Josh Cohen and Nussaibah Younis
A Good Read
BBC
4.2 • 848 Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin, chosen by Nussaibah Younis A HEART SO WHITE by Javier Marías, chosen by Josh Cohen THE END OF EDDY by Edouard Louis, chosen by Harriett Gilbert
Big Swiss is a 29-year-old gynecologist who has never had an orgasm. Greta Work is an audio transcriber for a sex therapist who is infatuated by one of his clients. After an encounter at the dog park, they strike up an affair. Nussaibah calls this one of the funniest books she's ever read. What do the others think? A Heart So White, by the Spanish author Javier Marias and recommended by Josh, has a shocking opening page. What unravels after is a harrowing tale of family secrets and their resonances through different generations. First published in 1992. Finally, The End of Eddy, Harriett's pick, was a sensation when it was first published in France in 2014. An autobiographical novel of a violent and mostly difficult childhood, it also can be read as a portrait of a poor, rural community in Northern France.
Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst and writer, whose many books include Not Working: Why We Have to Stop; How to Live: What to Do and, most recently, All the Rage: Why Anger Drives the World.
Nussaibah Younis is an expert on contemporary Iraq who for several years advised the Iraqi government on de-radicalising women affiliated with ISIS. Nussaibah’s debut novel Fundamentally was shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Produced by Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio Bristol.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:03.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:06.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:11.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm Jenny Clemen and in the new series of The Gift, |
| 0:17.5 | we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. |
| 0:22.8 | They didn't know that I was different. |
| 0:25.7 | You had kids together. |
| 0:27.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:27.4 | Then you met. |
| 0:28.3 | Then we met. |
| 0:29.2 | The Gift. |
| 0:30.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, we're talking books, books we love and hope you will. |
| 0:42.2 | Anyway, at least one of us loves each of the books we're talking about. |
| 0:45.6 | Opinions do sometimes differ, let's see. |
| 0:48.7 | With me today, our first Nusaber Eunice, an expert on contemporary Iraq, |
| 0:52.8 | who for several years advised the Iraqi government |
| 0:55.2 | on de-radicalising women affiliated with ISIS. Nusaber's debut novel fundamentally were shortlisted |
| 1:01.9 | for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. With her is the psychoanalyst and writer Josh Cohen, |
| 1:07.2 | whose many books include not working, why we have to stop, how to live, what to do, |
| 1:13.4 | and most recently, all the rage, why anger drives the world. |
... |
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