opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 October 2018

1 October: Sad Latvian books | Local translation in Southeast Asia | American Fictionary review
2 October: Pascale Casanova (1959-2018) | Walter Laqueur (1921-2018) | Literary prizes: Royal Society Science Book Prize - Giller Prize shortlist | Cholera cancels ZIBF
3 October: 'Why Transliteration Matters' | Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist | Prix Goncourt, second selection | Seventeen review
4 October: Prize shortlists: JCB Prize for Literature - Governor General's Literary Awards | Obolé review
5 October: 2018 MacArthur Fellows | The Tale of the Missing Man review
6 October: WELT-Literaturpreis | How to Read Donald Duck in a US edition | Afraid to Death review
7 October: Czech National Literature Prize declined | Hector Abad Q & A | Elias Khoury profile
8 October: Oleg Pavlov (1970-2018) | Murakami's Killing Commendatore | Dusty Pink review
9 October: German Book Prize | Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist | What is Africa to Me ? review
10 October: German book market | Austrian Book Prize shortlist | Kawakami Mieko profile | The Prepper Room review

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       German book market

       At Deutsche Welle Jochen Kürten looks at The German book market: Between crisis and hope at some length.
       Among the amazing statistics:

Exactly 82,636 titles were released in 2017. A decade ago, that figure was around 95,000. A steep decline.

       Also interesting -- and a reflection of just how ridiculous the US/UK market-for-translation is:

Are there strong sales of German books to be found in the big, wide English-speaking world ? Not at all. As far as the licensing business is concerned, the English-speaking countries are not even in the top 10.

China has claimed the top spot for years. In 2017, for the first time, Turkey is in second place. Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Russia and the Netherlands follow.

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

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       Austrian Book Prize shortlist

       They've announced the five-title shortlist for the Austrian book prize.
       Among those making it through who have previous titles translated into English are Milena Michiko Flašar and Josef Winkler; among those falling short: Arno Geiger.
       The winner will be announced 5 November.

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

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       Kawakami Mieko profile

       There's yet another profile of the author out (after Kris Kosaka's in The Japan Times last month), as The Economist's Prospero argues Mieko Kawakami is Japan's brightest new literary star.
       I enjoyed her Ms Ice Sandwich, and it's good to see that her Breasts and Eggs "will soon be published in English" (for now, see for example the Books from Japan information page) -- though as I've mentioned, what I'd really love to see is that conversations-with-Murakami book (which is apparently also being translated, so should be appearing ... eventually).

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

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       The Prepper Room review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Karen Duve's The Prepper Room.
       This got quite a few devastating reviews in Germany, while the UK edition -- it's been out for a couple of months there -- seems to have gone largely unremarked upon (not even the cover ...). Dedalus is bringing it out in the US next February, and I'm curious whether it will attract any attention. Set in 2031 and covering a lot of hot-button (in the US) issues, it seems like a good fit .....

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

       German Book Prize

       They've announced that Archipel, by Inger-Maria Mahlke, has won this year's German Book Prize; see also the Deutsche Welle report, and the Rowohlt foreign rights page for the book.

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

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       Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist

       They've announced the fifteen-title longlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
       Only one of these titles is under review at the complete review: Belladonna by Daša Drndić; disappointingly many of these are not (yet, in some cases) readily US-available.

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

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       What is Africa to Me ? review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Fragments of a True-to-Life Autobiography by Maryse Condé, What is Africa to Me ?

       (Condé is one of the finalists for the feeble Nobel Prize-substitute one-off 'New Prize' whose winner will be announced 12 October.)

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

       Oleg Pavlov (1970-2018)

       Russian author Oleg Pavlov has passed away; see, for example, Lisa Hayden Espenschade's post at her Lizok's Bookshelf.

       Several of his works have been translated into English, most recently Asystole; see the Glagoslav publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Murakami's Killing Commendatore

       Murakami Haruki's Killing Commendatore is coming out in English tomorrow, and so the reviews and attendant publicity have started to flood in.
       NHK reports Haruki Murakami gives rare talk in New York (using the term 'rare' very, very loosely ...), while in The Japan Times they report on the conversation at greater length, in: Haruki Murakami says good writing is what he can do to help people in times of trouble.
       Meanwhile, at nippon.com Eli K.P. William considers at some length: Murakami Haruki: Immortal Artist or Falling Star ?

       (Updated - 10 October): See now also Your Definitive Guide to All of Haruki Murakami's Books by Hillary Kelly at Vulture (which may not be definitive, but, hey, it's sort of a guide.)

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

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       Dusty Pink review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jean-Jacques Schuhl's 1972 cult classic, Dusty Pink, recently out from Semiotext(e).

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

       Czech National Literature Prize declined

       Czech author Jiří Hájíček was awarded this year's Czech National Literature Prize -- but, as Brian Kenety reports at Radio Praha, Writer Jiří Hájíček Rejects National Literature Prize -- apparently: "because some jury members had quit after the parliamentary elections and so the award cannot be considered apolitical".
       This prize has a solid list of previous winners -- Jáchym Topol won last year, and previous winners include Patrik Ouředník (2014), Daniela Hodrová (2011), and Ludvík Vaculík (2008).
       Hájíček's Rustic Baroque is available in English -- get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk -- and see information about the author at Czech Lit.

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

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       Hector Abad Q & A

       In The Guardian Joe Parkin Daniels has a Q & A with The Joy of Being Awake-author Hector Abad -- mainly about his recently translated The Farm; see also the publicity pages at Archipelago and World Editions, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Elias Khoury profile

       In The National Rupert Hawksley profiles Lebanese author Elias Khoury, speaking to him: 'about the future of the Middle East, the state of the Arab novel today and his latest work'.

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

       WELT-Literaturpreis

       They've announced that this year's WELT-Literaturpreis will go to Virginie Despentes; she gets to pick up the €12,000 on 17 December.
       This international author prize has a decent if somewhat mixed list of winners that includes early on good call future Nobel laureate Kertész Imre (2000), Amos Oz (2004), Yasmina Reza (2005), Philip Roth (2009), Murakami Haruki (2014), and Karl Ove Knausgaard (2015); they seem to have skipped the award last year.
       Despentes has been attracting more attention in the US/UK too, as more of her books become available in translation -- even if Vernon Subutex still isn't out in the US yet ... (two volumes are in the UK). The most recent translation to appear is Pretty Things -- one of her early books.

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

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       How to Read Donald Duck in a US edition

       Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart's classic How to Read Donald Duck is being re-issued -- in what is apparently the first ever US edition (though some UK copies did make it into the country, back when, and weren't impossible to find; I got one in high school, and was thoroughly impressed at the time) -- and in The Guardian Dorfman explains How we roasted Donald Duck, Disney's agent of imperialism.
       See also the OR Books publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com.
       This has always seemed to me to be a fairly fundamental/essential contemporary text, one of those I'd never think of not having in my library (yes, along with many, many hundreds of other volumes, but still ...).

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

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       Afraid to Death review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Marc Behm's Afraid to Death, recently re-issued by Arcadia Books.

       Although Behm wrote this in English it was first published in French translation, as Trouille, in 1991 and only appeared in the original English in 2000. Which is still more than can be said of a lot of his work -- available in French (translation) but not in the original English.

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

       2018 MacArthur Fellows

       They've announced this year's 25 MacArthur Fellows, "Awarding unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" -- the famous 'genius'-grants that come with US$625,000, no-strings-attached.
       The usual variety of artists, activists, scientists, and others, including several writers, such as Kelly Link (who is also a co-founder of Small Beer Press) and John Keene.

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

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       The Tale of the Missing Man review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Manzoor Ahtesham's The Tale of the Missing Man, recently out from Northwestern University Press.

       The Translation Database currently lists 589 translations -- fiction and non, poetry, and children's -- being published for the first time in the US in 2018 -- and shockingly and embarrassingly, this is the sole title translated from the Hindi that appears there. (Of the 724 translated titles published in 2017 there was also only one lone translation from the Hindi -- so at least the percentage has improved ?)
       Sure, more are translated and available in India, so if you really try hard you can find a couple more, but it's amazing that nothing else from such a major language -- both in terms of reading population and literary significance -- is being published in the US. And, mind you, this is a 1995 novel -- certainly worth seeing, but a long way from current. The piles of just the recent stuff we should be seeing .....
       Of course, South and South East Asia continues to be miserably under-represented in US/UK translation across the board -- to the extent that the Translation Database (covering 2008 to 2019 !) doesn't even bother listing national languages from Thai to Malaysian, Sinhalese, Nepali, Lao, or Cambodian -- because apparently there isn't a single title in these languages that qualifies for inclusion (in over a decade !); Burmese makes the cut with ... one title for the whole span. (Tilted Axis' expansion to US distribution will help slip in some, fortunately -- Prabda Yoon ! -- but that's still just a drop in the bucket.)
       Of course, the previous title I reviewed was from a language which also didn't see a single title translated into English and published in the US for the first time in 2018 .....

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

       Prize shortlist: JCB Prize for Literature

       They've announced the shortlist for the Indian JCB Prize for Literature -- with the two titles in translation, Poonachi by Perumal Murugan and Jasmine Days by Benyamin, making the final five.
       See also The Wire report, Shortlist for JCB Prize for Literature Announced and Harsimran Gill at Scroll.in on The JCB Prize for Literature shortlist: This is why each of the five novels deserves to win.
       The winner will be announced 24 October.

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

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       Prize shortlists: Governor General's Literary Awards

       They've announced the finalists for the Canadian Governor General's Literary Awards -- seventy titles in all, five books in each of seven categories in both English and French, including translation (French into English, and English into French).
       The fourteen winning titles will be announced 30 October, and the awards ceremony will be on 28 November.

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

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       Obolé review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Aka Mortschiladse's Obolé -- just out in German translation, but not yet in English; Levan Berdzenishvili recently included this among his Top Five Georgian Novels -- indeed, it is his favorite.

       Dalkey Archive Press did bring out his Journey to Karabakh a couple of years ago, but, despite Georgia being the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair which starts next week, translations of other Georgian works into English have been ... lagging: the Translation Database lists zero new translations from the Georgian being published in the US in 2018 .....
       The Germans are doing much better, and I have a few more new translations which I hope to get to; meanwhile, see also this Q & A (it's in English, after the short intro) with someone from the Santa Esperanza Bookshop about the Georgian book market, as well as the official guest of honour site, Georgia Made by Characters.
       The big annual Georgian literary award is the Saba Literary Award -- with Obolé picking up the 2012 best novel prize -- and this year they'll be announcing the winners at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on 12 October; among those in the running for this year's best novel prize is Lasha Bugadze, whose earlier The Literature Express is available in English (unsurprisingly, also from Dalkey Archive Press).

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

       'Why Transliteration Matters'

       In the Forward Aviya Kushner discusses Why Transliteration Matters -- an always fascinating topic.
       Kushner focuses on words for which there is no English equivalent, or where there's some other reason to use the foreign word in transliterated form -- but, as she notes, it also comes into play with regards, for example, to author-names, as I have often noted re. Russian, Arabic, and other examples. (Among my favorite examples: it comes up in other languages too: 'Shakespeare' is 'Szekspir' in Polish.)

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

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       Baillie Gifford Prize 2018 shortlist

       They've announced the six-title shortlist for this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, a £30,000 prize.
       The winner will be announced 14 November.

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

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       Prix Goncourt, second selection

       The prix Goncourt has announced its second selection -- the shorter longlist of eight titles, with the announcement of a shortlist (30 October) and winner (8 November) still to come; see, for example the Livres Hebdo report.
       (As the report notes: just one female author left in the running -- not very impressive.)

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

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       Seventeen review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Yokoyama Hideo's Seventeen -- already out in the UK, and coming to the US in November.

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

       Pascale Casanova (1959-2018)

       Sad to hear that, as Harvard's Institute for World Literature reports, Major French literary critic Pascale Casanova dies at 59.
       Her The World Republic of Letters is, of course, a seminal text -- and I hope La Langue mondiale. Traduction et domination (see the Seuil publicity page) makes it into English soon as well.

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

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       Walter Laqueur (1921-2018)

       Walter Laqueur, who wrote extensively on terrorism, among other subjects, has passed away, see, for example, the obituaries in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
       None of his many books are under review at the complete review, but I read several over the years and found them interesting and useful.

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

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       Royal Society Science Book Prize

       They've announced that Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, has won this year's Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize.
       See also the publicity pages from Doubleday or PublicAffairs, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Giller Prize shortlist

       They've announced the five-title shortlist for this year's (Canadian) Scotiabank Giller Prize; none of the finalists are under review at the complete review.
       The winner will be announced 19 November.

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

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       Cholera cancels ZIBF

       As Newsday reported a few weeks ago, this year's Zimbabwe International Book Fair, originally scheduled 26 to 29 September, had to be postponed (indefinitely, apparently), due to a cholera outbreak.
       Now, also in Newsday, Beniah Munengwa suggests, in light of the cancellation, would be a good Time to consider colloquial literature.
       And at least the Nairobi International Book Fair, held last week, seems to have gone over well; see, for example, Thomas Rajula in the Daily Nation reporting Talent, new ways of learning are at the heart of this year's Nairobi book fair

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

       Sad Latvian books

       Latvian Literature helpfully has a list of the 10 saddest Latvian books.
       None seem to be available in English yet -- but don't worry, apparently you too can soon be saddened, as: "Several books in the list are soon to be available in the UK and other English speaking countries in translation".

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

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       Local translation in Southeast Asia

       In the Myanmar Times Zon Pann Pwint finds Southeast Asian Novels Lost Without Translation.
       Not much is translated from the Burmese, but locally they also find relatively little is translated into Burmese from other Southeast Asian countries; translation from the English still completely dominates the market.

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

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       American Fictionary review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Dubravka Ugrešić's American Fictionary -- a revised edition of her long out of print Have a Nice Day, just out from Open Letter.

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

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