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The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 April 2016

11 April: Prizes: Los Angeles Times Book Prizes - Sheikh Zayed Literature Awards | 32 review
12 April: Prize shortlists: International DUBLIN Literary Award - Women's Prize for Fiction | Dream Messenger review
13 April: Alexander Kanengoni (1951-2016) | Griffin Poetry Prize shortlists | The Complete Review Guide, measured by marginal product ...
14 April: Man Booker International Prize shortlist | Minsoo Kang Q & A | Escape Attempt review
15 April: International literary reputations | Forthcoming from the Library of Arabic Literature | NYTBR Q & A | Profiles: Mario Vargas Llosa - Ali Bader | A Terrace in Rome review
16 April: Translation in ... Burma | Aegon Művészeti Díj | New issue of Asymptote
17 April: Translation in ... India | New Swedish Book Review | A Contrived World review
18 April: SLOVO Festival | Singnagtugaq review
19 April: Prizes: Pulitzers - Prix mondial Cino Del Duca | The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction | The Master Key review
20 April: Best Translated Book Awards finalists | International Book Festival Budapest | The Lights of Pointe-Noire review-overview

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       Best Translated Book Awards finalists

       They've announced the Best Translated Book Awards finalists -- ten titles in the fiction category, six in poetry.

       The fiction finalists are:

• Arvida by Samuel Archibald, translated from the French by Donald Winkler (Canada, Biblioasis)
• The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector, translated from the Portuguese by Katrina Dodson (Brazil, New Directions)
• A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn (Angola, Archipelago Books)
• Moods by Yoel Hoffmann, translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole (Israel, New Directions)
• Murder Most Serene by Gabrielle Wittkop, translated from the French by Louise Rogers Lalaurie (France, Wakefield Press)
• The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (Bulgaria, Open Letter)
• Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (Mexico, And Other Stories)
• The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)
• The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)
• War, So Much War by Mercè Rodoreda, translated from the Catalan by Maruxa Relaño and Martha Tennent (Spain, Open Letter)

       About half what I expected, half I certainly did not -- and a pretty far cry from what I would have chosen: looking back to my picks -- the top ten and top twenty-five that would have been my choices had I been a judge this year -- my favorites went zero-for-ten (top ten picks) and 4-for-25 overall .....
       Still, lots of good books here -- and some nice variety. And there's still the possibility for a Man Booker International Prize-BTBA double this year, with both the Ferrante and Agualusa now finalists for both prizes.
       Being so obviously out of tune with the judges' tastes I won't hazard a guess as to who might take the prize -- though I suspect Lispector and Ferrante must be the front-runners.
       The winner will be announced on 4 May.

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

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       International Book Festival Budapest

       The International Book Festival Budapest begins tomorrow, running through the 24th.
       Slovakia is the 'guest of honour'-country, and while they've enticed few US or UK authors, there will be a very full slate of Hungarian authors present.

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

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       The Lights of Pointe-Noire review-overview

       The most recent addition to the complete review is a review-overview of A Memoir by Alain Mabanckou, The Lights of Pointe-Noire.
       I still can't work myself up to writing about memoirs at the moment, but figured it was worth posting the review-overview for the links to other reviews -- in particular because, after being widely and well covered in the UK it was recently published in the US, to very little notice.
       I'm baffled why it hasn't attracted more US attention yet. After all, Mabanckou is well know here, too -- and he has been a resident for ages, teaching at UCLA.

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

       Prizes: Pulitzers

       As widely reported, they've announced this year's Pulitzer Prizes -- and the fiction prize went to The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen -- conveniently just out in paperback.
       It beat out finalists Get in Trouble by Kelly Link and Maud's Line by Margaret Verble (though unfortunately we do not know what other titles the judges were allowed to consider, since they don't reveal these ...), as selected by judges Art Winslow, Edward P. Jones, and Leah Price.
       See the Grove publicity page , or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       I actually have this, so there's a chance I might get to it (someday ...); my track record with the Pulitzers isn't great -- though I did get to the two most recent I reviewed before they picked up the prize: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2014) and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2003).

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

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       Prize: Prix mondial Cino Del Duca

       They've apparently announced that Sylvie Germain has won this year's Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, which she gets to pick up -- along with the €200,000 (!) prize money -- 8 June. Not that they've managed to mention this at the official site, last I checked -- but Livres Hebdo has the scoop.
       (Recent winners include Patrick Modiano (2010), Milan Kundera (2009), and Mario Vargas Llosa (2008) -- and Alejo Carpentier got it back in 1975 -- so: pretty decent track record.)

       I have to admit that I've never really gotten Germain -- and the only one of her titles under review at the complete review is The Weeping Woman on the Streets of Prague --, but Dedalus are all in with her and one hopes they'll reap some benefits from this.

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

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       The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction

       It's already been available via Amazon for a few weeks now, but this is the originally announced official publication date for my The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction, and so it should now be more or less readily available at you local bookstore, so you have even less of an excuse for not having gotten your hands on a copy yet .....
       The Goodreads reactions (and those elsewhere) have been very kind, and it's gratifying to see that readers seem to appreciate what I've done -- I hope you will too.
       (Get your copy at Amazon.com, if not your local bookstore; at Amazon.co.uk it appears to be 'currently unavailable' -- and is apparently only officially dropping there in mid-May ...).

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

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       The Master Key review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Togawa Masako's first mystery (from 1962), The Master Key.

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

       SLOVO Festival

       In London the SLOVO Russian Literature Festival runs through the 24th, with quite a few well-known authors (including Boris Akunin and Mikhail Shishkin) still to appear.
       Interesting to see/note that they see fit (and/or think it important) to mention -- quite prominently -- that: "SLOVO is not supported by the Russian government".

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

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       Singnagtugaq review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Mathias Storch's Singnagtugaq: A Greenlander's Dream -- apparently the first Greenlandic novel (first published in 1914), and now available in English, from, of course, the International Polar Institute Press (the seventh in their 'Adventures in New Lands'-series).
       Dead languages aside, Romansh probably (just) edges out Greenlandic as the language with the fewest speakers any books under review at the complete review were written in -- but it's close. I do hope to find some more modern translated-from-the-Greenlandic fiction. (Maybe this year's Nordic Council Literature Prize-nominated Zombiet Nunaat, by Sørine Steenholdt -- see the milik publicity page --, if it gets translated .....)
       (It's also not the last of the Scandinavian languages I want to get to -- there's still Sami, Faroese .....)

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

       Translation in ... India

       As I have often noted, it's remarkable how little literature from India not written in English makes its away abroad. The ILA ('Indian Literature in Translation') project sounded like a great venture to address this -- but Manik Sharma can now only wonder (at Scroll.in) Why did India's ambitious global translations project, die prematurely ?
       Questionable punctuation, and spelling ("India's literary cannon"), aside, it's an interesting -- and depressing -- overview of a project with a lot of good people behind it.
       Obviously it didn't help that: "it appears that not a rupee was released by the Ministry of Culture, under which the project was to have run".
       Embarrassingly, "Almost all the committee members have been unaware of the status of the project since 2013, and most believe it has been shut down" -- even as it is listed among the 'three Projects running successfully under Sahitya Akademi' -- and they have a whole nice page devoted to the ... scheme.
       Sigh.

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

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       New Swedish Book Review

       Issue 2016:1 of the Swedish Book Review is now available, with much of the content freely accessibly online -- including the most interesting part, the reviews: among authors with previously-translated-into-English works under review are Jonas Karlsson, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Aris Fioretos, and P.C.Jersild.

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

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       A Contrived World review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jung Young-moon's A Contrived World, forthcoming from Dalkey Archive Press.

       This is the second work by Jung they've brought out in their Library of Korean Literature-series -- and Deep Vellum will be publishing his Vaseline Buddha this summer (see their publicity page).

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

       Translation in ... Burma

       Via I'm pointed to Thi Ri Han reporting on the Tough Times for Translators in Burma at Frontier Myanmar, as: "the golden age of revered translators has long passed". (I have to say I'm rather suspicious of any claims of any 'golden age of translators', anywhere .....)
       Apparently the censorship-hangover still has lingering after-effects -- including that: "a budding young generation of translators has emerged in recent years, but many remain weak in the quality and quantity of their work".
       And interesting to hear that:

"It's been very bad, almost half of this book was censored, so it was not published," he said, pointing to his translation of Norwegian Wood by acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. "Indiscriminate censoring has made translators reluctant to do their job"

       (Of course, recall that much of Murakami's work is pared down in English translation, too -- for 'editorial' reasons, as if that were any better .....)

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

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       Aegon Művészeti Díj

       A reader points out to me that they've announced this years's Aegon Művészeti Díj -- a leading Hungarian literary prize -- and Oravecz Imre's volume of poetry, Távozó fa, took the prize.
       As the list of winners (and shortlisted titles) suggests, this prize has a pretty decent track record, and offers a good overview of some of the best literature currently being published in Hungary. (2006 winner Captivity is the only winning title under review at the complete review, but quite a few other titles by other shortlisted authors are also under review.)

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

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       New issue of Asymptote

       The April issue of Asymptote is now available online, which should just about cover you as far as weekend-reading goes. The usual broad assortment, to cover all your possible interests.

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

       International literary reputations

       At the PEN World Atlas Erica Jarnes has an interesting piece on 'the theme of 'reputation' with respect to non-Anglophone writers', World literatures and literary worlds (apparently originally published in In Other Words, but not freely accessible there).
       Well worth a read, and thinking about -- not least, for example, for such titbits such as that, looking at PEN Translates grants between 2012 and 2015:

We found that out of 34 titles submitted in French, 25 were by French writers and the remaining nine were by writers from Morocco, Algeria, Iran, Afghanistan, Canada and the Republic of Congo. But all 34 were acquired by UK publishers from publishing houses in Paris, who had acquired them from local publishers in the source countries where relevant; in other words, for the UK publishers in our sample, Paris seems to have been the gate-keeper of literature written in French, no matter where the writers themselves were from or based.

       That is shocking and embarrassing -- and suggests yet again how limited publishers' perspectives are -- that they are unable (for whatever reason) to make the effort to look further afield for themselves, and prefer instead to fall back on convenience, and on the herd-mentality of what everyone else is doing.
       Jarnes seems more optimistic -- but, much as I see the value of, e.g. the 'new high-profile Man Booker International Prize' I don't think it's "really exciting" -- indeed, translation-supporting-wise, I can't imagine anything more staid and old-establishment (as it's just-announced shortlist -- see my mention just yesterday -- again proves -- though I hasten to add: that's not entirely a bad thing (but it's certainly not an exciting thing, or something that will in any way shake things up)).

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

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       Forthcoming from the Library of Arabic Literature

       At her Arabic Literature (in English) weblog M. Lynx Qualey previews what's Forthcoming from the Library of Arabic Literature -- that's the NYU Press Library of Arabic Literature, and it looks like they're continuing to bring out a wonderful selection of titles. A lot here to look forward to.

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

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       NYTBR Q & A

       At Poets & Writers Michael Taeckens has a Q & A with the editor of The New York Times Book Review, Pamela Paul.
       Not too much background-dirt, unfortunately -- she remains diplomatic about the inner workings -- but folks always seem eager for any glimpse into the NYTBR.

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

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       Profile: Mario Vargas Llosa

       In The New York Times David Streitfeld profiles Mario Vargas Llosa on Love, Spectacle and Becoming a Legend.

       (Seventeen of Vargas Llosa's books are under review at the complete review.)

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

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       Profile: Ali Bader

       At Qantara.de Marcia Lynx Qualey profiles Papa Sartre-author Ali Bader, in When Fatima became Sophie.

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

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       A Terrace in Rome review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Pascal Quignard's A Terrace in Rome, just out in English from Wakefield Press in a beautiful little pocket-sized edition.

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

       Man Booker International Prize shortlist

       They've now announced the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize (the new version of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize), and the six titles left in the running are:

• The Four Books by Yan Lianke, tr. Carlos Rojas
  
  
• A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, tr. Daniel Hahn
  
  
• The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante, tr. Ann Goldstein
  
  
• A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk, tr. Ekin Oklap
  
  
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang, tr. Deborah Smith
  
  
• A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, tr. Charlotte Collins

       Some surprises there -- Ōe Kenzaburō's Death by Water and Fiston Mwanza Mujila's Tram 83 are the two longlisted titles I thought stood a better chance of making the final six -- but this also leaves the interesting scenario of a possible Best Translated Book Award double this year, as three of the finalist are also still in the BTBA-running, having been longlisted (see my previous mention): the Agualusa, the Ferrante, and the Yan Lianke.

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

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       Minsoo Kang Q & A

       At The Rumpus Ryan Krull has a Q & A with Minsoo Kang, the translator and editor of the recently-reviewed-here The Story of Hong Gildong (which I really enjoyed).

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

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       Escape Attempt review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Miguel Ángel Hernández's interesting modern-art novel, Escape Attempt, just out in English from Hispabooks.

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

       Alexander Kanengoni (1951-2016)

       Zimbabwean author Alexander Kanengoni has passed away; see, for example, the ZBC report, Journalist, war vet Kanengoni dies.
       He was one of the leading writers of the Zimbabwean struggle for independence; see, for example Brian Chikwava (first entry) and Sekai Nzenza (third entry) on two of his novels here, at Warscapes.
       Chikwava writes of Kanengoni's Echoing Silences (see the publicity page, and get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk):

According to Tolstoy, one must only write when he/she can leave a piece of his/her flesh in the inkpot with every dip of the pen. If a writer's success is measured in these terms, then Kanengoni, an ex-combatant himself, succeeds enormously.

       (And, yes, Kanengoni does get a (brief, incidental) mention in my The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction -- in case you haven't gotten your copy yet .....)

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

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       Griffin Poetry Prize shortlists

       They've announced the Griffin Poetry Prize shortlists -- apparently selected from : "633 books of poetry, from 43 countries, including 25 translations" (though, alas, the considered titles are not revealed to us); the winners receive C$65,000 (along with the C$10,000 fee all finalist receive for playing along at the 'Shortlist Readings' on 1 June).
       That link goes to the press release; there's also a ... fancier (?) shortlists-announcing page -- and while I know this site has the most ridiculously antiquated design etc. etc. it's this kind of page, apparently the future of the 'web' (and presumably tailored to mobile devices), that I dread above all else -- what a horror ! a single, scrolling horror !

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

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       The Complete Review Guide, measured by marginal product ...

       Okay, it's not the first metric I think of in assessing books -- but, sure, I certainly welcome it as applied to my just/about out The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction (Columbia University Press; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk), as Tyler Cowen kindly mentions it at his Marginal Revolution weblog, and suggests:

If you measure book quality by the actual marginal product of the text, this is one of the best books written, ever.

       So I'm hoping a good number of you measure book-quality this way -- and that you too will find the Guide stacks up reasonably well in this regard .....

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

       Prize shortlist: International DUBLIN Literary Award

       They've announced the ten-title strong shortlist for the International DUBLIN Literary Award -- that hard-to-explain, library-nominated prize that considers both titles in translation along with those originally written in English,
       The shortlisted titles are:

• Academy Street by Mary Costello
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
• Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
• Diary of the Fall by Michel Laub
• The End of Daysby Jenny Erpenbeck
• Family Life by Akhil Sharma
• Lila by Marilynne Robinson
• Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
• Outlaws by Javier Cercas
• Your Fathers, Where Are They? And The Prophets, Do They Live Forever ? by Dave Eggers

       That's four out of ten titles in translation -- and some English-language heavyweights (Robinson's National Book Critics Circle Award-winner; Marlon James' Man Booker winner), as well as the expected head-scratcher (Eggers ?).
       This is yet another shortlisting for Susan Bernofsky's translation of the Erpenbeck -- a title that didn't even make the longlist for last year's Best Translated Book Award (for which I was a judge ...), making this look even more like the biggest oversight in the history of that award.
       See also Eileen Battersby's entertainingly opinionated reaction to the shortlist in the Irish Times -- complete with (deafeningly) ringing Erpenbeck-endorsement ("possibly the first true literary masterpiece of the 21st century" -- a claim I'm afraid I can not come close to agreeing with).

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

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       Prize shortlist: Women's Prize for Fiction

       They've announced the shortlist for the (UK) Women's Prize for Fiction, with six titles left in the running.
       The winner will be announced 8 June.

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

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       Dream Messenger review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Shimada Masahiko's Dream Messenger.

       This 1989 novel by the popular Japanese author came out from Kodansha in 1992 -- and then in a Warner Bros. (!) paperback in 1994. And that's probably pretty much the last you heard of Shimada ..... (They finally translated another of his books a few years ago -- Death By Choice; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk -- but that's been it, more or less.)
       What happened ? Well, I'd suggest the publisher's decision to have the book: 'Translated and adapted by Philip Gabriel with the permission of the author' was ... unwise. That 'adapted' part, in particular. ((Gotta love the fact that after screwing over the author by messing up his work (with his 'permission' of course -- that's what they call that gun-to-his-head: accede or we won't publish it in the lucrative English-language market choice they gave him) they screwed over translator/'adapter' Gabriel, who got neither translation nor any other copyright: the English language version is: "Copyright © 1992 by Kodansha International Ltd."*)
       Along with Yamada Amy, you have to figure Shimada is the most prominent Japanese author whose English-language career was basically sabotaged and ruined -- trashed, even -- by his publishers' outlandish treatment of his text. Just translate the books, folks. Don't 'edit'. Please. Thank you.

       [*: The safe rule-of-thumb really is: if it is a translated work, and the translator does not get copyright credit -- throw that book away. Just far, far away. I know there are ... exceptions (Ferrante, and everything else Europa Editions (and similarly (mis)inclined publishers put out), but for the most part this rule will serve you very well.]

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

       Prizes: Los Angeles Times Book Prizes

       They announced the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, which cover a variety of categories, over the weekend -- and one of the winners is even under review at the complete review: fiction winner The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (a rare case of a work-in-translation taking a bigger US literary prize).

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

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       Prizes: Sheikh Zayed Literature Awards

       They've announced the winners of the Sheikh Zayed Literature Awards, a major Arabic-language literary award which also awards prizes in a number of categories (including one non-Arabic one, the 'Arab Culture in Other Languages Award'). (It also has an impressive pay-out: the AED 750,000 each category-winner gets is equivalent to over US$200,000.)
       The 'Literature Award' went to ما وراء الكتابة ('Beyond Writing'), by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid -- while: "titles in both 'Children's Literature' and 'Young Author' categories did not meet the Award's standards" (which is kind of disappointing to hear).
       Quite a few of Ibrahim Abdel Meguid's works have been translated into English -- see the American University in Cairo Press' offerings. (And, yes, he does rate a (very short) mention in my The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction .)

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

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       32 review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Sahar Mandour's novel of contemporary (well, ca. 2010) Beirut, 32, just out from Syracuse University Press.

       (This is yet another book that I get to include on one of my favorite -- if fairly pointless -- site-indices, the Index of titles beginning with/consisting of numbers.)

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

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