opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 December 2020

1 December: Prix Goncourt | Prix Renaudot | RSL International Writers
2 December: The end of BookExpo | FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award | New Passengers review
3 December: New publishers: Sandorf Passage - Kher | The Healer review
4 December: Cundill History Prize | William Hill Sports Book of the Year | Translations from the ... Armenian
5 December: Jean-Patrick Manchette in English | Ukrainian literature Q & A | The Garden Next Door review
6 December: Books of 2020 - as chosen by Irish authors | Bestselling in 2020 in ... Ireland | Bookselling in ... Budapest
7 December: More authors' best books picks | Qui pro quo review
8 December: Louise Glück and the Nobel ceremony | Olga Tokarczuk's translators in conversation | Friedrich Dürrenmatt at 100 | Paper Houses review
9 December: No Bad Sex Award | Lire's 100 books of the year | Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards fiction finalists
10 December: Jan Michalski Prize for Literature | Tawada Yōko profile | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Q & A | Albertine Prize | The Corporation Wars: Insurgence review

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       Jan Michalski Prize for Literature

       The Jan Michalski Prize for Literature is a CHF50,000 prize for: "a work of world literature [...] irrespective of the language in which it is written", and they've now announced this year's winner, Mozambican author Mia Couto's trilogy, As areias do imperador.
       The first two volumes in this Sands of the Emperor-trilogy have been published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (in the US) and World Editions (in the UK), as Woman of the Ashes and The Sword and the Spear -- see also the FSG publicity page --, with the final volume, The Drinker of Horizons, forthcoming.

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

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       Tawada Yōko profile

       At nippon.com Taniguchi Sachiyo profiles Bilingual Author Tawada Yōko: Crossing Political and Linguistic Borders.
       Tawada famously writes in both Japanese and German; several of her works are under review at the complete review:

• The Emissary (UK title: The Last Children of Tokyo)
• Facing the Bridge
• Memoirs of a Polar Bear
• The Naked Eye
• Portrait of a Tongue
• Time Differences

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

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       Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Q & A

       In The Guardian they have 'I am a pessimistic optimist': Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie answers authors' questions -- a fun variation on the usual Q & A, with questions by authors such as Bernardine Evaristo, Aminatta Forna, and Ali Smith.

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       Albertine Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Albertine Prize, and it is Matt Reeck's translation of Zahia Rahmani's "Muslim": A Novel.
       See also the Deep Vellum publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       The Corporation Wars: Insurgence review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the second in Ken MacLeod's The Corporation Wars-trilogy, Insurgence.

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       No Bad Sex Award

       They've announced that the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award will not be awarded this year:

The judges felt that the public had been subjected to too many bad things this year to justify exposing it to bad sex as well.

       Ah, well, until next year, then .....

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       Lire's 100 books of the year

       French magazine Lire has announced what they consider: 'Les 100 livres de l'année' in various categories -- with Fille by Camille Laurens their book of the year; see also the Gallimard publicity page; an English translation is due out from Other Press next year.
       You can't access the list at Lire, but, for example, Livres Hebdo has the run-down.

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       Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards fiction finalists

       The Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards are among the biggest Iranian literary awards, and they've now announced the Three novels shortlisted for Jalal Literary Awards, as reported in the Tehran Times.
       The three novels are: 'Mid-Day Incantations', by Mansur Alimoradi; see the Nimaj publicity page; 'Hard Labor' by Mohammad Hanif; see the Neyestan publicity page; and 'The Imaginative' by Ahmad Hassanzadeh (publisher Noon Book does not seem to have a website, but see e.g.).

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       Louise Glück and the Nobel ceremony

       Usually, this is the week when they'd be holding the fancy Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, but virus-related circumstances prevented this year's get-together.
       Still, they're trying to go through most of the motions: Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Louise Glück received her Nobel medal yesterday, at her US home, and there's her fancy (if a bit underwhelming) Nobel diploma. And though they are not streaming any performance-version of her Nobel lecture -- unlike for all the other prizes -- a print version has now been released: see the Nobel Lecture in Literature 2020 by Louise Glück.
       She concludes the fairly short speech:

I believe that in awarding me this prize, the Swedish Academy is choosing to honor the intimate, private voice, which public utterance can sometimes augment or extend, but never replace.

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       Olga Tokarczuk's translators in conversation

       At the Los Angeles Review of Books Jennifer Croft caught up: 'with a dozen friends and fellow translators of Polish Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk', in: Fulfilling the Mission: A Conversation with Olga Tokarczuk's Translators.

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       Friedrich Dürrenmatt at 100

       5 January will be the 100th anniversary of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's birth and, to mark that, his German publisher Diogenes is bringing out new editions of his collected prose (19 volumes; 4480 pages) and collected dramas (18 volumes; 4032 pages) tomorrow.
       I've read practically everything he wrote, but these are certainly tempting -- but what I'm really looking forward to is the forthcoming (in April) five-volume collection ('combined with an expanded online-version') of Das Stoffe-Projekt, among his most impressive achievements.
       Meanwhile, the Swiss National Library looks like Dürrenmatt-at-100 central with their 100 Jahre Dürrenmatt 2021 pages; I look forward to at least the online-accessible events and exhibitions.

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       Paper Houses review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Dominique Fortier's Paper Houses.

       While this came out in English translation in the US last year, the French-French edition only came out this year (as opposed to the 2018 Canadian-French edition ...), and last week it was awarded the prestigious prix Renaudot (essai). The French edition subtitles it 'A life of Emily Dickinson', but it's certainly more fiction than the prize-categorization would suggest ......
       (Recall that Christian Bobin also wrote a Dickinson book, translated a few years ago as The Lady in White.)

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

       More authors' best books picks

       In The Observer they have a: "panel of writers -- who all published books this year -- share their favourite titles of 2020", in: The best books of 2020 -- picked by our acclaimed guest authors.

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       Qui pro quo review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gesualdo Bufalino's Qui pro quo.

       Several works by Bufalino have been translated into English -- published in the old Harvill series, and by Eridanos Press, among others -- but this one, Bufalino's spin on a mystery novel, hasn't been yet.

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

       Books of 2020 - as chosen by Irish authors

       In the Irish Times Martin Doyle collects The best books of 2020: As chosen by Irish authors -- including Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, John Banville, and Colm Tóibín.

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       Bestselling in 2020 in ... Ireland

       In the Irish Times Martin Doyle reports that Ireland's bestselling books of 2020 revealed.
       It seems kind of early to make this kind of claim -- "Figures are for sales until the end of November", and aren't these last few weeks of the year among the biggest of the years, sales-wise ? -- but at least the list gives actual sales numbers, which are always interesting to see.
       Selling 55,039 copies was good enough for the top place -- Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens -- while 20,646 was enough to get you in the top 10.

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

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       Bookselling in ... Budapest

       At hlo they have a Q & A with Tony Lang, the founder of Budapest foreign-language bookstore Bestsellers, in Booksellers of Budapest: Bestsellers
       Interesting to hear regarding the current pandemic that:

It hasn’t affected our services, except that we are temporarily not open on Sundays any more, since there are practically no tourists. Last week we had an average of 53 customers per day in the shop, whereas last year for the comparable week it was 62, a decrease of 15%. So, while the pandemic hit us, it did not hit us hard and it’s a hit we can absorb. On the other hand, we have a well-functioning web shop where turnover and customer numbers are growing exponentially.

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

       Jean-Patrick Manchette in English

       At Crime Reads Donald Nicholson-Smith, Jean-Patrick Manchette's translator, 'reflects on the legacy of an author who revolutionized French noir (twice)', in Jean-Patrick Manchette: Inside the Decades-Long Effort to Bring a Master of French Crime Fiction to American Readers.
       As he also notes: "Even now, however, it is startling to realize just how much first-rate French crime writing remains untranslated".

       All the Jean-Patrick Manchette novels available in English are under review at the complete review:

• Fatale
• Ivory Pearl
• The Mad and the Bad
• Nada
• No Room at the Morgue
• The Prone Gunman
• Three To Kill

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       Ukrainian literature Q & A

       In The Ukrainian Weekly Mariia Shuvalova has a quite extensive Q & A with Mark Andryczyk on Ukrainian literature's perspective on the turbulence of history.

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

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       The Garden Next Door review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of José Donoso's 1981 novel, The Garden Next Door.

       This novel also features Ecuadorian author Marcelo Chiriboga, one of the leading writers of the Latin American 'Boom' -- and an invention of Donoso and Carlos Fuentes'. More recently, Javier Izquierdo filmed a documentary on the author, Un secreto en la caja (check it out, even if you don't speak Spanish -- it's subtitled); see also the IMDb page or Carlos Dávalos' article on El autor del ‘boom’ latinoamericano que no estuvo allí in El País.

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

       Cundill History Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's US$75,000 Cundill History Prize, and it is Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, by Camilla Townsend.
       See also the Oxford University Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       I actually have this one, but haven't gotten around to covering it yet.

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

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       William Hill Sports Book of the Year

       They've announced the winner of this year's £30,000 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and it is The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Russia's Secret Doping Empire, by Grigory Rodchenkov; see also the WH Allen publicity page.

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       Translations from the ... Armenian

       At Public Radio of Armenia Siranush Ghazanchyan reports that Five gems of medieval Armenian literature published in English, as the first releases in the Sophene Armenian Library in their Dual Language Series are now out.
       Classical works, but still good to see this sort of think being published; they also have a couple of nineteenth century Armenian classics which look promising.

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

       New publisher: Sandorf Passage

       At Publishers Weekly Ed Nawotka reports that Sandorf Passage Publishing House Launches, introducing new publisher Sandorf Passage, who will publish: "work that creates a prismatic perspective on what it means to live in a globalized world".
       Sounds promising.

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

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       New publisher: Kher

       At Radio Prague International Brian Kenety reports on the new Kher publishing house, a 'home' for Romani writing.
       See also the official Kher site.

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

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       The Healer review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Antti Tuomainen's The Healer.

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

       The end of BookExpo

       As Jim Milliot reports at Publishers Weekly, BookExpo and BookCon Are No More - ending the: "U.S. book publishing's biggest trade show".
       BookExpo has been struggling with its function and identity for a while now, but the industry surely needs something like this, so its loss is unfortunate.

       (Updated - 3 December): see now also additional reports from Publishers Weekly: Booksellers Say BEA Demise Is No Surprise and Publishers Would Back a Reinvented BookExpo.

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

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       FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

       They've announced the winner of this year's FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, and it is No Filter, by Sarah Frier.
       At least the UK and US titles of this one are the same -- but the descriptive sub-titles are different: in the UK this is: How Instagram transformed business, celebrity and culture, in the US it's: The Inside Story of Instagram.
       See also the publicity pages from Simon & Schuster and Random House Business, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       New Passengers review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Tine Høeg's New Passengers.

       This is one of the first books out from new publisher Lolli Editions, whose: "aim is to make available to English-speaking readers some of the most innovative writers that speak to our shared culture in new and compelling ways, from Europe and beyond". Currently the list is very Danish heavy -- but it's certainly an interesting selection; certainly a publisher worth keeping an eye on.

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

       Prix Goncourt

       The Académie Goncourt has announced the winner of this year's prix Goncourt, the leading French literary prize, and it is L'anomalie, by Hervé Le Tellier; see also the Gallimard publicity page; it's due out in English from Other Press (presumably in a year or two ...).

       Le Tellier is the first member of the Oulipo to win the Goncourt; quite a few of his works have been translated into English -- and most of them are under review at the complete review:

• All Happy Families
• Eléctrico W
• Enough about Love
• The Intervention of a Good Man
• The Sextine Chapel
• A Thousand Pearls (for a Thousand Pennies)

       I look forward to seeing this one as well.

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

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       Prix Renaudot

       They've announced the winners of this year's prix Renaudot as well -- see the Livres Hebdo report -- with Histoire du fils, by Marie-Hélène Lafon, taking the novel prize; see also the Buchet-Chastel publicity page, or also Norimitsu Onishi and Constant Méheut's report in The New York Times, France's Major Literary Juries Award Prizes in a Year of Scandal.
       The non-fiction prize went to Dominique Fortier's Emily Dickinson-work Paper Houses -- already available in English; see the Coach House publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       RSL International Writers

       The British Royal Society of Literature is celebrating its 200th anniversary with RSL 200, "a five-year celebration of the best in literature past, present and future".
       Among the newly-announced programmes: RSL International Writers, which: "will recognise the contribution of writers from across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders".
       They: "are inviting public recommendations of writers who have contributed to international literary culture" -- so go ahead, recommend who you think might be appropriate authors.

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

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