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Caleb Azumah Nelson talks about his hotly anticipated Open Water, a tender and lyrical love story set in south east London. The finalist of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú National Short Story Award discusses his influences - musical and photographic as well as literary - and the importance of giving his two black working class characters authenticity.

My Sister the Serial Killer author, Oyinkan Braithwaite, chooses the book - or books - she'd never lend.

And Black Britain: Writing Back a new series of reissued novels, curated by Booker Prize-winning Bernardine Evaristo, seeks to correct historic bias in British publishing. SI Martin, author of 18th century-set historical thriller Incomparable World, and Nicola Williams, who wrote courtroom drama Without Prejudice in the 1990s early in her successful legal career, discuss their inclusion in the project.

Book List – Sunday 21 February and Thursday 25 February 2021

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
NW by Zadie Smith
Go Ahead in the Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Incomparable World by S.I. Martin
Without Prejudice by Nicola Williams
Britons Through Negro Spectacles by A.B.C. Merriman-Labor
Minty Alley by C.L.R. James

Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
Programme Co-ordinator: Belinda Naylor
Image copyright: Stuart Simpson