opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 January 2020

1 January: Sonny Mehta (1942-2019) | More international 2019 best of / looks back | Deutscher Krimipreis | 2020
2 January: Best translated Russian books 2019 | Most Popular Reviews - 2019 | The Black Cathedral review
3 January: New World Literature Today | Books to rediscover and republish | Arabic books coming in translation
4 January: Other blog/site year in review/reading posts | Bookselling in ... Iceland | The Pine Islands review
5 January: Coming in 2020 in translation from ... the Japanese | Bestselling of the decade in ... France | Maigret appreciation
6 January: Coming in 2020 in translation from ... the French | Top comics of 2019 in Germany | The Town with Acacia Trees review | 2019 in review at the complete review
7 January: Whitbread Costa category winners | Virginie Despentes quits Académie Goncourt | Audiobook popularity
8 January: Booker Prize judges | A Case of Exploding Mangoes (not) in Pakistan | SF in Brazil | Quarry review
9 January: Banipal Prize | Coming in 2020 | Translation from ... the Latvian
10 January: Shortlists: The Hindu Prize - RBC Taylor Prize - Romain Rolland Book Prize | Disturbance review

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Shortlists: The Hindu Prize

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's The Hindu Prize, a leading Indian literary prize; among the fiction finalists is Upamanyu Chatterjee's collection of stories, The Assassination of Indira Gandhi; see also the Speaking Tiger publicity page.
       The winners will be announced in April.

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

---

       Shortlist: RBC Taylor Prize

       The five finalists for this year's RBC Taylor Prize, the Canadian prize whose mandate is: "to enhance public appreciation for the genre known as literary non-fiction", have been announced.
       The winner will be announced on 2 March; it is the final time the prize will be awarded.

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

---

       Shortlist: Romain Rolland Book Prize

       The Romain Rolland Book Prize is awarded by the French Institute of India for the best translation from the French into an Indian language, and they've now announced this year's finalists; see the ... Instagram post.
       The finalists are three Astérix-volumes translated into Hindi, the Bengali traslation of Leïla Slimani's Chanson Douce, the Tamil translation of Hubert Haddad's Corps désirable, and a Malayalam translation of a Simone de Beauvoir.
       The winner will be announced at the at Zee Jaipur Literature Festival on 23 January.

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

---

       Disturbance review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Philippe Lançon's account of Surviving Charlie Hebdo, Disturbance, recently out from Europa Editions.

       Lançon will be on tour in the US 23 January to 1 February.

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

       Banipal Prize

       Most of the winners of the Society of Authors' Translation Prizes will only be announced at the ceremony 12 February, but they have now announced the winner of this year's Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and it is Leri Price for her translation of Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa; see also the Farrar, Straus and Giroux publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Coming in 2020

       The Millions have now published their Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2020 Book Preview, covering some 140 books.
       Meanwhile, at Buzzfeed Arianna Rebolini and Tomi Obaro explain These Are Our Most Highly Anticipated Books Of 2020 -- 83 titles, both fiction and non.

       Neither, however, includes the second volume of Peter Weiss' The Aesthetics of Resistance, coming from Duke University Presss (fifteen years after the first volume was published in translation; there's still one more to go) -- surely one of the highlights of the year.

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

---

       Translation from ... the Latvian

       Lsm.lv reports that “Latvian Literature” spends almost 140 000 euros publishing works abroad, as:

Latvian Literature export platform “Latvian Literature” spent 138 829 euros in 2019 translating and publishing 29 works of Latvian literature abroad

       The 29 works were translated into 25 different languages.

       I only finally got around to reviewing a work translated from the Latvian last year -- an Albert Bels novel -- and I'm very much looking forward to another Bels title, his Insomnia, forthcoming from Parthian Books.

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

       Booker Prize judges

       They've announced the judges for the 2020 Booker Prize: Margaret Busby (chair), Lee Child, Sameer Rahim, Lemn Sissay, and Emily Wilson.

       I wonder if Child will get them to confirm whether or not his publishers ever submitted any of his novels for the prize (though I think we all know the answer to that one ...). (Outrageously, like many literary prizes, they don't reveal the titles that are actually considered for the prize.)

       The longlist will be announced in July; the shortlist in September; and the winner 27 October.

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

---

       A Case of Exploding Mangoes (not) in Pakistan

       Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes came out quite a while ago, but the Urdu translation is relatively recent, and it's now attracted some unwanted attention in Pakistan; as the BBC reports, Exploding Mangoes seized in Pakistan raids.
       A bit late in the day, but it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

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

---

       SF in Brazil

       In the new Locus Roberto Causo offers a good overview of the current situation re. SF in Brazil.

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

---

       Quarry review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Célia Houdart's 2011 novel, Quarry, now (just about) out in English from Dalkey Archive Press.

       An impressive command here -- definitely an author I'd like to see more from. (I hadn't seen any of her work previously; will definitely be keeping an eye out now; Villa Crimée (see the P.O.L. publicity page), for example, definitely sounds of interest.)

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

---

If you want to support the site,
consider becoming a patron:

Or, via PayPal:

       Whitbread Costa category winners

       The Whitbread Costa Book Awards have announced the winners in the prize's five categories -- first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book --; these five titles are now in the running for the final Costa Book Award, to be announced 28 January.
       One of the category winners -- best novel -- is under review at the complete review: Jonathan Coe's Middle England.

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

---

       Virginie Despentes quits Académie Goncourt

       Vernon Subutex-author Virginie Despentes has resigned from the prix Goncourt-deciding Académie Goncourt -- though not for any scandalous reason: her official statement (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) explains that she needs/wants more time to write, and that she's relocating to Barcelona, which makes regular attendance in Paris more of an imposition.

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

---

       Audiobook popularity

       For a while it was e-books that were the fastest growing sector in publishing, but now its audiobooks that are hot, and at the BBC site Clare Thorp reports on Audiobooks: The rise and rise of the books you don't read.
       Impressive, what's now on offer -- including how fancy some of the productions have become -- but I'm afraid they fall on deaf ears as far as my reading-habits go; I remain devoted to text, plain and simple. (Similarly, I still have never managed to listen to an online podcast; I'm no great video fan either.)

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

       Coming in 2020 in translation from ... the French

       The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. has an impressive overview of French Books in the U.S. - The 2020 Edition, covering all genres, complete with a full list (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) of all the titles.
       Among the interesting notes, too:

In 2020, 117 fiction books, a majority of which were released in France over the last 3 years, will be published in the United States. In contrast, in 2019 and 2018, over half of the translated publications dated back 5 and 10 years, respectively.

       And it's (somewhat) surprising that only:

32% of the fiction books to be published in 2020 were written by women, a similar proportion to last year.

       Beyond 117 fiction books, they report that 140 non-fiction books are scheduled, and 112 graphic novels.

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

---

       Top comics of 2019 in Germany

       The German magazine Comics has released their Comic-Bestenliste - 2019, with 30 critics voting on the top 20 comics published in Germany in 2019.
       The top-ranked comic that originally appeared in English -- a Posy Simmonds -- only clocks in at sixth; overall it's an impressively international selection.

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

---

       The Town with Acacia Trees review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Mihail Sebastian's 1935 novel, The Town with Acacia Trees, now out in English from Aurora Metro Books.

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

---

       2019 in review at the complete review

       The year that was at the site, in (some) numbers:

       In 2019, 209 books were reviewed at the complete review, slightly down from 2018 (217). (The soft target each year is 200.)

       You can find the 50 most popular reviews, 2019 here. (I've mentioned these previously, here.)

       The most popular (of the not particularly popular) author pages were:

1. Amélie Nothomb
2. Patrick White
3. Murakami Haruki
4. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
5. Roberto Bolaño

       Just like last year, the top four were also the previous year's top four -- though in different order, with Nothomb coming out number one this year.

       The most popular review-indices were for:

1. Far East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) literature
2. Books from selected Imprints and Publishers
3. French literature
4. Erotic, Pornographic, and Sex-related books
5. Eastern European literature
6. Mysteries and Thrillers
7. German literature
8. Books Written Before 1900
9. Latin and South American literature
10. Scandinavian literature

       The erotic index was the most popular in 2018, but it plunged to fourth in 2019; surprisingly, the index to Indian literature fell all the way out of the top 10.

       I received 437 review copies in 2019, a considerable (and very welcome) increase from the 384 received the previous year and the most since 2016.
       The leading providers of review copies were mostly the usual suspects, with a particularly strong showing from university presses; Harvard University Press was propelled to the top spot in large measure by their various excellent bilingual classical series, beating out last year's leader New York Review Books, even though I received considerably more NYR titles in 2019 than 2018 (30, versus 23).
       Big-five imprints contributed a fairly small number of titles -- though it was good to finally receive at least a decent selection of Pengun Classics (even if a considerable percentage were Simenons ...); World Editions was also a basically new source.
       The top ten providers of review copies in 2019 were:

• 1. Harvard University Press (40)
• 2. New York Review Books (30)
• 3. Other Press (25)
• 4. Penguin Classics (19)
• 5. Oxford University Press (16)
• 6. Columbia University Press (14)
• -. New Directions (14)
• -. World Editions (14)
• -. Yale University Press (14)
• 10. Dalkey Archive Press (13)

       As of 31 December 2019 I had reviewed 102 of the titles acquired this way (i.e. not including library or bought books, etc.) --: 23.34% of all review copies received over the course of the year, and accounting for 48.80% of all titles reviewed. (Amazingly, this is almost the exact number of 2018 review-copies reviewed by year's end in 2018, when it was 101.) (Obviously, a considerable number of titles are only reviewed the year (or years ...) after they've been received/acquired -- I've already reviewed three more 2019 review-copies in 2020, for example, while 25 review-copies received in 2018 were reviewed in 2019.)

       Books originally written in 45 languages (up slightly from 44 in 2018) were reviewed. It's particularly nice to see that a significant number of languages weren't simply one-offs: more than one book in each of 21 languages was reviewed -- though there was also a particularly good showing for titles in English this year.
       The top ten languages were:

• 1. English 46 (22.01% of all books) (2018: 35)
• 2. French 39 (2018: 37)
• 3. German 20.5 (17)
• 4. Japanese 18 (22)
• 5. Spanish 12 (13)
• 6. Dutch 7
• 7. Korean 5
• -. Russian 5
• 9. Norwegian 4
• 10. Italian 3.5

       Counting countries is a bit less useful, since they change (and occasionally disappear) over the decades and centuries, but books by authors from more or less 59 countries (or rather: 59 more or less countries) were reviewed (2018: 54), the top ten being:

• 1. France 30 (2018: 28)
• 2. UK 22 (13)
• 3. Japan 18 (22)
• 4. US 13
• 5. Germany 12
• 6. India 9
• 7. Austria 8
• 8. Belgium 7
• 9. Italy 5
• -. Netherlands 5

       Fiction was, as always, dominant: 163 of the reviews were of novels, along with reviews of three novellas and eight story-collections. Eighteen works were of general non-fiction, along with six poetry collections and (disappointingly only) two dramas.

       Recent publications again dominated, with 18 works originally published (in the language they were written in, not the English translation) in 2019, the scecond highest total for any year, behind 2017 (19).
       Yet again, the 1980s were a (relatively) unpopular decade, while there was a big jump in titles from the 1960s (from 10 to 20):

• 1990s: 17
• 1980s: 8
• 1970s: 17
• 1960s: 20
• 1950s: 1
• 1940s: 4
• 1930s: 7
• 1920s: 2
• 1910s: 2
• 1900s: 1

       Seven titles from the nineteenth century were reviewed, as well as seven from earlier than that -- slight increases in both categories.

       The ratio of male-to-female authors was not good, but it was several points above the terrible historical average, with 22.01% of titles by women (46).

       No title was graded 'A+' in 2019, but two were graded 'A':

• Waves, by Eduard von Keyserling
• Welcome to America, by Linda Boström Knausgård.

       As in 2018, the lowest grade was a 'C', and again it was only awarded to one title, Johanna Sinisalo's Renaten tarina.

       Books reviewed ranged in length from 70 to 1582 pages (2018: 33/1152). Only ten titles were over 500 pages long (2018: 16), and only nine were less than 100 pages long (2018: 15); while five were under 50 pages long in 2018, none were in 2019.
       The total number of pages reviewed was down slightly, to 54,185 (compared to 56,101 in 2018), but the average reviewed book came in slightly longer, at 259.26 pages. the median -- 228 -- was also up from 2018 (220).

       The length of the average review again increased significantly, to 1352 words (2018: 1167.76 words), and the reviews posted in 2019 totaled 282,561 words, almost 30,000 more than in 2018 (253,405). The longest review was 6501 words long, two more were over 4000 words, and seventeen more over 2000; only one was under 500 words. The median review was 1213 words long, up from 1063 in 2018.

       Disappointingly, site traffic as a whole continued to decline: the number of visitors was down 10.00% compared to 2018, while page-views were down 6.73%.
       At least there was a significant increase in traffic from a variety of countries, notably in eastern Asia -- traffic from China was up 56.75% (pushing it to 13th place, up from 24th in 2018) and from Japan it was up 24.98% (pushing it to 16th place, up from 22nd in 2018).
       There were visitors from 221 countries and territories in 2019 (2018: 220).

       The countries from which the most traffic came were:

1. United States (34.49%; 2018: 33.17%;)
2. India (13.27%)
3. United Kingdom (7.55%)
4. Canada (4.30%)
5. Philippines (4.20%)
6. Nigeria
7. Australia
8. Germany
9. Netherlands
10. South Africa

       The top ten nations remained unchanged, with only the Netherlands and South Africa switching positions.

       Visitors to the site still overwhelmingly reach it via search-queries -- and Google search queries at that (Bing, DuckDuckGo, and anything else are barely a trickle compared to the Google flood) -- while outside site-referrals continue to depressingly barely rate a mention.

       Only two titles shifted double-digit amounts of copies purchased by users via the Amazon.com links on the review-pages -- The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by Cameron McCabe and Waves by Eduard von Keyserling.

       As usual, I am disappointed by the many books I didn't get to, and that I didn't cover an even greater variety of titles (language, genre, period), but overall I think it was a pretty decent selection. And there's always next (this) year .....

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

       Coming in 2020 in translation from ... the Japanese

       In The Japan Times Iain Maloney has an overview of a selection of The books and translations about Japan to watch out for in 2020; a few not listed there are noted by Lines from the Horizon in an older post (with update hopefully to follow ...) -- including one of the most-anticipated titles, Kawakami Mieko's Breasts and Eggs; see also the Europa Editions publicity page. (Kawakami's Ms Ice Sandwich is the only one of her works translated so far.)
       Great to see there will also be new books by Convenience Store Woman-author Murata Sayaka and The Factory-author Oyamada Hiroko -- and more.

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

---

       Bestselling of the decade in ... France

       Livres Hebdo/GFK have determined the top twenty bestselling titles in France over the past decade; the article reporting on this is (largely) paywalled, but you can actually find and click through all twenty titles in the 'Livres cités (20)'-column on the left side of the piece .....
       The top seller was Stéphane Hessel's Time for Outrage !, followed by quite a few Asterix-comics (four of the next five titles). Impressively, Elena Ferrante (just) beat out E.L.James (though with four titles in the top 20, her series as a whole did better) -- and Camus' The Stranger came in a strong eleventh.
       Two other titles are under review at the complete review: The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker (17th) and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (18th).
       No actual sales numbers, however .....

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

---

       Maigret appreciation

       With Penguin Classics having completed their six-year project of bringing out all of Georges Simenon's Maigret-novels in new translations -- with Maigret and Monsieur Charles (get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) the seventy-fifth, final volume -- Graeme Macrae Burnet offers an appreciation in The Observer, Put that in your pipe: why the Maigret novels are still worth savouring.
       I've gotten to a few of these -- see, for example, Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse -- and I have a pile more to get to.
       Of course, as I've mentioned before, what I really would love to see is more of Simenon's romans durs -- many of which haven't even been previously translated.

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

       Other blog/site year in review/reading posts

       I always enjoy the personal and personal-website/blog year-in-review/reading overviews, especially when they share books-read lists and numbers and statistics; The Millions always has their 'A Year in Reading'-collection -- from almost a hundred authors this year, which is enough to keep you busy for a while -- but here are a small selection of other posts from readers and sites I also follow:

• ANZ LitLovers LitBlog: 2019: ANZ LitLovers stats
  
  
• Biblioklept: Annotations on a probably incomplete list of books I read or reread in full in 2019
  
  
• The Book Binder's Daughter: Communication in the Midst of Solitude: My Year in Reading -- 2019
  
  
• Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau: 2019 Year in Reading
  
  
• His Futile Preoccupations .....: It’s a Wrap: 2019 -- best-of-year round up
  
  
• The Modern Novel: comprehensive End of year review 2019
  
  
• Novel Readings: Rohan Maitzen's 2019: My Year In Reading
  
  
• Pechorin's Journal: Such are the debts among men; they’re paid with songs and bullets. -- books read, and a variety of 'bests'
  
  
• roughghosts: Wrapping up another year in reading: Farewell to 2019 and a long decade
  
  
• Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations: Joachim Boaz on My 2019 in Review (Best SF Novels, Best SF Short Fiction, and Bonus Categories)
  
  
• Time's Flow Stemmed: A Year End Post of Sorts and now also 2019 in Review at Time's Flow Stemmed by Numbers
  
  
• Tiny Camels: Jonathan Gibbs on (Not) Books of the Year 2019
  
  
• Tony's Reading List: both The 2019 Tony's Reading List Awards and Your Favourite Posts of 2019 -- and now also The 2019 State of the Blog Address
  
  
• Waggish: David Auerbach's Books of the Year 2019

       My complete review 2019 overview post will be up in a couple of days.

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

---

       Bookselling in ... Iceland

       In The Reykjavík Grapevine they report that in Iceland Wordflood: ‘Bókamessa’ Boasts A Record-Breaking Year For Fiction And Poetry Books
       Impressively:

“There is 21% more Icelandic fiction this year than the year before, and 51% more poetry. It’s crazy,” [Bókamessa organizer Bryndís Loftsdóttir] explains.

       Sounds good.

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

---

       The Pine Islands review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Marion Poschmann's The Pine Islands.

       This German Book Prize-shortlisted title came out in the UK last year from Serpent's Tail (and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize); it's only coming to North America in April, from Coach House Books, but is certainly something to look out for.

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

       New World Literature Today

       The Winter issue of World Literature Today is now out, with a special section on 'The NSK Neustadt Prize: Margarita Engle'; lots of great content for the weekend -- especially, of course, the regular large collection of book reviews.

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

---

       Books to rediscover and republish

       In this week's Times Literary Supplement they offer: 'Some nominations for out-of-print books that deserve to be rediscovered and republished', in Tales of reconstruction, an always interesting exercise.
       Among those offering suggestions are William Boyd, Gabriel Josipovici, Caroline Moorehead, Ali Smith, and Marina Warner -- and yes, there are some very worthy choices here.

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

---

       Arabic books coming in translation

       At Arabic Literature (in English) there's now: A List: Arabic Literature Forthcoming in Translation in 2020.
       Some promising-sounding titles -- and al-Hariri's Impostures sounds really intriguing; see also the NYU Press/Library of Arabic Literature publicity page.

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

       Best translated Russian books 2019

       At Russia Beyond the Headlines Alexandra Guzeva suggests the 10 best Russian books translated into English in 2019.
       Only two of them are under review at the complete review -- Solovyov and Larionov and The Man Who Couldn't Die -- but I actually have five of the others and do hope to get to some more of them.
       Meanwhile, see also translator Lisa Hayden's year-in-review post at her weblog, Lizok's Bookshelf -- as well as her earlier post on Russian-to-English Translations for 2019 from late November, for a full list.
       And see also last month's RBTH piece on the 10 most important Russian books of the 2010s; the top three are under review at the complete review: The Light and the Dark, The Big Green Tent,, and Laurus.

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

---

       Most Popular Reviews - 2019

       As usual, most of the most popular reviews at the complete review for the year were much the same as the previous year -- though 16 of this year's top 50 weren't on the 2018 list, considerably more turnover than last year (when there were only ten different titles).
       The top ten -- all of which had been in the top fifteen in 2018 -- were:

1. The Dilemma of a Ghost, Ama Ata Aidoo
2. El Filibusterismo, José Rizal
3. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, Okot p'Bitek
4. The Three Mistakes of my Life, Chetan Bhagat
5. Five Point Someone, Chetan Bhagat
6. Samskara, U.R.Ananthamurthy
7. The Gift of a Cow, Premchand
8. Basti, Intizar Husain
9. Revolution 2020, Chetan Bhagat
10. Goat Days, Benyamin

       Only two 2019 titles cracked the top 50: Neal Stephenson's Fall (20th) and Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me (44th)
       I was also pleased to see two reviews from the previous two years break into the top 50: the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom (30th) and Thomas Mofolo's Chaka (43rd).

       See also the entire top 50, and the monthly top 15, on the page for the Most Popular Reviews - 2019.

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

---

       The Black Cathedral review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Cuban author Marcial Gala's The Black Cathedral, just about out in English from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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

       Sonny Mehta (1942-2019)

       Longtime Alfred A. Knopf head Sonny Mehta has passed away; see, for example, the obituaries in The New York Times (by Robert D. McFadden) and The Washington Post (by Sarah Weinman) or Sonny Mehta, Knopf Editor, Remembered by His Writers at The New York Times.

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

---

       More international 2019 best of / looks back

       More international best of the year lists and looks back at the year in books:

• The best books of 2019 at CBC Books
  
  
• HT reviewers pick the best books they've read in 2019 in the Hindustan Times
  
  
• Literary Highs of 2019 at India Today
  
  
• 2019 Literature power list -- Medha Dutta Yadav on: "some authors who created ripples through their work in 2019" at the New Indian Express
  
  
• Rétrospective: les douze meilleurs livres de 2019 at RTS
  
  
• Los mejores libros del 2019: "Críticos, columnistas, periodistas y libreros seleccionan lo más destacado del panorama editorial del año" at El Periódico
  
  
• The best Middle East books of the year -- picked by Middle East Eye writers
  
  
• Ahram Online's top 10 books of 2019: the best books from Egypt, or about Egypt, of 2019
  
  
• 2019 in review: 5 Malaysian literary highlights -- awards, libraries & festivals by Terence Toh at The Star

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

---

       Deutscher Krimipreis

       They've announced the winners of this year's German mystery-book prize.
       Berlin Prepper, by Johannes Groschupf, won the German-language category; see also the Suhrkamp foreign rights page.
       Hannelore Cayre's La daronne won the international category; it's been published in English, as The Godmother; see the publicity pages from Old Street Publishing and ECW Press, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk; it's already picked up a couple of other prizes.

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

---

       2020

       The full 2019 year-in-numbers post will follow in a few days, but it was a year like most hereabouts: just over 200 reviews, covering a wide range of books (mostly fiction) from a very wide range of languages.
       I don't expect 2020 to be much different -- though I do hope to cover certain areas better: more older books, especially classical literature; more drama; some more non-fiction. I have found my short-story-collection antipathy to continue to grow stronger, but will continue to have to deal with some (the backlog of significant collections keeps growing, too ...). I continue to find reading in e-formats annoying and have been avoiding that as much as possible too -- also problematic, because quite a few promising titles are only accessible to me as such; I'll try and cover more, but I do hate the format.

       As always, I appreciate your continuing patronage, and I'm glad you continue to find the site of use and interest.

       Looking forward to 2020 -- with much good reading for us all, I hope !

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

previous entries (21 - 31 December 2019)

archive index

- return to top of the page -

© 2020 the complete review


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