opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       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.

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       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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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       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).

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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").

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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.)

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       NYTBR's 'The 10 Best Books of 2024'

       The New York Times Book Review has announced its 10 Best Books of 2024 (presumably paywalled).
       I haven't seen any of these -- but will probably try to seek out Álvaro Enrigue's You Dreamed of Empires at some point.

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       Kafka exhibit

       A new exhibit has just opened at the National Library of Israel -- Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author, which runs through next June.
       One focus:

The exhibition will also trace the fascinating story of Kafka's estate and how his literary works were eventually published by his friend Max Brod. This story begins before Kafka's death and comes to a conclusion in 2019, when Israel's Supreme Court decided that Kafka's archive was a cultural asset that was to be deposited at the National Library of Israel.

       See also Benjamin Balint on Kafka's Last Trial, which covers that.
       See also Jessica Steinberg's report on the exhibit, Franz Kafka's papers metamorphose into National Library exhibit, in the Times of Israel.

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       Translation Prizes shortlists

       The Society of Authors has announced the shortlists for eight of its translation prizes.

       Only three of the forty-one shortlisted titles are under review at the complete review:

• Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize
  • Robin Moger's translation of Iman Mersal's Traces of Enayat
  
  
• Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize:
  • David Boyd's translation of Oyamada Hiroko's The Factory
  • Kendall Heitzman's translation of Fujino Kaori's Nails and Eyes

       The winners will be announced 12 February 2025.

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       Wolfson History Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Wolfson History Prize -- the "most valuable history-writing prize in the UK", paying out £50,000 -- and it is Shadows at Noon, by Joya Chatterji.
       This is one of those books that was published by a 'commercial' publisher in the UK (Bodley Head in hardcover; now in paperback from Vintage) but *only* by a university press in the US (Yale University Press); get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Wingate Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for the 2025 Wingate Prize, " given to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader" -- seven novels and seven non-fiction titles.

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       Best translations of 2024 ?

       Steve Donoghue always offers a variety of best-of-the-year lists (and a few worsts, as well), and has now released his The Best Books of 2024: Literature in Translation.
       I can't really judge the quality here -- I've only seen a single one of these (On Leaders and Tyrants), and haven't gotten to it yet (though I expect to) -- but the list seems very classical-heavy, with only two of the books by actually living authors (and one of those books is about ... ancient Greece), and also very re-translation heavy: we've seen previous translations of practically all of these. Contemporary fiction ? Not a single title .....

       (If this had been a blind tasting, I would have sworn this list was made by Sam Tanenhaus -- the former editor of The New York Times Book Review who rarely deigned to allow reviews of translations of any sort to appear in its pages; if and when they did, chances were ridiculously good that it was either of a re-translation or a work by a Nobel laureate (we got one of those here, too).)

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       Gulf Migrants in Malayalam Literature

       At New Lines Magazine Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil considers The Lives of Gulf Migrants in Malayalam Literature -- noting that Benyamin's "Goat Days marked a turning point in Malayalam literature, introducing a new way of speaking about the Gulf in Malayali society".

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       John Banville profile

       In The Observer Tim Adams has a lengthy profile of the Man Booker-winning (for The Sea) author, in ‘I’m writing a memoir. It’s a pack of lies’: John Banville on a lifetime in books, bereavement, and the Irish love of words.
       He isn't very far with the memoir -- "only just 8,000 words" -- but I certainly like the set-up, much more interesting than your usual memoir:

The truth is I had two ideas for books: one was this autobiography, and the other an idea to write a book about the last man. You know: a pandemic, a bomb, whatever, it’s killed everybody, and there is one survivor and it just happens to be me. I thought at my age I wouldn’t get the two books done, so I combined them. The last man is now writing his autobiography. But of course it turns out he’s not the last – there’s a woman too. So they sort of stalk each other...

       His residency-gig at the Prado museum in the Writing the Prado-programme also sounds neat -- Olga Tokarczuk was the fellow in the spring, and Coetzee also had a go.

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       The Princess Casamassima review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Henry James' 1886 novel, The Princess Casamassima.

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       de Boon longlist

       They've announced the longlists for the 2025 de Boon, the leading Flemish book prize, with two categories -- children's/YA literature, and general (both fiction and non lumped together), written in Dutch -- paying out €50,000 in each.
       The fifteen titles on the general longlist include works by Arnon Grunberg and Niña Weijers
       Admirably, they reveal all the books that were considered for the prize (as every literary prize should ...) -- 539 titles for the general prize.
       The shortlists will be announced 10 January, and the winners on 25 March.

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       Publishing sales

       'Tis the season for sales from (especially: independent and university) publishers when you buy directly from their sites -- coming in all shapes and sizes, especially this 'Black Friday'-weekend but in many cases extending to Christmas or even the end of the year; check out you favorite university press and independent publisher sites.

       So also, in case you haven't gotten your copy yet, my Salome in Graz is 30% off at Lulu.com with the promo code HOLIDAY30 at checkout through 2 December.

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       Scotland's National Book Awards

       The Saltire Society has announced the winners of this year's Scotland's National Book Awards; see, for example, John Hislop's report in The Edinburgh Reporter.
       Thunderclap by Laura Cumming won both Non-Fiction Book of the Year as well as overall Book of the Year, while John Burnside's Ruin, Blossom took the Poetry award, posthumously.
       Ajay Close's What Doesn't Kill Us won the Fiction category.

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       John Calder Translation Prize

       The Society of Authors has announced the launch of the John Calder Translation Prize, named in honor of publisher John Calder (who had an excellent list).
       It is open to works of fiction, non, and poetry, as long as they are full-length -- but is limited to translations: "from any European language into English". (The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is similarly limited to translations: "from any living European language" -- a shame the Calder doesn't expand on that.)

       (Updated - 6 December): The Society of Authors seems to have gotten quite a lot of ... feedback regarding the language limitation and has now admirably opened the prize to translations: "from any language into English". Good for them, good for the prize.

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       Prix Mare Nostrum

       The French are big on regional literary prizes -- witness also their 'Grand prix de littérature américaine' ... -- and the latest prize to announce its winners is one focused on the Mediterranean, as they've now announced the winners of the Prix Mare Nostrum in its four categories, two of which are fiction (general and first); the others are 'history and geopolitics' and 'philosophy and spirituality'.
       The novel prize went to La danse des flamants roses by Yara El-Ghadban; see also the Mémoire d'Encrier publicity page.
       (One of this Palestinian-Canadian author's novels has been translated into English -- I am Ariel Sharon; see also the House of Anansi publicity page.)

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       Jan Michalski Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Jan Michalski Prize for Literature -- a CHF50,000 prize for: "a work of world literature" in any language --, and it is Ducks, by Kate Beaton; see also the Drawn & Quarterly publicity page.

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       Irish Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's An Post Irish Book Awards, with Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan winning Eason Novel of the Year and the Irish-language fiction prize going to Geansaithe Móra by Gearóidín Nic Cárthaigh; see also the LeabhairCOMHAR publicity page.
       Sally Rooney didn't win any of the book prizes, but was named Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year.

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       NYTBR 100 Notable Books of 2024

       The New York Times Book Review has released its list of their 100 Notable Books of 2024 (presumably paywalled).
       As best I can tell, a mere four of the books are works in translation (there were eight last year)..
       Four of the titles from the 2023 list were under review at the complete review at the time of its release; this year I managed a mere two:

• The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman
• The Empusium, by Olga Tokarczuk

       (Two more are on my to-read pile, and I am curious about a handful of others, but don't count on reviews of too many more of these.)

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       Orhan Pamuk Q & A

       At Hyperallergic 'Kaveh Akbar speaks with the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist about his book of journal entries and paintings, authors who also make art, and the delight of writing fiction', in Orhan Pamuk’s Secret Paintings of Time.

       Pamuk's Illustrated Notebooks 2009-2022, Memories of Distant Mountains is now out; see also the publicity pages from Alfred A. Knopf and Faber & Faber, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       John Dos Passos Prize shortlist

       Longwood University has announced the five finalists for this year's John Dos Passos Prize -- awarded to an: "underappreciated writer whose work offers incisive, original commentary on American themes".
       The winner will be announced next month.

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       Urs Allemann (1948-2024)

       Swiss author Urs Allemann -- of, among other books, the notorious Babyf**ker -- has passed away; see, for example, the report in Der Bund.
       His The Old Man and the Bench has also been published in English, by Dalkey Archive Press; see also their publicity page.

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       Sapir Prize longlist

       They've announced the twelve-title-strong longlist for the Sapir Prize, a leading Hebrew-language fiction prize; see, for example, this report.
       The winner will be announced in January.

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       The Rest is Silence review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Augusto Monterroso's only novel, The Rest is Silence, finally available in English, from New York Review Books.

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       Breyten Breytenbach (1939-2024)

       South African author Breyten Breytenbach has passed away; see, for example, Danai Nesta Kupemba's report at the BBC.

       I have read several of his books, but only one of his works is under review at the complete review, Voice Over.

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       FT Business Book Award Q & A

       At the LSE blog Martin C.W. Walker has a Q & A with Andrew Hill, senior business writer at the Financial Times, about the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award -- the: "purpose of the prize, its history and what makes a good business book" --, in Business books for busy people.
       Among his observations:

There seem to be more women writing business books today compared to the early days of the prize, though it is still the case that only 25 per cent of the books entered are by women. The topics seem to change over time to reflect public interest. Recently there have been, perhaps surprisingly, fewer good books about China or globalisation and, of course, more focused on technology. Celebrity CEO books still feature among the entries, though few get through.

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       Reading in ... Spain

       At El País they have the results of a large-scale survey of reading in Spain in the twenty-first century, La gran encuesta al lector español del siglo XXI.
       The most 'relevant' Spanish author, according to respondents ? Arturo Perez-Reverte -- by a wide margin.

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       JCB Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's JCB Prize for Literature, a leading Indian fiction prize, and it is Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life, by Upamanyu Chatterjee; see also, for example, the Scroll.in report and the Speaking Tiger publicity page.
       Chatterjee's English, August has been published in the US/UK, but his more recent books haven't -- maybe this prize-win will see more become available outside India.

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       Japanese fiction in ... the UK

       At The Guardian John Self considers Surrealism, cafes and lots (and lots) of cats: why Japanese fiction is booming -- as:

In 2022, figures from Nielsen BookScan showed that Japanese fiction represented 25% of all translated fiction sales in the UK. The dominance is even more striking this year: figures obtained by the Guardian show that, of the top 40 translated fiction titles for 2024 so far, 43% are Japanese

       (I'm not quite sure what that second statistic means -- 43 per cent of 40 titles is ... 17.2 titles; presumably (?) they mean 43 per cent of the sales of the top 40 titles.)
       Apparently, also -- so Alison Fincher --: "The role of Convenience Store Woman in the Japanese literature boom really can't be overstated", with Murata's books having: "now sold more than half a million copies".
       However:

The fact remains, however, that the genres of Japanese fiction that are popular in the UK – crime, young women’s literary fiction, comfort books – are “heavily curated”, as Fincher puts it, to the detriment of other genres that are popular in Japan.

       See also the Japanese fiction under review at the complete review.

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       Murakami Haruki Q & A

       At The Guardian John Self has a Q & A with the The City and Its Uncertain Walls-author, Haruki Murakami: ‘My books have been criticised so much over the years, I don’t pay much attention’

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       Naples 1925 review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Martin Mittelmeier on Adorno, Benjamin, and the Summer That Made Critical Theory, in Naples 1925.

       This is based on Mittelmeier's Adorno in Neapel, which came out in German in 2013; the English translation has just come out, in Yale University Press' Margellos World Republic of Letters.
       I hold both the press (and imprint) and translator Shelley Frisch in high regard, but this English version is a reduced and revised version of the German original and, it seems (I haven't seen the original), not for the better ......
       I can (sort of ...) understand re-shaping a book for a foreign audience in translation, especially a decade on, when the author might want to add or change things, but what was done here does not seem to have served the book well .....

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       Boualem Sansal detained in Algeria

       French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal (2084, etc.) traveled to Algeria last week and has not been heard from since; apparently he was detained by the authorities.
       France 24 reports on Concern in France over fate of prize-winning French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, while at the BBC Hugh Schofield reports that France alarmed by disappearance of writer in Algeria.
       See also the 'Communiqué des Éditions Gallimard', Pour la libération de Boualem Sansal, and, sigh, the Algérie Presse Service report, Sansal, le pantin du révisionnisme anti-algérien.

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       Murakami Haruki profile

       At Esquire Jonathan Russell Clark writes about The Cult of Haruki Murakami, as Murakami's The City and its Uncertain Walls is just out in English.
       Clark finds:

Murakami’s global appeal, then, might exist in the heightened contrast between the unruly, traumatizing, consciousness-splitting, ghost-filled world beyond and the comforting, drama-less certitude of the conventional life.

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       Warwick Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, and it is Andrew Shanks' translation of Nelly Sachs' Revelation Freshly Erupting; see also the Carcanet publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       JCB Prize sponsorship protest

       The JCB Prize for Literature, a leading Indian fiction prize, is the latest prize to find itself facing complaints about tainted sponsorship money, as an open letter signed by more than 120 authors, translators, and publishers calls the prize out, writing:

to expose the deep-rooted hypocrisy of the JCB Prize for Literature, on account of the company’s major role in the horrifying destruction of homes and livelihoods across India, Kashmir and Palestine.

       See also, for example, the Scroll.in report, Over 120 writers accuse JCB Literature Prize of hypocrisy over links to ‘bulldozer justice’.
       The winner of the JCB Prize for Literature is to be announced tomorrow, 23 November.

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       HWA Crown Awards

       The Historical Writers Association has announced the winners of this year's HWA Crown Awards.
       The HWA Gold Crown Award went to Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle.

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       (American) National Book Awards

       The National Book Foundation has announced the winners of this year's National Book Awards.
       The National Book Award for Translated Literature went to Lin King's translation of Yáng Shuang-zi's Taiwan Travelogue; see also the Graywolf publicity page.
       The Fiction prize went to James, by Percival Everett.

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       Writers' Trust of Canada Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's seven Writers' Trust of Canada Awards. Unfortunately, you have to click through each of the prizes to see who won at the official site -- single-page press release, folks, please ! -- so see, for example, the easier-to-peruse report at CBC.

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       Prix du Meilleur livre étranger

       They announced the winners of this year's prix du Meilleur livre étranger, a leading French prize for works in translation; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Both prizes went to translations from the English: the fiction prize went to Hisham Matar's My Friends, and the non-fiction prize went to Anna Funder's Wifedom.

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       Cold Enough For Snow review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jessica Au's Cold Enough For Snow.

       This won the inaugural, 2020 (but announced in 2021 ...) The Novel Prize, a prize co-sponsored by (American) New Directions, (British) Fitzcarraldo Editions, and (Australian) Giramondo who then published it -- quite the publisher line-up, and it is indeed a worthy winner. (The prize, however, could do with updating the would-be official site.)

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

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