Can great art remain pure once the artist begins compromising with the world around them?

Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director, shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize, revisits the life of legendary filmmaker G.W. Pabst and opens up a fascinating moral question: What happens when artists make peace with power?

From Renaissance patronage to Hollywood studios to authoritarian regimes, artists have always depended on systems that were rarely innocent. So where do we draw the line between survival, ambition, compromise, and complicity?

📚 BOOKS MENTIONED:

• The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

• The Sisters by Jonas Khemiri

• Isola by Allegra Goodman

• Departure(s) by Julian Barnes

• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

• Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

• Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

• The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

✨ DEEPEN THE CONVERSATION

Read our complete weekly breakdowns, curated reading lists, and additional essays over on our Substack. Join our community of mature readers:

💌 Our Substack & Show Notes:

https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/

📚 EXPLORE OUR HOSTS' WORK & READING LISTS

• Read Ksenija's Novels:

https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications

• Ksenija on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS

A weekly literary podcast hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston.

From opposite sides of the Atlantic, we bring you thoughtful, relaxed, and witty conversations about contemporary fiction, classic literature, award shortlists, and the human questions hiding inside the books we read.

New episodes are released every Saturday.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

00:44 What We’re Reading

06:42 The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

11:33 Historical Context of Artists and Power

18:05 Moral Dilemmas in Artistic Integrity

25:15 The Different Standards for Artists, Tech Bros, and Podcast Bros

30:00 Censorship in the Publishing Industry

39:03 The Nuances of Free Speech

41:06 Art, Politics, and the Artist's Responsibility

49:05 Does Great Art Require Angst?

51:14 The Compromises of Artistic Freedom

1:06:26 Book Recommendation

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is on streaming platforms, sparking a much bigger question: why do some books survive adaptation beautifully while others lose everything essential about them? In this episode, European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston look past the immediate film reviews to debate the broader reality of classic book adaptations. From public reception of the Brontë sisters to the screenplays that actually get it right, we ask if cinema is destroying the soul of contemporary fiction.

📚 BOOKS MENTIONED:

• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• The Favorites by Layne Fargo
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Butter by Asako Yuzuki

💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/

📚 Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications

Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS A weekly literary podcast hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, we bring you thoughtful, relaxed, and witty conversations about contemporary fiction, classic literature, award shortlists, and the human questions hiding inside the books we read.

New episodes are released every week.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

00:31 Catching Up on Democracy and Independence

02:31 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

04:03 Ksenija’s Books

04:39 Wuthering Heights, the 2025 Adaptation

10:55 Do Adaptations Encourage Reading?

13:45 The Racial Component of Wuthering Heights and the 2011 Adaptation

16:08 Why Cathy Married Linton

18:02 The Reasons for Heathcliff’s Cruelty

19:08 Why Charlotte Brontë Renounced Wuthering Heights

22:53 Hollywood’s Relationship with Literature

25:36 The Best Author Is a Dead Author

27:23 The Drama Between Anton Chekhov and Konstantin Stanislavski

28:29 An Author’s Perspective on Adaptations

32:11 Why Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff Disappointed Ksenija

33:18 How Sue Discovered The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

34:16 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

35:47 Normal People by Sally Rooney and the Masterful Acting of Paul Mescal

38:06 Do Authors Write with a Movie in Mind?

41:59 Life of Pi by Yann Martel

43:22 Books That Shouldn’t Be Adapted

43:38 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

44:25 Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

45:27 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

45:52 The Good and Bad of Audiobooks

47:46 Female Authors and Adaptations

50:20 Retellings of Classics: The Favorites by Layne Fargo

51:59 Clueless and Ten Things I Hate About You: The Playful Remakes of Jane Austen and William Shakespeare

53:37 Ksenija’s Favorite Wuthering Heights Adaptation

55:31 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

57:37 Butter by Asako Yuzuki

The shortlist for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction is out, sparking a vital conversation: Does the term “women’s writing” still make sense today, and is a prize like Women's Prize for Fiction just DEI?
From opposite sides of the Atlantic, @ksenijapopovic and Sue Graham Johnston dive deep into the cultural politics of literary prizes, whether male writing is still the default universal standard, and whether we need a corrective mechanism. We also share our personal favorite female authors and why their books made an impact on us.

📚 BOOKS MENTIONED:
• The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
• Heart the Lover by Lily King
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• Secret History by Donna Tartt
• The Goldfinsh by Donna Tartt
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric

✨ DEEPEN THE CONVERSATION
Read our complete weekly breakdowns, curated reading lists, and additional essays over on our Substack. Join our community of mature readers:
💌 Our Substack & Show Notes: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/

📚 EXPLORE OUR HOSTS' WORK & READING LISTS
• Read Ksenija's Novels: https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications
• Ksenija on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS
A weekly literary podcast hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston. From opposite sides of the Atlantic, we bring you thoughtful, relaxed, and witty conversations about contemporary fiction, classic literature, award shortlists, and the human questions hiding inside the books we read.

New episodes are released every week.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:14 The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
04:35 Heart the Lover by Lily King
05:33 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
07:05 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
07:24 Defining Women's Fiction
12:20 Women Read More
13:06 The Balkan Perspective
15:53 The American Perspective
19:59 The Disparity in Literary Awards
22:42 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and the Opioid Epidemic
33:20 Is Women's Prize for Fiction DEI?
41:55 Do We Read more Female or Male Authors?
46:04 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
47:39 Donna Tart's Goldfinch and Secret History
50:00 Ivo Andric's Short Story
53:20 Book Recommendations