Guadalupe Nettel and Saba Sams talk to Georgina Godwin

Two writers discuss safety and the unexpected, control and danger, in their new books, with Monocle Radio books editor Georgina Godwin.

When an albatross strays too far from its home, or loses its bearings, it becomes an ‘accidental’, an unmoored wanderer. The protagonists of Guadalupe Nettel’s stories in The Accidentals each find the ordinary courses of their lives disrupted and are pushed into unfamiliar terrain. The Mexican-born author’s novel Still Born was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.

Saba Sams’ debut novel Gunk is about the complex relationship between the frustrated ex-wife of a student nightclub owner in Brighton and the enigmatic young woman hired to work the establishment’s bar. It explores love and desire, chaos and control, and family in all its forms. Sams was a Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 2023 and her debut collection Send Nudes won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2022.