opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 May 2015

11 May: 'The Future is Now' | Günter Grass memorial | Sphinx review
12 May: Libris Literatuur Prijs | Sophie Kerr Prize finalists | The Last Chapter review
13 May: (Not) the Zweig brothers | Off-site library storage
14 May: PEN Literary Awards | Man Booker International Prize - finalists Q & As | Joseph-Breitbach-Preis | Kjell Westö Q & A
15 May: Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist | Apocalypse Baby review
16 May: Sophie Kerr Prize | E-books in ... Iran | Against Nature review
17 May: 茅盾文学奖 contenders | Personal translations
18 May: Jeanette Schocken Preis | Tbilisi International Festival of Literature | Donald Rayfield on Peter Pišt'anek | A Gothic Soul review
19 May: Dag Solstad profile | Neustadt International Prize for Literature jury | The Folio Prize | Miles Franklin shortlist | Anthony C. Yu (1938-2015) | Dubravka Ugrešić Q & A | Pedigree review
20 May: Man Booker International Prize | RSL Ondaatje Prize | NSW Premier's Literary Awards | Disclaimer review

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Man Booker International Prize

       They've announced that the 2015 Man Booker International Prize -- a biennial £60,000 prize, awarded to: "a living author for a body of work published either originally in English or available in translation in the English language" -- goes to the eminently worthy Krasznahorkai László (who has won the Best Translated Book Award two years running).
       He is splitting the the £15,000 translator's prize between two of his translators, George Szirtes and Ottilie Mulzet.
       The list of ten contenders for the prize was a very solid one, but there's little question that Krasznahorkai is deserving of the honor.

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

---

       RSL Ondaatje Prize

       They've announced that the 2015 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize -- a £10,000 prize for: "a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place" -- goes to Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood, by Justin Marozzi; see also the official press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).
       It's not under review at the complete review, but get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       NSW Premier's Literary Awards

       They've announced the 2015 (Australian) NSW Premier's Literary Awards, with the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction-winning The Bush by Don Watson also taking Book of the Year, while the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction went to The Snow Kimono, by Mark Henshaw.
       There's also a NSW Premier's Prize for Translation, and this year it went to Brian Nelson, apparetnly for his translations of Zola.

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

---

       Disclaimer review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Renée Knight's debut thriller, Disclaimer, just out in the US.

       Do other languages not have a word for that front matter-boilerplate so common in English-language fiction publications ? The French opted to title this book Révélée -- fitting the story, but not this particular point -- while the Germans took that bizarre course of substituting a different English word: they're bringing the novel out as: Deadline. Which really doesn't work anywhere near as well.

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

       Dag Solstad profile

       At the Literary Hub Ane Farsethås writes at length about why Norway's Greatest Living Writer is Actually Dag Solstad .... Complete with a Peter Handke-endorsement !
       As long-time readers know, I've been a long-time fan -- and remain disappointed how little of his work has been translated into English. Here's hoping that Solstad-fever is just taking longer in catching on .....
       Four Solstad books are under review at the complete review:

• Armand V.
• Novel 11, Book 18
• Professor Andersens natt
• Shyness and Dignity

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

---

       Neustadt International Prize for Literature jury

       They've announced the jury for the 2016 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

• Alison Anderson
• Porochista Khakpour
• Valeria Luiselli
• Amit Majmudar
• Valzhyna Mort
• Mukoma Wa Ngugi
• Jordan Tannahill
• Padma Viswanathan
• Wang Ping

       The prize is unusual in that each juror selects one finalist for the prize -- they'll be announcing their selections 27 May --; they then decide on a winner when they convene in October at the Neustadt Festival. It's a nicely varied jury, so there should be an interesting group of contenders for the prize.

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

---

       The Folio Prize

       Prominent British literary prizes continue to have sponsorship issues: the latest to lose its sponsor is the The Folio Prize as, after a mere two years, as Sarah Shaffi reports in The Bookseller, Folio Society drops prize sponsorship.
       It seems like a fine prize-concept, so one hopes it'll continue in some form; a shame about the name (and URL: thefolioprize.com), as it's hard to establish much brand-recognition if you change your identity every two years ....

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

---

       Miles Franklin shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, one of Australia's top book prizes.

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

---

       Anthony C. Yu (1938-2015)

       Via Paper Republic I learn of the passing of Anthony C. Yu, translator and scholar of religion and literature, 1938-2015.
       He is of course best known for his landmark translation of the Chinese classic, The Journey to the West; see the University of Chicago Press publicity page for volume one (of four), or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Dubravka Ugrešić Q & A

       Issue six of Music & Literature is out, with some of the contents freely accessible online; see the impressive table of contents.
       The three authors championed in the issue are Alejandra Pizarnik, Victoria Polevá, and Dubravka Ugrešić -- and one of the accessible pieces is Daniel Medin's Q & A with her.

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

---

       Pedigree review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano's Pedigree: A Memoir, coming out in late August in the US, in Yale University Press' Margellos World Republic of Letters series, and in early September in the UK, from MacLehose Press.
       This is just one of several Modiano-works due out in English in the fall. Certainly a seminal text -- but familiarity with his work is probably useful in appreciating it. (Though arguably it doesn't really matter where you start -- there's so much overlap across his output.)

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

       Jeanette Schocken Preis

       Today's German author-prize announcement -- and they really seem to announce one practically every other day, don't they ? -- is the biennial Jeanette Schocken Preis, the "Bremerhavener Bürgerpreis für Literatur", which this year goes to Gerhard Roth, taking special note of his novel Orkus (see the S.Fischer foreign rights page).
       At €7,500 it's not a huge cash-prize, but seems to be fairly prestigious; previous winners include: Louis Begley (1995), Kertész Imre (1997), Bei Dao (2005), and Esterházy Péter (2013).
       The only Roth title under review at the complete review is the autobiography of albert einstein, but several more of his works are also available in translation; Ariadne Press has borught out a few.

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

---

       Tbilisi International Festival of Literature

       The Tbilisi International Festival of Literature runs all this week; see the list of participants -- including Svetlana Alexievich and Philippe Besson -- as well as preview-coverage at Agenda.ge, French writer Philippe Besson will open inaugural Tbilisi International Literature Festival.

       (As to Georgian literature: see the Georgian literature under review at the complete review.)

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

---

       Donald Rayfield on Peter Pišt'anek

       As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Slovak author Peter Pišt'anek passed away. Now at the TLS weblog Donald Rayfield -- responsible for bringing his work into English -- has a piece, Peter Pišt'anek remembered.
       Pišt'anek's entire Rivers of Babylon-trilogy is under review at the complete review:

• Rivers of Babylon
• The Wooden Village
• The End of Freddy

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

---

       A Gothic Soul review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic's 1900 novel, A Gothic Soul, now available in English, in a lovely edition from Twisted Spoon Press.

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

       茅盾文学奖 contenders

       They've announced the 252 (!) contenders for this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize, a (now-)quadrennial prize that honors three to five of the best novels (minimum of 130,000 characters) of the past years (Mo Yan's Frog was one of the books honored last time around, for example). Some familiar big-name authors in the mix -- but it's a long, long list; nothing jumped out at me that appears to have been translated into English yet.
       At his Ethnic ChinaLit weblog Bruce Humes takes a closer look at the list -- considering, in particular: 2015 Mao Dun Prize: Who Will Snare Award for Unofficial "Ethnic-themed" Category ?

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

---

       Personal translations

       The dearth of translations-into-English of literary works remains a huge issue; here's one unlikely/desperate example of trying to overcome that: Antti Tuuri is a popular and prolific Finnish author -- see his publisher's foreign rights information page -- but not much of his work is available in English translation. (In fact, The Winter War seems the only more or less readily available title -- get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.)
       What's a true fan who can't read Finnish to do ? Why commission a personal translation, of course. For the bargain price of €10,000 Jill Timbers translated Taivaanraapijat ('Skywalkers') for the well-heeled reader (who admirably notes: "On the other hand you could spend the money on something silly like clothes. This way I would have something splendid").
       Hildi Hawkins has the story (and an excerpt from the work) at Books from Finland, in For your eyes only -- and publisher Otava also reprint a Helsingin Sanomat story about it, A Portuguese fan of Antti Tuuri's had his major novel translated into English

       Maybe this personalized translating -- and writing -- is the way of the future ? In Bestseller, Auflage: 1 Volker Weidermann reported in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung last month on Wolf Wondratschek's limited-edition(-of-one) of his latest novel Selbstbild mit Ratte, written for a single reader, Helmut Meier (a Booz Allen Hamilton VP). (Wondratschek's last work, the poetry collection For a Life without a Dentist. Raoulito-Gedichte, appeared in a slightly less limited edition -- 444 copies, from Edition Ornament; see their publicity page; as the article notes, he's had issues -- especially about how much he gets for his books -- with publishers previously, leading him to seek out ... alternatives.)

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

       Sophie Kerr Prize

       They've announced that Poet Alexander Vidiani Takes the Prize ! -- the US$62,900 (this year) Sophie Kerr Prize for literary promise, awarded to a student at Washington College.
       It's not just the largest US student literary prize, the prize money dwarfs that given for many of the major American literary prizes: it's more than an author would take home for sweeping the Pulitzer, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circles award.

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

---

       E-books in ... Iran

       In The Guardian Saeed Kamali Dehghan reports that Digital age poses a new challenge to Iran's relentless book censors.
       "E-publishing in Iran is still in its infancy", one person notes, but seems to be growing fast -- and likely proves much harder to control.
       And The Colonel-author Mahmoud Dowlatabad is also quoted, noting that under the new regime: "The situation has got much better but I still have many books that are banned".

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

---

       Against Nature review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Tomas Espedal's Against Nature.
       It comes with a brief Natalia Ginzburg cameo, as well as an amusing couple-reading-Knausgaard scene; Espedal's very personal novels -- this one and Against Art -- can be seen/sold as a variation on Knausgaard, but they are of much more manageable size (though arguably considerably more intensity). Certainly worth a look.
       And my review also comes with a comparison of the covers of several of the international editions -- publishers certainly weren't on the same page as to how to showcase this title.

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

       Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize -- awarded for: "book-length literary translations into English from any living European language". As you can see from the list of previous winners, it has a pretty solid record.
       This year's shortlist of eight titles was selected from "nearly 120 titles" (unfortunately not revealed/listed ...). I believe only two -- Jenny Erpenbeck's The End of Days and Andrés Neuman's Talking to Ourselves -- were eligible for this year's Best Translated Book Award; Erwin Mortier's While the Gods were Sleeping will be eligible for next year's award.
       The winner will be announced 13 June.

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

---

       Apocalypse Baby review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Virginie Despentes' 2010 prix Renaudot-winning novel, Apocalypse Baby.
       Serpent's Tail brought this out in the UK in 2013, and now there's a US edition, too, from The Feminist Press.

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

       PEN Literary Awards

       They've announced the winners of the PEN Literary Awards -- including the PEN Translation Prize, which went to Denise Newman for her translation of Naja Marie Aidt's Baboon.
       See also the Two Lines Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. (Incidental observation: maybe/I hope everyone is ordering directly via the publisher's site -- the prize seems to have done nothing for the book's Amazon-sales, where it has fallen to a "Sellers Rank" of 905,760 over the course of the announcement-day .....)

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

---

       Man Booker International Prize - finalists Q & A

       The 2015 Man Booker International Prize will be announced less than a week from now (on 19 May), and in The Guardian they have a Q & A with all the finalists.

       (Updated - 15 May): At Words without Borders they also now have Q & As with the finalists -- the authors and translators --, adding more day by day.

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

---

       Joseph-Breitbach-Preis

       At €50,000, the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis is one of the most remunerative German author-prizes, and they've announced that Thomas Lehr will get this year's prize (on 18 September -- they almost always announce these things way, way in advance in Germany).
       His Nabokovs Katze is under review at the complete review, and Seagull brought out his September not too long ago; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Kjell Westö Q & A

       At hlo they have a Q & A with Swedish-writing Finnish author Kjell Westö.
       His Hägring 38 won the Nordic Council Literature Prize last year; see, for example the reviews in the Swedish Book Review and at Books from Finland.
       Lang appears to be the only one of his titles translated into English, but expect to see this one eventually too.

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

       (Not) the Zweig brothers

       Eminent historian Peter Gay (né Fröhlich) passed away yesterday; see, for example The New York Times' obituary.
       While I've read a couple of his works -- long. long ago -- what came immediately to mind when I heard the news was his 1983 review of Ronald Hayman's Brecht in The New York Times Book Review, where he offered a parenthetical 'correction':

Cool and generally competent (the author's most egregious slip is having Stefan Zweig make a speech in East Berlin in 1948, six years after his suicide in Brazil; he obviously had his brother, Arnold, in mind)

       I still remember my teenage-shock -- that a scholar of this stature, and a publication such as The New York Times Book Review, could slip so in (semi-)correcting slippage .....
       True, Stefan Zweig had long been eclipsed, and has only recently been revived, while Arnold only intermittently registers in English at all (Overlook re-issued The Case of Sergeant Grischa just over a decade ago; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, while Freight Books did bring out his Outside Verdun (to little notice) last year; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk). Nevertheless, if you're aware of them -- as Gay seemed to be, to the extent that he recognized Stefan was long-dead in 1948, and Arnold the obvious Zweig giving speeches in post-war East Berlin -- you surely should -- indeed: must be aware that they were not in any way related. (A letter to the editor from a relative of Arnold's clears things up.)
       It was a disillusioning moment for me -- haunting me still, even three decades on.

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

---

       Off-site library storage

       So here's one of the odder library-stories I've come across: the town of Westport, Connecticut, apparently shelled out $7 million for 'Golden Shadows' (now called 'Baron's South'), the 23-acre property of Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff, in 1999 (hey, a bargain, apparently: "down from its original $11.5 million asking price").
       Despite the huge investment, they don't seem to have done much with the property (yet), including with the house (which, though unoccupied, "retains the baron's influences, especially his predilection for pink"), but at some point they gave the Westport Library permission to store some of their excess inventory there.
       It seems, however, the library went a bit overboard: as Anne M. Amato now reports in the WestportNewss, Towering stacks of library books blamed for Baron's mansion damage, as:

the storage has taken over the entire place.

"Every room, including the bath tubs, are filled with books," said Suggs, a member of the RTM's Library, Museum and Art Committee

       (Pro-tip: when the books wind up in the bathtub you know you've gone too far.)
       Since the structure wasn't designed for book-storage, it's not surprising that, for example:

Among the problems caused to the former mansion by the heavy accumulation of stored materials is the collapse of the dining room floor

       This is a great story on so many levels. First off, what local library has a seven million dollar storage facility ? (Okay, a lot of that valuation is probably the land, but still.)
       Among the nice, not-fully-explained oddities about the story:

Suggs began looking into the matter several months ago after receiving a complaint from a constituent about the possibility that the library has been dumping books in its trash bin. "From there, we discovered this problem," he said.

       Still, I 'm just happy the library is holding onto the books (though it would probably be preferable if they were actually accessible, not boxed away).
       And, of course, you have to love the attitude:

She said "a new library with a lot of storage space would solve the problem."

       Wouldn't it though ? And they had seven million to spend on the still undeveloped property more than fifteen years ago, surely they have a couple of million they could spend on more library space .....

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

       Libris Literatuur Prijs

       They've announced that Libris Literatuur Prijs 2015 voor Ik kom terug van Adriaan van Dis, beating out books by Esther Gerritsen and Peter Terrin, among others, for this €50,000 Dutch literary prize.
       For more (English) information about the winning title, see the information page at the Dutch Foundation for Literature site.

       Several of his books have been translated into English, including My Father's War; see The New Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Sophie Kerr Prize finalists

       They've announced the six finalists for the Sophie Kerr Prize, the Washington College student literary prize worth (this year) US$62,900 (!); the winner will be announced this Friday.

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

---

       The Last Chapter review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Leila Abouzeid's The Last Chapter.

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

       'The Future is Now'

       A week ago today the opening night event at the PEN World Voices festival was a great line-up of authors (including Tom Stoppard, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Aminatta Forna) imagining The Future is Now -- an event I was fortunate enough to attend.
       You can watch the whole event at that page, but now several of the pieces are also available simply to read at the official site. Great to see -- and Richard Flanagan's On Not Being Bezosed, in particular, is recommended.

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

---

       Günter Grass memorial

       They held a Günter Grass memorial service in Lübeck yesterday -- see, for example, the DeutscheWelle report German literary great Günter Grass farewelled -- and John Irving gave the eulogy.
       He spoke (for the most part) in English, but so far I've only been able to find the German (and Spanish ...) versions; I hope someone will reproduce the English original at some point.

       (Updated - 12 May): Bless it, The Globe and Mail publishes John Irving's eulogy for Günter Grass (without the German intro).

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

---

       Sphinx review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Anne Garréta's 1986 novel, Sphinx -- the novel that got her into the Oulipo, and which is now available in Emma Ramadan's impressive translation from Deep Vellum.

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

previous entries (1 - 10 May 2015)

archive index

- return to top of the page -

© 2015 the complete review


Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links