Speaker 2: oh man, some people have all the gifts and.

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Speaker 3: Continuing to do so. He's written a number of really

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Speaker 3: good books now and he takes different themes and different ideas.

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Speaker 3: And I was very engrossed. And Frankie and She is

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Speaker 3: interesting because when you watch his program you can feel

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Speaker 3: how he ties as you talked about how he ties

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Speaker 3: those guests together, he does that really well in a

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Speaker 3: novel form as well, and how he brings the parts

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Speaker 3: of the story together very insightful about people. He obviously

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Speaker 3: spends a lot of time thinking and watching people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point. Okay, that sounds great. So

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Speaker 2: that's Frankie by Graham Norton. You've also read The Life

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Speaker 2: Impossible by Matt Haig.

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Speaker 3: So Matt Hages's words force you to consider life in

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Speaker 3: a very different and quite original perspective. And he adds

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Speaker 3: magical realism into his story and tells a tale around it.

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Speaker 3: And this one is about Grace Winter and she's a

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Speaker 3: retired mass setcher and she's in her seventies and she's

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Speaker 3: full of regret. Her husband's passed away and her her

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Speaker 3: son was killed very early in his life, and she's

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Speaker 3: struggling with that life and she really doesn't enjoy her

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Speaker 3: day day living. And then out of the blue, she's

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Speaker 3: bequeathed a property in Ibiza from a woman called Christine

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Speaker 3: that she hadn't seen in a very long time, and

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Speaker 3: the only thing she really remembers about her is that

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Speaker 3: at one point they worked together and she did her

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Speaker 3: a good turn, and that she had the Saint Christopher's

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Speaker 3: necklace from many years ago. And Christine kind of disappeared

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Speaker 3: under mysterious circumstances, and her curiosity decides to get the

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Speaker 3: better of her, and she flies out to Ibitha to

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Speaker 3: find out what happened and where Christina is and the

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Speaker 3: house is really nothing special, but her friend left her

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Speaker 3: at letter and then she goes off to meet this

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Speaker 3: man called Alberta, who Christina seemed to be very close to,

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Speaker 3: and they go on this late night dive together and

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Speaker 3: life changes. But Matt Hay captures the people and the

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Speaker 3: scenery and Ibitha and this world and the Mediterranean magic

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Speaker 3: in such an amazing way, and there's lots of ideas

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Speaker 3: and themes around this book and those universal themes of

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Speaker 3: love and hope and planet and how we all exist together,

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Speaker 3: and without giving the story away, it takes you into

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Speaker 3: enough place where you wouldn't expect.

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Speaker 2: To go fantastic. Okay, that's the Life Impossible by Matt Haig,

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Speaker 2: Catherine's first book Once Again, Frankie by Graham Norton, and

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Speaker 2: both of those will of course be on the website.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio