opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 October 2020

21 October: Cundill History Prize finalists | New look for The New York Review of Books site | The Constant Rabbit review
22 October: Bookselling in ... Nepal | Prix Femina finalists | The Perfect Nine review
23 October: International DUBLIN Literary Award | Diagram Prize shortlist | Martin Amis Q & A | Indian Novels Collective
24 October: CWA Daggers | PW's best books of 2020 | The Dark Library review
25 October: Writers on the upcoming election | Steven Shaviro Q & A
26 October: ACFNY Translation Prize reminder | Chinese censorship abroad ? | Kraft review
27 October: Warwick Prize longlist | 'Libraries and manuscripts of Laos' | Web of Murder review
28 October: Nordic Council Literature Prize | Prix Goncourt finalists | Q & As: Assamese Literature - Martin Amis
29 October: Boubacar Boris Diop on decolonizing African literature | Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize | Tibor Déry Prize
30 October: Goncourt (and other) prize announcements delayed | Prix Fu Lei finalists
31 October: Newman Prize for Chinese Literature | Christopher MacLehose steps down | Eline Vere review

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       Newman Prize for Chinese Literature

       They've announced the winner of this year's Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, and it is Yan Lianke -- and:

He will be celebrated at an online symposium and award ceremony held on the OU Norman campus March 4-5.

       Several of Yan's works are under review at the complete review:

• The Explosion Chronicles
• The Four Books
• Lenin's Kisses
• Serve the People !

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

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       Christopher MacLehose steps down

       After leading MacLehose Press for thirteen years Christopher MacLehose has stepped down as publisher; see, for example the report in The Bookseller by Katherine Cowdrey.
       He's certainly had a good run -- just as he previously had running Harvill; in both positions he has been a leading publisher of fiction in translation. It'll be interesting to see what he does next.

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       Eline Vere review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Novel of the Hague by Louis Couperus, his 1889 novel Eline Vere.

       Yes, this translation came out from Archipelago ten years ago (and from Pushkin Press in the UK), but I've only gotten around to properly reviewing it now -- mainly because I've been meaning to get to Sheila Liming's What a Library Means to a Woman (see the University of Minnesota Press publicity page) and I see that she devotes quite a bit of space to it ..... (But it was definitely worth revisiting anyway.)

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

       Goncourt (and other) prize announcements delayed

       As I mentioned two days ago, they've announced the four finalists for the prix Goncourt, the leading French fiction prize, and they had planned on announcing the winner on 10 November. In the meantime, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a new lockdown, closing all but essential services (see also, for example, the BBC report, Coronavirus: Macron declares second national lockdown in France). Among the businesses that are supposed to close up shop: bookstores -- though, as for example Alison Flood reported in The Guardian, French bookshops ask to be treated as essential services during new lockdown.
       Now the Académie Goncourt has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) that they will not award their prize as planned if bookstores are closed at the time (as, under the Macron plan, they would be). Given the importance of the prix Goncourt to book sales -- winning titles rack up huge sales, almost inevitably lifting the winning title to one of the bestselling books of the year in France -- and the fact that consumers would only be able to buy the book online (i.e. most probably at Amazon ...), this is a helpful show of solidarity with bricks and mortar booksellers.
       As Livres Hebdo reports, several other major French prizes -- it's book-prize season in France, when many are usually announced -- have also announced delays in their proceedings.

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       Prix Fu Lei finalists

       The Prix Fu Lei de la traduction et de l'édition is a prize for the best French works translated into Chinese that they've been awarding since 2009, and they've now announced this year's ten finalists, five each in the essay category (selected from 28 submissions) and the literature category (20 submissions).
       Among the literature finalists are translations of Raymond Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes and Éric Vuillard's The Order of the Day.

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

       Boubacar Boris Diop on decolonizing African literature

       At Africa is a Country The Knight and His Shadow-author Boubacar Boris Diop writes: "on the problematic circuits of teaching African literature first legitimized in Europe in African universities", in Decolonizing African literature begins with language.
       He notes that:

The truth is, it is the Western idea of Africa that is more frequently taught than Africa itself.

       And he argues:

The decolonization of the mind can only become the order of the day if it can engage African languages as the conduits of knowledge.

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       Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize

       The British Academy has announced the winner of this year's Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, their £25,000 non-fiction book prize, and it is Imperial Intimacies, by Hazel V. Carby.
       See also the Verso publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Tibor Déry Prize

       At hlo they report that Winners of Tibor Déry Prize Announced, "awarded to outstanding creators in Hungarian literary life"; among this year's winner is translator Ottilie Mulzet.

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

       Nordic Council Literature Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Nordic Council Literature Prize, the leading Scandinavian book prize, and it is Vem dödade bambi ? ('Who killed Bambi ?'), by Monika Fagerholm.
       Fagerholm is Finnish, but she is part of the strong Swedish-writing tradition in Finland. Several of her previous works have been translated into English; two are available from Other Press. For more information about Vem dödade bambi ? see also the Salomonsson Agency information page.

       A surprising number of Nordic Council Literature Prize winners are under review at the complete review.

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

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       Prix Goncourt finalists

       They've announced the four finalists for this year's prix Goncourt, the leading French novel prize.
       Previous work by two of the finalists has already been published in English translation -- works by Hervé Le Tellier (six are under review at the complete review; see, for example, Ebough about Love) and Camille de Toledo (Coming of Age at the End of History), while another book by Maël Renouard is due out from New York Review Books in February -- but Cameroonian author Djaïli Amadou Amal's title sounds like the most intrighuing of the final four.
       The winner will be announced 10 November.

       Meanwhile, they've also announced the three finalists for this year's Grand Prix de littérature américaine; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report; the winner will be announced 8 November.

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       Q & A: Assamese Literature

       At The Wire Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty has a Q & A where: 'Asam Sahitya Sabha president Kuladhar Saikia speaks about digitising the literary treasure of Assam and encouraging a new generation of writers', in 'Assamese Literature Should Evolve To Meet the Challenges of Changing Times'.

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

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       Q & A: Martin Amis

       At Esquire Ryan Chapman has a Q & A with the author, What Martin Amis Really Thinks About ... Everyone.
       He kind of (really ...) punts when responding to: "Every interview asks about your father, but it seems your late stepmother Elizabeth Jane Howard was also influential in your writing life", but mostly it's all fairly entertaining.

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

       Warwick Prize longlist

       They've announced the sixteen-title strong longlist for this year's Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, selected from 132 eligible entries representing 34 languages.
       Only two of the titles are under review at the complete review:

• Abigail, by Szabó Magda, translated by Len Rix
  
  
• The Eighth Life, by Nino Haratischvili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin.

       This is a UK-based prize, so not all the titles have been published or are readily available in the US; still, I am shocked and disappointed that I have only seen two more of these. (One of them is the Ditlevsen, which is only due out in the US in January.)
       The shortlist will be announced in a few weeks; the winner will be announced on 26 November.

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

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       'Libraries and manuscripts of Laos'

       At the British Library's Asian and African studies blog, Volker Grabowsky writes about the Libraries and manuscripts of Laos (1994-2012) -- well worth a look.

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       Web of Murder review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Harry Whittington's 1958 pulp novel, Web of Murder.

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

       ACFNY Translation Prize reminder

       Today is the Austrian National Day -- the 'Nationalfeiertag' --, a national holiday and surely a good opportunity for you to work on your submission for this year's ACFNY Translation Prize. You have until Saturday -- the 31st -- to get your submission in.

       (I am one of the judges this year, and look forward to seeing all the submissions !)

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

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       Chinese censorship abroad ?

       At Deutsche Welle Mathias Bölinger reports that Chinese censors target German publishers.
       The pressure is still mostly at the edges, but of course it's not a great sign that stuff like this is happening.
       (As far as I can tell, these kinds of attempts at message- and image-control don't really work, especially over the long term; that doesn't make them any less troubling.)

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

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       Kraft review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jonas Lüscher's 2017 Swiss Book Prize-winning novel, Kraft, just (about) out in English.

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

       Writers on the upcoming election

       In The Guardian they offer 'How do we become a serious people again ?' Dave Eggers, Annie Proulx and more on the 2020 election in the US.
       Unsurprisingly, they express ... disappointment with the failed Trump presidency. (Yes, no one here making the case for four more years of this -- though given the fact that Trump is almost certain to receive at least 40 per cent of the popular vote I'd have thought they could have found someone.)

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

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       Steven Shaviro Q & A

       At Big Echo -- indeed, in its final issue -- they have an interesting Interview with Steven Shaviro -- about science fiction and philosophy.
       Shaviro finds:

The best thing about science fiction today, and for the past decade, is its wide-ranging eclecticism. There are more and different things going on than ever before.

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

       CWA Daggers

       The British Crime Writers' Association has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winners of this year's CWA Daggers; see also Ruth Comerford's report in The Bookseller, Robotham and Wood triumph in 2020 CWA Dagger awards.
       The Gold Dagger, for the: "best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English", went to Good Girl, Bad Girl, by Michael Robotham.
       The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, awarded to: "crime novels (defined by the broadest definition including thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction) as long as the book was not originally written in English", went to The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre, translated by Stephanie Smee.

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       PW's best books of 2020

       It's ... almost the end of October, so of course it's time for best-of-the-year lists .....
       The first big one up: Publisher Weekly's -- see their Top 10, as well as their best-of in various categories.
       I've only seen one of their top ten titles -- Bluebeard's First Wife, by Ha Seong-nan, from Open Letter -- but I haven't gotten to it yet (it's a story collection ...).

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       The Dark Library review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Cyrille Martinez's The Dark Library, just out in English, from Coach House Books.

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

       International DUBLIN Literary Award

       They've announced the winner of this year's International DUBLIN Literary Award, the €100,000 award that is: "the world's largest prize for a single novel published in English", and it is Milkman, by Anna Burns. Yes, the book that won the 2018 Man Booker Prize.
       I haven't seen this one, but see the publicity pages from Graywolf Press and Faber & Faber, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Diagram Prize shortlist

       The Bookseller has announced the shortlist for this year's Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, and the public can now vote for the winner through 20 November; the winner will be announced 27 November.
       Always good fun.

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

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       Martin Amis Q & A

       Martin Amis' Inside Story is now out -- get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk -- and the reviews and profiles keep coming -- including now Amis taking his turn answering The New York Times Book Review's By the Book-column question.
       Among the quotes:

I like fiction that makes me welcome, and I’m quickly exasperated by the freakish, the introverted and above all the compulsively obscure. For months now I’ve been trying to penetrate the bristling bastion of William Faulkner. He is like Joyce — all genius and no talent; he just isn’t interested in pushing the narrative forward. Well, I suppose his readers have enough to do anyway, trying to establish who is who and what (if anything) is going on.

       (He has used that genius/no talent line before; see for example this 2012 Bookforum interview, where he said of Nabokov's great late novel: "I mean Ada or Ardor is all genius and no talent. It's impossible to read, it's like Finnegan's Wake" [sic]. And it's been used elsewhere, back to Henry David Thoreau.)
       Also fun to hear:

I used to regard “nonfiction” as a genre, and a minor one, like children’s books; now of course it consumes every spare moment

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

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       Indian Novels Collective

       At Scroll.in Rishabh Kumar finds: "The Indian Novels Collective has taken advantage of increased online reach during the lockdown", in How the pandemic has widened the opportunity to take translated literature to readers.
       At least something good .....

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

       Bookselling in ... Nepal

       At onlinekhabar Nirvik Jung Rayamajhee reports that Nepal's literature market is not as vibrant as it used to be around previous Dashains. Dashain is the biggest annual festival in Nepal, lasting for some two weeks, and apparently also a popular time to release and buy books, but that hasn't worked out as well as usual this year.

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

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       Prix Femina finalists

       The prix Femina has announced the finalists in its three categories -- French novel, foreign novel, and non-fiction; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Most of the six finalists in the foreign novel category are translations from the English -- such as Colson Whitehead's Nickel Boys and a Deborah Levy-duo -- but the one title under review at the complete review is a translation from the Hebrew, Eskhol Nevo's The Last Interview.
       The winners will be announced 3 November.

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

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       The Perfect Nine review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, The Perfect Nine, just out in English, from The New Press in the US and Harvill Secker in the UK.

       Reviewing this finally also led me to compile an Index of Novels in Verse and Epics under review -- as there are quite a few by now.

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

       Cundill History Prize finalists

       They've announced the three finalists for this year's Cundill History Prize, US$75,000 prize for a: "book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal".
       The winner will be announced on 3 December.

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

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       New look for The New York Review of Books site

       The New York Review of Books site has launched with a new design; see also the Introducing the new nybooks.com-letter from the editors.
       I don't deal particularly well with change -- if it ain't broke, etc. etc. -- but it seems more or less functional. I do find it rather annoying that the link to the current issue isn't front and center -- you have to scroll down to find it. And they've replaced the NYR Daily weblog with what they're now calling The Latest; it seems to be the same the thing -- but, also, no immediately obvious link on the main page .....

       The best thing about the re-launch, however, is that they've opened up the entire archive: through 3 November you can freely access all the content they have -- some 20,000 articles ! Honestly, I'm tempted to spend the next two weeks doing nothing else but working my way through all this ..... Take advantage while you can !

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       The Constant Rabbit review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jasper Fforde's latest, The Constant Rabbit.

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

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