opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Michel del Castillo (1933-2024)

       Spanish-born French-writing author Michel del Castillo has passed away; see, for example, Philippe-Jean Catinchi's obituary in Le Monde.

       His early work was consistently translated into English, but he seems to have fallen out of favor and not much of his work is readily found in English nowadays.

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       Joan Aiken profile

       At The Guardian Amanda Craig profiles ‘One of the most beloved writers of all time’: the genius of Joan Aiken at 100 -- though with a focus on her works for younger readers.

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       Barack Obama's top books of 2024

       Former US president Barack Obama has revealed his Favorite Books of 2024.
       No word yet from the current office-holder, or the coming one.

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       Barry Malzberg (1939-2024)

       American author Barry N. Malzberg has passed away; see, for example, the report at Locus.

       Only three of his books are under review at the complete review, but I have, and should be getting to, more:

• The Destruction of the Temple
• Gather in the Hall of the Planets (writing as: K. M. O'Donnell)
• The Remaking of Sigmund Freud

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       Arabic literature in English translation

       At The New Arab Sarah Shaffi considers The lack of Arabic literature in English translation (and why it matters)

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       Physics and fiction

       At Aeon Joshua Roebke finds: 'By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics', in Laboratories of the impossible.

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       About End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland

       There's an interesting titbit about Jay Rubin's recently released re-translation of Murakami Haruki's classic novel, End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland, in Kris Kosaka's review in The Japan Times:

Although the novel is definitely a fan favorite, this new translation was not actually intended for commercial distribution.

“When Murakami asked me to do it, he took me by surprise,” Rubin says. “But we were not thinking of a publication. He was thinking of the opening of the new Haruki Murakami Library in Waseda (University). He wanted me to produce an uncut translation that could be on file there, and I thought that was a fine idea.”

       Which helps explain why Rubin's Afterword is dated 22 October 2021, long before it was finally published.

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       Gregg Barrios Prize longlist

       The National Book Critics Circle has been announcing the longlists for its awards this week, and they've now also announced the twelve-title-strong one for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
       Noteworthy that only a third -- four -- of the titles are works of fiction, while half (six) are nonfiction (along with two works of poetry).
       Two of the titles are under review at the complete review -- A Muzzle for Witches by Dubravka Ugrešić and Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal; I only have a (physical) copy of one more of these and haven't seen the rest.

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       Translations from the ... Arabic, 2024

       At ArabLit they have A Look Back: Arabic Literature Published in Translation in 2024.

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       The Suicides review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Antonio Di Benedetto's 1969 novel, The Suicides, finally coming out in English next month, from New York Review Books.
       This is the third in his 'Trilogy of Expectation', all now out from NYRB.

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       Sahitya Akademi Awards

       The Sahitya Akademi has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) its annual awards, in twenty-one languages (with the Bengali, Dogri, and Urdu winners to be announced later). Eight of the winners were poetry, and only three were novels.
       The English-language winner is Spirit Nights, by Easterine Kire; see also, for example, the publicity pages from Simon & Schuster India and Barbican Press.

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       Willis Prize

       Yale Library has announced a new, biennial literary prize, the Patricia Cannon Willis Prize for American Poetry for a book published in the prior two years that "represents the highest achievement in the field of American poetry"; it pays out US$25,000.
       The first prize will be awarded in late January.

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       'Most Scathing Book Reviews'

       At Book Marks they collect The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2024 -- always good fun.

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       Best of the year in ... Spain

       There are quite a few big Spanish best-of-the-year lists now out -- led by El País' Los 50 mejores libros de 2024 (presumably paywalled).
       Their top three are:

1. La llamada by Leila Guerriero (Anagrama)
2. La península de las casas vacías by David Uclés (Ediciones Siruela)
3. Theodoros by Mircea Cărtărescu (see e.g. here and here)

       Sally Rooney's Intermezzo only came in at 47, but several translations from English made the top ten:

• 7. Baumgartner by Paul Auster
• 9. Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
• 10. James by Percival Everett

       The only other title under review at the complete review comes in at 44 -- On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle.

       El Mundo offers top-twenty lists in different categories, including: Los mejores libros de 2024: las 20 mejores novelas en español (with Los Escorpiones by Sara Barquinero (Lumen) topping the list; it's number five on the El País list) and a translated-fiction list, Los mejores libros de 2024: las 20 mejores novelas extranjeras (topped by Joyce Carol Oates' Butcher).

       El Diario offers a list of Los 20 mejores libros de 2024 -- ten each of fiction and non.

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       New World Literature Today

       The January/February issue of World Literature Today is now out, with a focus on 'Ananda Devi: 2024 Neustadt Prize Laureate'.
       And, as always, there's the extensive book review section.

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       NBCC Fiction Award longlist

       The National Book Critics Circle is revealing the longlists for its awards for the first time, and they have now announced the ten-title-strong longlist for its fiction award.

       The longlist for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize will be announced 19 December.

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       Bhuchung D. Sonam Q & A

       At the Journal of Tibetan Literature they have an Interview with Bhuchung D Sonam.

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       Mishima Yukio/Donald Keene exhibit

       Gakushuin Women's College currently has an exhibit on the friendship between Mishima Yukio and Donald Keene, and at Book and Film Globe Michael Washburn has a lengthy overview of it, in Yukio Mishima and Donald Keene, Together Again.

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       A Perfect Day to Be Alone review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Aoyama Nanae's A Perfect Day to Be Alone, already out in the UK, and coming from Other Press in the US in February.

       This is the twentieth Akutagawa Prize-winning novel under review at the complete review -- and they keep coming; another one should be up soon .....

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       Winston Churchill literary revival ?

       In the Sunday Times Johanna Thomas-Corr reports that:

The sprawling literary estate of Britain’s great wartime prime minister is getting a new lease of life thanks to a private equity-backed media company.

       Yes, the (many, many) works of Winston Churchill -- who was, after all, awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature ("for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values") -- may well soon be coming to bookstores near you -- and, hey, given that even the Collected Works are apparently hard to come by (and in any case problematic -- see here), maybe we should be ... thrilled ?
       The private equiteers behind it are Portland Literary (touting themselves as: "Long term guardians of exceptional literary works"), who formed a PLC a couple of months ago, Portland Churchill Ltd. and are now apparently raring to go:

     “Churchill wrote dozens of volumes of non-fiction,” says Josh Grabiner. “We are excited at the opportunity of helping to bring new readers to his body of work.”

       I suspect it will take quite a lot 'to bring new readers to his body of work', but who knows ? After all, Portland Literary takes: "a holistic approach to bodies of literary work to maximise long-term royalty streams through investment, development and thoughtful management", so how could they fail ?
       They even have ... ideas:

They haven’t ruled out children’s comic books of Churchill’s work or even video games or virtual reality experiences.

       Personally, I'd rather see a revival of the other Winston Churchill -- a bestselling writer in his day; see e.g. -- but I guess he doesn't have the ... name recognition ? he once had.

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       Japanese literature in the 2020s

       In The Japan Times Mike Fu finds Women are writing a new chapter in Japanese literature in the 2020s -- with a useful "year-by-year round-up of prizewinning books and personal favorites" at the end.

       Many of the mentioned titles and authors are under review at the complete review.

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       Salome in Antwerp

       My novel Salome in Graz dwells extensively also on the Richard Strauss opera -- the title referring to the 1906 Austrian premiere thereof -- and so I keep an eye out for contemporary performances and interpretations, and see that from 18 December through 18 January the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen has a new production playing at the Opera Antwerpen.
       They write that director Ersan Mondtag:

focuses on the political thriller in Strauss' breathtaking work. He sees parallels between the historical Herod, vassal of the Roman Empire, and contemporary dictators such as Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko. They are completely dependent on a higher power to maintain their rule. However, revolutionary forces are intent on a total destruction of Herod's decadent empire ...

       Not the usual take -- most focus on Salome, after all, and I'm afraid my novel doesn't tackle the 'political thriller' angle much either .....

       The opera will be staged: "With Dutch and English surtitles" -- and one of the fun titbits you can learn about in my novel (or, well, here) is: Oscar Wilde's play on which the opera is closely based was famously written in French, with the English translation then ascribed to Lord Alfred Douglas -- but that English translation was not the first translation of the play; the first translation was the one into Dutch. (All of these -- and many more -- are much-discussed in my novel, which is also very much about translation.)

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       Pulping books in ... France

       At ActuaLitté Antoine Oury has a lot of the numbers in looking at the most recent statistics regarding French book returns, in Livres invendus : un taux de retour de 22 % et 25.000 tonnes pilonnées as the volume of unsold books increased from 19.3% in 2021-2022 to 22% in 2023.
       That amounts to 41,000 tons of returned books in 2023, of which 25,00 were pulped.
       Also: in 2023 457 million copies of 36,819 new titles were released
       Among the interesting statistics: the average book-weight increased from 384 grams to 408.

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       'Typeset Hopes and Dreams' exhibit

       The National Museum of Taiwan Literature has an exhibit running through 2 March, Typeset Hopes and Dreams: Exhibition on Contemporary Czech Literature; see also Shelley Shan's Taipei Times article, NMTL hosts Czech exhibit.
       Apparently: "Many of items in the exhibition are displayed in Asia for the first time, including Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal's typewriter" -- how can one resist ?

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       Larry McMurtry Literary Center

       In The Dallas Morning News Joyce Sáenz Harris reports on how Larry McMurtry’s Archer City bookstore will become a literary center as the Archer City Writers Workshop recently bought Larry McMurtry's bookstore and established the Larry McMurtry Literary Center -- and:

an energetic group of bookish folks has just completed moving 80,000 of McMurtry’s books across Archer City’s South Central Avenue, from Booked Up No. 2 to Booked Up No. 1. They plan to turn No. 1 into the Larry McMurtry Literary Center

       It all sounds quite promising.

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       Runaway Horses review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini's Runaway Horses, coming in English early next year from Bitter Lemon Press.

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       Prix des cinq continents finalists

       The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie has announced the ten finalists for the 2025 prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie -- selected from 129 entries.
       The winner will be announced 20 March 2025.

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       Hanser archive

       The German literary archive at Marbach has announced the acquisition of the publisher Hanser, another major publisher that joins their already voluminous holdings -- this one consisting of some 2500 archive-boxes.

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       Murakami and the 'I's - 私 / 僕

       At The Conversation Gitte Marianne Hansen considers Haruki Murakami and the challenge of translating Japanese’s many words for “I” -- specifically in his new novel, The City and its Uncertain Walls but also in End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland -- noting that:

Early Murakami works often show significant consciousness regarding the choice of first-person pronouns, especially when the text involves multiple narrative layers.

       As Hansen points out:

Without alternative options for “I”, translators from Japanese to English have had to think carefully about how to re-create the distinctiveness of first-person voices and their respective worlds.

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       Kafka translations

       In this week's Times Literary Supplement Ian Ellison reviews (paywalled) Dix versions de Kafka by Maïa Hruska, writing:

Maïa Hruska unravels the intricate backstories of ten of the earliest translations of the work of Franz Kafka out of its original German and into other languages; and the book is an elegant reflection on how the act of translation itself brings about Kafkaesque diversions.

       See also the Grasset publicity page as well as this (French) Q & A at Radio Prague International.
       This sounds fascinating; I hope to get to see it soon -- and that it makes it into English soon as well. (Hruska apparently works for The Wylie Agency (and is also listed as a client), so it wouldn't be surprising to see this picked up by a large publisher.)

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       Jacques Roubaud homage

       At Le Nouvel Obs they print the Oulipo's homage to the recently deceased Jacques Roubaud (see my previous mention), in Jacques Roubaud, de l’Oulipo, excusé pour cause de décès, par l’Oulipo.
       A nice piece -- and hard to argue with the concluding words:

Il faut lire JR, tout JR.

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       Naguib Mahfouz Medal

       The American University in Cairo Press has announced the winner of this year's Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and it is ميكروفون كاتم صوت ('Muted Microphone') by Mohammed Tarazi; see also the Arab Scientific Publishers publicity page.
       He will get a cash prize, as well as: 'a trophy and an English translation of his work, published under AUC Press's renowned fiction imprint, Hoopoe';

       The awarded was announced, as it is every year, on Mahfouz's birthday -- and his works are, of course, also always worth turning to; see the many under review at the complete review.

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       '100 Notable African Books of 2024'

       At Brittle Paper they have a useful list of 100 Notable African Books of 2024

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       Context Collapse review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Poem Containing a History of Poetry by Ryan Ruby, Context Collapse.

       A verse-essay ! With footnotes ! (152 of them !) With a Bibliography ! (Thirteen pages worth !) So, obviously the kind of think I am intrigued by.

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       WLT's 75 Notable Translations of 2024

       They've announced World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2024 -- an always useful overview of many of this year's significant translations into English.
       A lot of these are under review at the complete review; among the titles I'm surprised are missing are Augusto Monterroso's The Rest is Silence (just out yesterday !) and both new Murakami-translations (The City and its Uncertain Walls and End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland).

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       Translation in ... Iran

       A fascinating piece by Amir Ahmadi Arian in the new Yale Review explores the question: 'Was Iran's most famous translator secretly its most prolific author ?', as Arian goes In Search of Zabihollah Mansouri -- making the case: "that blurring the boundary between translation and authorship is sometimes a good thing, and that we should leave room for unorthodox philosophies of translation".
       Mansouri lived 1897 to 1986, and was a prolific -- but also apparently very *free* -- translator, with Arian noting:

The central question of Mansouri's career, though, is this: What, exactly, was that contribution ? It certainly wasn't providing Iranian readers with accurate translations of Western texts.

       (Another article on Mansouri, by Kambiz Mahmoodzadeh and Mahdi Vahedikia, seems to also get at the gist: Zabihollah Mansouri and the Enigma of Pseudotranslating (abstract; article not freely accessible).)
       But, after all, as Arian points out:

Throughout history, many translators have concerned themselves more with broadening the horizons of their native tongue or lucidly communicating ideas they themselves found helpful than with faithfully translating a given text.

       (Longtime readers of the site know, of course, where on the furthest edge of the spectrum regarding this debate I stand .....)

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       FT Business Book Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award, and it is Supremacy, by Parmy Olson.
       I haven't seen this yet, but see the publicity pages for St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Business, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Gordon Burn Prize longlist

       New Writing North has announced the longlist for the 2025 Gordon Burn Prize, open to books in all genres and recognizing: "exceptional writing which has an unconventional perspective, style or subject matter and often defies easy categorisation"
       The winner will be announced 6 March 2025.

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       Booker Prize judges

       They've announced the judges for the 2025 Booker Prize.
       Roddy Doyle will chair the judging panel, and the other judges are: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chris Power, and Kiley Reid.

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       Han Kang's Nobel diploma

       They had the big Nobel Prize ceremony (and then banquet) yesterday, with the laureates receiving their medals and diplomas -- including, of course, Literature-laureate Han Kang:


       I don't know why the Literature laureates in the past few years haven't gotten the illustrated diplomas that everyone else gets (and they used to); see the Nobel site's gallery for a lot of samples. (Even Dylan got a picture on his.)

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       Geetanjali Shree Q & A

       At Frontline Varsha Tiwary has a Q & A with the Tomb of Sand-author, in My language is my homeland, motherland, my memory, and my protest too: Geetanjali Shree -- mainly about her recently translated 1998 novel, Our City That Year.

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       Worst fiction of the year ?

       At his Stevereads Steve Donoghue continues his annual list-making, now with the always eagerly anticipated The Worst Books of 2024: Fiction.
       Unlike most of the year-end 'top'-lists, I've actually reveiewed some of these ! Three of the top (bottom ?) five, in fact:

• 5. The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• 4. The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
• 2. The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Murakami Haruki

       But, alas, I haven't seen the new Sally Rooney yet .....

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       Dalkey Archive Press at 40

       As they note at the official site, Dalkey Archive Turns 40, as Dalkey Archive Press was founded in 1984 -- and continues, reïnvigorated, going strong !
       I am not sure what the first Dalkey Archive title I bought was, but certainly I acquired it not too late in the 1980s; I assume I first came to the Dalkey books via the Review of Contemporary Fiction, copies of which I picked up earlier. In any case, quite a few Dalkey titles are under review at the complete review.

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       Glorious Exploits review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, which was recently named the winner of this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.

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       Crossword Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Crossword Book Awards -- though, alas, not yet at the official site, last I checked; the best I can find is their ... Instagram page.
       The fiction prize went to Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari, while the translation prize went to Jayasree Kalathil 's translation of Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary; the popular choice award for translation went to Nandini Krishnan's translation of Conversations with Aurangzeb by Charu Nivedita (the book I am most eager to see).

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       Abe Kōbō profile

       At nippon.com Toba Kōji profiles Abe Kōbō: An Avant-Garde Writer for a Time of Turmoil.

       The only Abe title currently under review at the complete review is The Face of Another -- though I expect to get to more.

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       'Against storytelling' Q & A

       At Scroll.in they have: 'A conversation between writers Peter McDonald and Amit Chaudhuri on being 'against storytelling'', in ‘Interesting to see how many people have suffered from the brunt of storytelling’: Amit Chaudhuri.

       Get your copy of the Amit Chaudhuri-edited Against Storytelling at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Where, oh where, are the 'literary men' ?

       I usually give these kinds of think/opinion-pieces -- that get tons of snarky comments and responses anyway -- a wide berth, but the (yes, already much commented-on) The New York Times' piece by David J. Morris, The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone (presumably paywalled) is too *good* to pass up a mention.
       Morris notes that fiction -- production and consumption -- is becoming a one-sided affair -- including that: "According to multiple reports, women readers now account for about 80 percent of fiction sales". This worries him, as:

In recent decades, young men have regressed educationally, emotionally and culturally. Among women matriculating at four-year public colleges, about half will graduate four years later; for men the rate is under 40 percent. This disparity surely translates to a drop-off in the number of novels young men read, as they descend deeper into video games and pornography. Young men who still exhibit curiosity about the world too often seek intellectual stimulation through figures of the “manosphere” such as Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan.

       Granted, I am no longer a 'young man' -- hell, at twenty-five even this site is long in the tooth ... -- but of course I feel (and not just envy ...) for those young men descending deeper and deeper into video games and pornography .....
       Coïncidentally, a couple of weeks ago I had considered commenting on a Nick Hornby 'Stuff I've Been Reading'-column that was recently re-printed at the Literary Hub, wherein he writes from the perspective of having now (then, in 2018) passed sixty, finding that: "there is indeed, as you might have suspected, a pill that men are forced to swallow on the last day they are fifty-nine that makes them less interested in new fiction" -- so apparently there's an old-man problem too, with Hornby claiming to put in the effort but not finding the reward:

I try to find works of fiction, I promise, but it’s like pushing a wonky shopping trolley round a supermarket. I constantly veer off toward literary biographies, books about the Replacements, and so on, and only with a concerted effort can I push it toward the best our novelists have to offer. I suspect it’s to do with age and risk.

       So anyway you look at it, there's apparently a male-fiction problem. (It should be noted that Hornby's complaints about fiction aren't new here -- he mentioned his difficulties sustaining or finding interest in numerous columns, long before he reached sixty. I remain baffled by this, as to me fiction has always and continues to seem to be so obviously superior and preferable to non.)
       Meanwhile -- going back to the younger generation ... -- Morris thinks:

These young men need better stories — and they need to see themselves as belonging to the world of storytelling. Novels do many things. They entertain, inspire, puzzle, hypnotize. But reading fiction is also an excellent way to improve one’s emotional I.Q. Novels help us form our identities and understand our lives.

       Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear .....
       'Better stories' ? 'Belonging to the world of storytelling' ? Emotional I.Q.-booster ! Etc. etc.
       (For what it's worth: I have my doubts about my literary bent having boosted my 'emotional I.Q.', and lord help us (or at least me) if my novel-reading has helped shape my identity .....)
       It is, of course, interesting that so many fewer men purchase and read fiction than women do -- as is the general falling-back of the demographic in terms of educational and other achievement; back-to-the-books (especially if they're novels) sounds good to me, but I don't see that getting much traction (not least against the competition from video games and pornography); I suspect the issue is a more complex one and won't be *solved* by a few good stories.

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       Nobel Prize lecture in literature

       Han Kang will give her Nobel Prize lecture in literature at 17:00 CET today; you can catch it live (or then replay it) here, and a transcript of the lecture will be available here.

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       Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung

       They've announced the winner of the 2025 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding, which will handed out at next spring's Leipzig Book Fair, and it goes to Europas Hunde the German translation of Alhierd Bacharevič's Сабакі Эўропы; see also the Voland & Quist publicity page.

       Bacharevič's Alindarka's Children came out in English (and Scots, in the creative approach to this translation) a few years ago in the UK from Scotland Street Press and then in the US from New Directions; get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Diagram Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, and it is The Philosopher Fishm by Richard Adams Carey; see also the Brandeis University Press publicity page.

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       Prix Grand Continent

       The prix Grand Continent is a multi-lingual European book prize, with a shortlist of five titles originally written in five different languages (French, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish) and they've now announced this year's winner -- and it is Martina Hefter's Hey, Guten Morgen, wie geht es dir ? (which had already won tis year's German Book Prize); see also the Klett-Cotta publicity page.
       Part of the prize is that they will subsidize the translation of the winning work into the other four prize-languages.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Jacques Roubaud (1932-2024)

       Oulipien Jacques Roubaud has passed away -- a great loss; see, for example, Thierry Clermont's obituary in Le Figaro.

       Several of his works are under review at the complete review:

• The Form of a City Changes Faster, alas, than the Human Heart
  
  
• The Great Fire of London
  
  
• Mathematics:
  
  
• The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis
  
  
• A Short Treatise Inviting the Reader to Discover the Subtle Art of Go, with Pierre Lusson and Georges Perec
  
  
• Some Thing Black

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Imaginary Books exhibit

       The exhibit that opened at the Grolier Club in New York yesterday looks fantastic -- Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books.
       The entire exhibit can be seen online as well -- good fun !
       It runs through 15 February.

       (Updated - 21 December): See now also Marisa Charpentier's report in The Art Newspaper, A bibliophile invites New Yorkers to engage with books that do not exist.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Dionne Brand Q & A

       At The Nation Elias Rodriques has a Q & A with Dionne Brand about her recent book, Salvage, in How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse.
       See also the Farrar, Straus and Giroux publicity page, , or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Calder Prize update

       I mentioned the Society of Authors' new John Calder Translation Prize last week. Originally, it was limited to translations from European languages, but in light of the ... feedback they got about that they have admirably now expanded it to translations from any language -- great to see.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Joyce Carol Oates Prize longlist

       The New Literary Project has announced the very long (thirty-two authors !) longlist for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a $50,000 prize honoring: "a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career, a distinguished writer who has emerged and is still emerging".
       Somewhat to my embarrassment, no works by any of the thirty-two authors appear to be under review at the complete review.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Kanai Mieko profile

       At Kyodo News Sho Hirakawa finds Japanese author with cult status draws spotlight abroad, profiling Kanai Mieko -- and noting that, while she's enjoying success abroad: "Kanai never took off in Japan except among a coterie of literary enthusiasts", with Kanai herself reporting that:

the novels in her own language she has written thus far, which do not have clear-cut themes, have been ignored by Japanese book reviewers for a long time.

       Several of her works have been translated into English -- indeed, I have both the Kurodahan Press and the Stone Bridge Press editions of Oh, Tama ! (as well as the Dalkey Archive Press edition of The Word Book).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Best covers of 2024 ?

       Along with all the 'best books'-lists coming out there are also some other bests -- such as Print magazines 100 of the Best Book Covers of 2024.
       Meanwhile, in India they've announced the longlist for this year's Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize; see the Scroll.in report.

       (Updated - 7 December): See now also Electric Lit, where you can Cast Your Vote for the Best Book Cover of the Year.

       (Updated - 11 December): OFFS, the Literary Hnow offers The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024 ("According to 54 Book Cover Designers").

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the new translation of Murakami Haruki's 1985 novel, End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland -- out (today !) in the UK and next week in the US.

       Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation was one of the Murakami titles that was heavily cut when it was published and, as translator Jay Rubin says in his Afterword: "the time is long past for a full-length translation of Haruki's great early masterpiece". Indeed !
       (I am surprised there hasn't been more pre-publication notice/mention of this one, especially since it so obviously complements the new Murakami novel that just came out in English a few weeks ago, The City and Its Uncertain Walls.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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