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the Literary Saloon at the Complete Review
opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review


29 March 2024 - Friday

Small Press Distribution closes | Liu Cixin profile
A Revolver to Carry at Night review

       Small Press Distribution closes

       Small Press Distribution has announced that it is closing -- a major blow for small and independent publishers in the United States and for the readers of their books; see also Jim Milliot's report in Publishers Weekly.

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



       Liu Cixin profile

       In The Guardian David Barnett profiles Liu Cixin: ‘I’m often asked – there’s science fiction in China?’, as a TV adaptation of his The Three-Body Problem is now playing on Netflix.
       I'd like to see the hard numbers, but interesting to hear:
But now, the novel has sold more than 3m copies in the English-speaking world, exceeding the total sales of all the literary works exported by China since the founding of the country.

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



       A Revolver to Carry at Night review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Monika Zgustová's Véra and Vladimir Nabokov-novel, A Revolver to Carry at Night, just about out in English from Other Press.

       On the one hand, I'm always intrigued by fiction featuring real-life figures -- just see all such books under review at the complete review --, on the other hand ..... I do prefer the more creative takes; simple fictionalization of fact -- even where, as here, an author tries to shape it in a particular way -- seems fairly limited and limiting ..... (But it is very popular .....)

       (Among the positives of reviewing such a book: it leads me to web-pages such as the great Dieter E. Zimmer's on Nabokov's Whereabouts .....)

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



28 March 2024 - Thursday

Shortlists: James Tait Black Prizes - Women's Prize for Non-Fiction
Lu Xun reviews

       Shortlists: James Tait Black Prizes

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's James Tait Black Prizes -- four titles in the fiction category, and six in the biography category.

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



       Shortlist: Women's Prize for Non-Fiction

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, with six titles left in the running.
       The winner will be announced 13 June.

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



       Lu Xun reviews

       The most recent additions to the complete review are my reviews of two works by Lu Xun, published together in one volume not too long ago by Harvard University Press: Wild Grass and Morning Blossoms Gathered at Dusk.
       I really should get to more of his work .....

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



27 March 2024 - Wednesday

Dublin Literary Award shortlist | Joyce Carol Oates Prize finalists
Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

       Dublin Literary Award shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's €100,000 Dublin Literary Award -- six titles, with one of them a translation, Solenoid, by Mircea Cărtărescu.
       The winner will be announced on 23 May.

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



       Joyce Carol Oates Prize finalists

       The New Literary Project has announced the finalists for this year's Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a: "$50,000 prize for a mid-career author of fiction". They are: Jamel Brinkley, Patricia Engel, Ben Fountain, Idra Novey, and Bennett Sims.

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



       Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, "the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity". with Tremor, by Teju Cole, winning the fiction category, and Maxine Hong Kingston winning for lifetime achievement.

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



26 March 2024 - Tuesday

Marjorie Perloff (1931-2024) | New Swedish Book Review

       Marjorie Perloff (1931-2024)

       Sad to hear that Marjorie Perloff has passed away; see, for example, Andrew Epstein's F*c*book post.

       None of her books are under review at the complete review at this time, but I should be getting to her translation of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Private Notebooks: 1914-1916 (Liveright) and keep meaning to get to her memoir, The Vienna Paradox (New Directions).

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



       New Swedish Book Review

       The 2024:1 issue of the Swedish Book Review is now available, with a variety of articles and reviews.

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



25 March 2024 - Monday

Point Zero review | Salome in Graz epigraph

       Point Zero review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Matsumoto Seicho's 1959 novel, Point Zero, now out in English from Bitter Lemon Press

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



       Salome in Graz epigraph

       Curious about the epigraph for Salome in Graz -- "Our tale, O our oracle !" -- ? See some observations about that here .....

       [(Updated): Through 29 March 2024 the promotional code BCORPBOOKS10 at checkout gets you 10% off when you purchase the book here.]

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



24 March 2024 - Sunday

Michael Ondaatje profile | Arno Schmidt exhibit | 50 years of Stephen King

       Michael Ondaatje profile

       Michael Ondaatje has a new poetry collection out -- A Year of Last Things; see the Alfred A. Knopf publicity page -- and in the Toronto Star Deborah Dundas has a profile of him, A titan of Canadian literature is launching a much-anticipated new book. But his 'greatest achievement'? Being immortalized as a goblin spider.

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



       Arno Schmidt exhibit

       The German State Textile and Industry Museum in Augsburg opened an exhibit on Der textile Nachlass von Arno und Alice Schmidt -- basically, the clothes of Arno Schmidt and wife Alice -- on Friday; it runs through 13 October. See also Birgit Müller-Bardorff's report in the Augsburger Allgemeine, Stoffsammlung eines Literaten: Arno Schmidt im Textilmuseum.
       Sounds ... interesting ?

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



       50 years of Stephen King

       At npr they discuss how Stephen King Has Ruled The Horror Genre For 50 Years. But Is It Art ?

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



23 March 2024 - Saturday

Alek Popov (1966-2024) | Martinus Nijhoff Vertaalprijs | Manga Arabia

       Alek Popov (1966-2024)

       Bulgarian author Alek Popov has passed away; see, for example, the Bulgarian News Agency report.
       The only one of his books under review at the complete review is Mission London.

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



       Martinus Nijhoff Vertaalprijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's Martinus Nijhoff Vertaalprijs -- the leading Dutch career translation-prize, paying out €50,000 -- and it is translator-from-the-Norwegian Paula Stevens.

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



       Manga Arabia

       I was unfamiliar with Manga Arabia, but it's been around for a couple of years -- and at Arab News Rahaf Jambi now has a report on Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, Manga Arabia help transform Saudi literature into comic stories.

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



22 March 2024 - Friday

Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse | NBCC Awards | Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist

       Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse

       They've announced the three winners of this year's Prizes of the Leipzig Book Fair
       Barbi Marković's Minihorror -- see the Residenz Verlag foreign rights page -- took the fiction prize -- conveniently just after Philip Oltermann profiled her in The Guardian, in Serbian author Barbi Marković: ‘The real horror story is life itself’.
       The translation prize went to Ki-Hyang Lee, for her translation of Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny.

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



       NBCC Awards

       The (American) National Book Critics Circle have announced their awards for the publishing year 2023, with Lorrie Moore's I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home winning the fiction prize and Maureen Freely's translation of Tezer Özlü's Cold Nights of Childhood winning the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.

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



       Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, which: "recognises exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under, celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories and drama", with four novels, one short story collection and one poetry collection left in the running this year.
       The only title under review at the complete review -- indeed, the only one of these I've seen -- is Biography of X by Catherine Lacey.
       The winner will be announced 16 May.

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



21 March 2024 - Thursday

Q & As: Marilynne Robinson - Maya Arad | The Long Form review

       Q & A: Marilynne Robinson

       The latest of the 'Conversations with Tyler' (Cowen) -- episode 207 -- has Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Interpretation, Calvinist Thought, and Religion in America.
       Among her responses:
COWEN: Yes. Do you play around with large language models at all, and AI ?

ROBINSON: No, no, no. I’m just sneaking past. I feel very fortunate that my lifespan did not incorporate these things so that they became things that I had to actually be adequate with.
       The only Robinson title under review at the complete review is Absence of Mind; I struggle with her religiosity. (I'm afraid I am entirely as secular as I seem to appear.)

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



       Q & A: Maya Arad

       In the Jewish News of Northern California Andrew Epstein has a Q & A with the The Hebrew Teacher-author
       As they discuss, The Hebrew Teacher is the first of her works to be translated into English, despite her having been a longtime US-resident; I really hope that she's wrong about her first book -- a novel in verse ! -- being unlikely to be translated .....
       And good to see an Aharon Megged shout-out -- one of her: "two all-time favorites"; his The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump is a local favorite.

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       The Long Form review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kate Briggs' The Long Form, out from Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK and the Dorothy Project in the US.

       In the way it explores the novel-form, this is definitely a book that my character(s) would have included in the (tertiary) Bibliography of my novel, Salome in Graz ! (Roland Barthes' La préparation du roman -- which Briggs translated, and which is from where she takes the title of her novel -- does, of course, feature in that Bibliography.)
       (Briggs has a commented list of Sources and of 'Other Works Informing this Work', which I of course approve of; the Bibliography to my own novel serves a similar purpose.)

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



20 March 2024 - Wednesday

Österreichischer Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur
EBRD Literature Prize shortlist
Republic of Consciousness Prize/US and Canada
Prix Joseph Kessel longlist

       Österreichischer Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur

       They've announced the winner of this year's Austrian State Prize for European Literature -- a leading author-prize for European authors -- and it is Joanna Bator.
       This prize has an excellent list of winners -- Marie NDiaye got it last year, Krasznahorkai László in 2021, etc. -- but Bator is probably one of the least recognizable names to win the award. None of her books appear to be available in English yet; for more information about her, see the Culture.pl profile.

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



       EBRD Literature Prize shortlist

       The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced the shortlist for this year's EBRD Literature Prize (though given that they will name three 'finalists' next month, before announcing the winner, this ten-title-strong list is what traditionally would be called a longlist).
       This is a prize: "awarded to the year’s best work of literary fiction translated into English, originally written in any language of the regions in which the Bank currently invests and published for the first time by a European (including UK) or North American publisher". (The eligible countries are apparently: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.)
       Two of the longshortlisted titles are under review at the complete review: Exiled Shadow, by Norman Manea, and Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, by Andrey Kurkov.

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



       Republic of Consciousness Prize/US and Canada

       They've announced the winner of the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize for the US and Canada, with City Lights winning the prize with Lojman, by Ebru Ojen; see also the City Lights publicity page.

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



       Prix Joseph Kessel longlist

       The Société civile des auteurs multimédia -- the unfortunately acronymed Scam -- has announced the longlist for this year's prix Joseph Kessel, awarded to a book 'in the spirit of Joseph Kessel's writing'.
       With books by Nathacha Appanah, Pierre Assouline, Jonathan Littell, and Boualem Sansal, among others, on the longlist, this sounds like a promising prize.

       The only Joseph Kessel-title under review at the complete review is his Belle de Jour.

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



19 March 2024 - Tuesday

Premio Formentor | Hallucinated City review

       Premio Formentor

       They've announced the winer of this year's premio Formentor de las Letras -- the revived prix Formentor -- and it is Krasznahorkai László -- certainly a worthy choice.

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



       Hallucinated City review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Mário de Andrade's Hallucinated City, a translation recently re-issued by Sublunary Editions.

       This is a bilingual edition -- adding to quite a few bilingual editions under review at the complete review.

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



18 March 2024 - Monday

American Academy Awards in Literature | Vladivostok Circus review

       American Academy Awards in Literature

       The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced its 2024 Awards in Literature, including its biennial Christopher Lightfoot Walker Award, which recognizes: "a writer who has made a significant contribution to American literature", which went to Darryl Pinckney.
       They also awarded two Thornton Wilder Prizes for Translation, to Charlotte Mandell and Michael F. Moore.

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



       Vladivostok Circus review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Elisa Shua Dusapin's Vladivostok Circus, already out in the UK, from Daunt Books, and coming out soon in the US from Open Letter.

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



17 March 2024 - Sunday

AI and literary translation (cont'd) | Prix Jean d'Ormesson longlist

       AI and literary translation (cont'd)

       With yesterday's posts on AI and translation and the posting of The Club of True Creators-review, I really should have put two and two together, since the latter more than touches upon the subject of the London Book Fair panel on AI and Literary Translation and the two articles I linked to, as the publisher of The Club of True Creators, the new Rossum Press, have explicitly embraced a publishing- and translation-model based on Artificial Intelligence.
       As they explain/maintain:
Using a system of AI-assisted team translation, our skilled editors are able to create high quality literary translations with a fraction of the resources which traditional methods require.

Every word of the AI-generated draft translation is carefully weighed by a professional stylist of the target language, and we work closely with our authors at every step along the way.
       Like it or not -- and many people (not just, but especially translators) really, really don't like it --, this is (at least a significant part of) the future, especially for popular and genre fiction (and, for example, manga), and, if nothing else, props to Rossum Press for making it very clear that this is how they operate. (Well, they might have mentioned it in the translator-creditless book itself as well .....)
       The 'machine translation + (human) editing' model seems likely to become the dominant one -- with the amount of editing varying widely (as it does already: one should never overlook that a lot of entirely human translations are terrible, not least because they are often published without much editorial oversight or involvement)).
       One of the reasons given for so little being published in translation is the cost involved. The use of machine-translation -- to whatever extent -- can reduce those costs drastically -- but will the final product justify those (reduced) costs, or are we possibly losing too much ?
       (I do note -- and I do think this isn't acknowledged nearly enough -- that, both historically and currently, a lot of (human) translation of literary work, both popular and 'literary', is really bad. (Admittedly, the main reason for this -- (many) publishers simply don't care about the (end-)product-- applies to any form of translation, i.e. won't be rectified by greater reliance on machine-aided translation.))

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



       Prix Jean d'Ormesson longlist

       They've announced the ten finalists for this year's prix Jean d'Ormesson -- one of my favorite prizes, because it's an anything-goes prize, with the judges selecting the books, old or new, that are in the running; this year's batch includes, for example, Réjean Ducharme's 1973 novel L'hiver de force and Fritz Zorn's Mars; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The winner will be announced on 29 May.

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



16 March 2024 - Saturday

AI and translation | Simenon exhibit | The Club of True Creators review

       AI and translation

       At the London Book Fair they had a panel on AI and Literary Translation, and at Publishers Weekly John Maher reports on it, in How Will AI Change Life for Literary Translators ? -- and in The Guardian Anna Aslanyan looks at AI translation: how to train ‘the horses of enlightenment’

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



       Simenon exhibit

       At the Jan Michalski Foundation a Simenon exhibit opens today and runs through 29 September -- it looks promising.

       Quite a few works by Simenon are under review at the complete review, from When I was Old to quite a few Maigrets (e.g. Maigret and the Saturday Caller).

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



       The Club of True Creators review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Milan Tripković's The Club of True Creators, recently out in English from the new Rossum Press.

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



15 March 2024 - Friday

'The Great American Novels'-list | Nero Gold Prize
On the (unambitious) contemporary novel | Prix Orange shortlist
National Book Awards judges | Salome in Graz reading sample

       'The Great American Novels'-list

       Of literary list-making there can apparently never be enough, and among the bigger recent entries we find now The Atlantic's of The Great American Novels -- limited to those published in the last century for some reason, but at least not limiting titles to one-per-author (several authors rate two mentions; Toni Morrison has three), and not forcing some round number but rather listing ... 136 titles.
       If you click on the titles you get a brief bit about each book, too, so you can entertain yourself with this for a while.

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



       Nero Gold Prize

       The Costa-substitute Nero Gold Prize has announced its 2023 Book of the Year winner, and it is The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray.

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



       On the (unambitious) contemporary novel

       In the Winter issue of the Athenaeum Review James Elkins has Four Sour and Stringent Proposals for the Novel -- well worth a read.

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



       Prix Orange shortlist

       They've announced the five finalists for this year's prix Orange du livre en Afrique -- notable for being for a book not only written by a (Francophone) African author, but also published by an Africa-based publisher; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.

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



       National Book Awards judges

       The (American) National Book Foundation has revealed the twenty-five judges for this year's National Book Awards.
       The translation prize panel consists of: Aron Aji, Jennifer Croft, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gary Lovely, and Julia Sanches.

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



       Salome in Graz reading sample

       The page for Salome in Graz at the various Amazons now includes the "Read sample" possibility -- see, here, for example -- so you can get a bit better of an idea of the text proper.
       The sample on offer actually only presents a very small part of the narrative part of the novel: it includes the not really representative (but still essential to the novel ...) opening pages, while the bulk of the preview consists of the (extensive) Notes- and Bibliography-sections.
       I suppose you could actually piece together quite a bit of the text from the Notes, but that seems more trouble than its worth (i.e. actually reading the book itself is a whole lot easier (and, I would think, more entertaining)), but they and the Bibliography are quite informative, as to what went into the novel ..... (The Bibliography, especially the last part, is, I think, also fun, for those who like book-lists; it's arguably more intriguing than that The Atlantic-list .....)

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



14 March 2024 - Thursday

BookTok in ... China | Unpatriotic Mo Yan ? | The Writers' Prize
Wingate Literary Prize | Salome in Graz at Amazon

       BookTok in ... China

       'BookTok' -- TikTok videos about books -- is all the rage and apparently helps to sell lots of books. A truly international phenomenon, it apparently also works in China -- even if it isn't called BookTok there, since TikTok isn't TikTok there, but rather Douyin.
       As Fang Aiqing reports at China Daily, in Nobel literature laureate finds connection with Chinese readers:
After about one hour and a half on Tuesday night, the 2021 Nobel literature laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah sold around 100,000 copies of his novels at a Chinese livestream show on the short video platform Douyin, generating a profit of over 4 million yuan ($570,000). The number grew to 110,000 copies later that night.
       Impressive.

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       Unpatriotic Mo Yan ?

       As Simina Mistreanu reports for AP, Nobel Literature laureate Mo Yan is accused in patriotism lawsuit of insulting China’s heroes.
       Yes, in China they have some nutty law that for example: "bans criticism or questioning of the folklore surrounding the 1949 formation of the People’s Republic by Communist revolutionaries, and also prohibits acts that glorify historical episodes considered unpatriotic, such as Japan’s 20th century invasion of China", and "patriotic" blogger Wu Wanzheng is trying to sue under it:
The lawsuit filed last month demands that the author apologize to all Chinese people, the country’s martyrs and Mao, and pay damages of 1.5 billion yuan ($209 million) — 1 yuan for each Chinese person. He also requested that Mo’s books be removed from circulation.
       Sounds perfectly reasonable and sensible, right ?
       See also Yuanyue Dang's report in the South China Morning Post, China’s Nobel winning novelist Mo Yan targeted by growing band of online nationalists -- quoting also, for example, from a post that argues abot Mo Yan:
The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded because his work is in line with Western ‘political correctness’. His China is so in line with what the West thinks and expects of us
       Of course .....

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



       The Writers' Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's The Writers' Prize Book of the Year, and it is the novel in verse The Home Child, by Liz Berry.

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



       Wingate Literary Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Wingate Literary Prize, "given to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader", and it is The Hero of this Book, by Elizabeth McCracken.

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



       Salome in Graz at Amazon

       My new novel, Salome in Graz, is making its way into the book distribution system, and is now Amazon-available. (Say what you will about the juggernaut and how it treats and flogs books, but they are efficient -- first on the block to list the book, with all the other retailers lagging.)
       So you can now also order it at:        It should be available at the other international Amazons soon (if not already).

       Meanwhile, you can also continue to purchase it here -- where the current promotional code (through 15 March) PUBLISHED10 at checkout gets you 10% off.

       Salome in Graz should be available at other retailers soon (and your local bookstore should be able to order it for you soon as well, though they may not be able to just yet).

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



13 March 2024 - Wednesday

FAF Translation Prize finalists | OCM Bocas Prize longlists
Posthumous publishing
What You are Looking For is in the Library review

       FAF Translation Prize finalists

       The French-American Foundation has announced the finalists for its Translation Prize in the two categories, fiction and non.
       Only one of the titles is under review at the complete review -- Daniel Levin Becker's translation of The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier.

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



       OCM Bocas Prize longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in its three categories, fiction, non, and poetry.
       The category winners will be announced 7 April, and the overall winner on 27 April.

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



       Posthumous publishing

       Occasioned by the publication of Gabriel García Márquez's Until August Alex Belth goes: 'Inside the ethically thorny world of posthumous publishing', in Is It A Betrayal To Publish Dead Writers' Books ? at Esquire.

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



       What You are Looking For is in the Library review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Aoyama Michiko's popular What You are Looking For is in the Library.

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



12 March 2024 - Tuesday

International Booker Prize longlist

       International Booker Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's International Booker Prize -- thirteen books originally written in ten languages (all but one European -- though: "A quarter of the list is written by South American authors,"), selected from 149 (unfortunately not revealed ...) entries.
       Interesting to see the break-down of the languages with the most-submitted titles:
  • 1. French (26 books)
  • 2. Spanish (21)
  • 3. Japanese (15)
  • 4. German (12)
  • 5. Arabic (8)
  • -. Italian (8)
       Somewhat embarrassingly and certainly disappointingly, I've only seen four of the longlisted titles -- and haven't (fully) read or reviewed a one. (Last year I had reviewed four of the titles when the list was announced.)
       The shortlist will be announced 9 April, and the winner on 21 May.

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



11 March 2024 - Monday

Aya translation | Until August review

       Aya translation

       At The Africa Report Olivia Snaije profiles Edwige-Renée Dro, in Ivorian literary activist, translator lends her skills to beloved graphic novel, ‘Aya de Yopougon’.
       Dro translated Aya: Claws Come Out (Drawn & Quarterly).

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



       Until August review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gabriel García Márquez's just-published (in many, many languages) Until August.

       Much of the coverage of this 'event' -- and many of the reviews -- have focused on this being yet another posthumous work being published against an author's express wishes. (In their Preface, his two sons even admit that their father explicitly said: "This book doesn't work. It must be destroyed".)
       While, very strictly speaking, García Márquez's assessment is correct, I'd point out that the same ('This book doesn't work') can be said about a significant proportion of the novels I look at/read -- and that Until August is more satisfying than most of those.
       This case also differs from many authors' wishes to see one or all of their works destroyed after their deaths in that García Márquez was suffering from dementia at the time -- the 'memory loss', as his sons term it, that apparently hindered him from shaping it into the work he wanted it to be. As such -- because he was no longer in his right mind, as it were --, it seems to me a (morally) more difficult call than e.g. Brod's betrayal of Kafka

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



10 March 2024 - Sunday

Henry Chakava (1946-2024)

       Henry Chakava (1946-2024)

       As Godwin Siundu reports in Nation Henry Chakava's death marks the end of an era in Kenya's literary publishing.

       See also James Currey's publishing-chronicle Africa Writes Back.

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



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