Guardian Books podcast: Political fiction

"Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit - in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever." So said the great Nigerian writer and thinker Chinua Achebe, who died in March. In his week's podcast we discuss Achebe's legacy with poet and memoirist Jackie Kay and publisher Ellah Allfrey, who is a leading light in the Caine Prize for African Writing.

We also look at the more recent turns the political novel has taken. Mohsin Hamid tells us why all literature is political, and reveals why he has evoked the self-help industry in the title and structure of his latest book, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. Jim Crace explains how he has used the form of a historical fable to tell some home truths about 21st century attitudes to issues such as migration, land ownership and communal violence.

Reading list:
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
Harvest by Jim Crace (Picador)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Penguin Classics)
Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay (Picador)