You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

Hello, today on Open Book, Art, Money and Power during the pandemic in Harry Kunderoo's new novel, Blue Ruin.

And following the sad news of his death in April, we'll be guiding you through the

historical crime fiction of C.J. Sansom. Plus, a literary postcard from the inspiring

city of Istanbul. We're starting with Harry Kinsru. It's just over 20 years now since he was

listed as one of Grant and magazine's 20 best young novelists under the age of 40.

His debut, The Impressionist, a historical novel about an Anglo-Indian boy during the last days of empire,

was critically lauded, winning the Betty Trusk and the Somerset Moorm Awards.

Since then, he's carved out a career as a writer concerned with ideas

of identity, globalisation, migration, technology and ambition. His newest novel, Blue Ruin, focuses

on the remorseless world of art and is set in the very recent past during the height of the COVID-19

pandemic. It begins with Jay, once a the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It begins with Jay, once a rising star of the 90s London art scene and now an undocumented worker in the States,

living in his car and delivering groceries to the wealthy,

safely sequestered in upstate New York.

...