opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 November 2021

1 November: Nigeria Prize for Literature | Reacting to the Nobel in ... Tanzania | Amitava Kumar Q & A | Krimi enthusiasm | The Anomaly review
2 November: Sergio Ramírez Q & A | Pushkin House Prize
3 November: Nordic Council Literature Prize | Wole Soyinka Q & A | Audiobooks | The Lost Library review
4 November: Booker Prize | Prix Goncourt (and prix Renaudot) | 'Taste' in literature | NBCC Translation Prize introduced
5 November: Dalkey Archive re-launch | More Mishima coming ! | Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize | ANSA World Cup | Fast One review
6 November: University Presses | Diagram Prize shortlist | Sally Rooney (not) in Israel (cont'd) | Two Lines Press Q & A
7 November: Q & As: Jalal Barjas - Daribha Lyndem |Dave Eggers profile
8 November: Clemens Setz's Büchnerpreisrede | Schweizer Buchpreis | Gurnah in Tanzania | Trust review
9 November: Scotiabank Giller Prize | Österreichischer Buchpreis | Reading women | | Gibraltarian literature | Buch Wien
10 November: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book shortlist | Festival Neue Literatur | Der ägyptische Heinrich review

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       Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, a leading prize for: "non-fiction literature on modern and contemporary India from writers of all nationalities".
       I don't know how helpful it is, but at Scroll.in you can Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize: Read the opening lines from the six shortlisted books.
       The winner will be announced 1 December.

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

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       Festival Neue Literatur

       The Festival Neue Literatur, bringing: "New York audiences new writing from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and the United States", runs tomorrow through the 14th, with virtual and hybrid events.
       The theme this year is: 'Turn and Face the Strange', and there's a quite solid group of participants.
       They'll also be awarding the Friedrich Ulfers Prize, which goes to: "to a leading publisher, writer, critic, translator, or scholar who has championed the advancement of German-language literature in the United States", and this year's recipient is Archipelago Books publisher Jill Schoolman.

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       Der ägyptische Heinrich review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Markus Werner's Der ägyptische Heinrich.

       This is the fourth Werner title under review at the site -- but the first that isn't available in English translation yet.

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

       Scotiabank Giller Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize, a leading Canadian fiction prize, and it is What Strange Paradise, by Omar El Akkad.

       I haven't seen this one yet, but see, for example, the Knopf publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Österreichischer Buchpreis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Austrian Book Prize, the leading .... uh, Austrian book prize, and it is DAVE by Raphaela Edelbauer -- yes, a book that is already under review at the complete review.

       Edelbauer's The Liquid Land recently came out in English -- see the Scribe publicity page -- and I assume this one will be available in translation soon too.

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       Reading women

       At Scroll.in they print an essay from a new collection by Shashi Deshpande, Novelist Shashi Deshpande on how to read (or rather, how not to read) the writing of women.
       She notes:

Most human lives are also incredibly confused, and it is exactly out of this confusion that a writer writes. To read a novel only as a novel written by a woman is to miss out much, indeed most of it. To read it as a feminist text, or see it through the lenses of feminism, is to dismiss everything in it that does not resonate with feminist tones.

In other words, it is a gross misreading, not a reading. Readers, specially academic readers, need to go into the text without the baggage of expectations that they carry with them, expectations that come from seeing the writer as a woman, a woman of these times who ought to write in a certain way about women.

       (I'd maybe temper that a bit -- 'to read it purely/solely/mainly as a feminist text, or see it only through the lenses of feminism' etc. -- but, yes, limited reading will always be limited reading (this also applies to pretty much any and all other writer-labels).)

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       Gibraltarian literature

       It's Gibraltar Literature Week, and in the Gibraltar Chronicle Minister for Culture John Cortes reflects on Gibraltarian literature -- something we hear relatively little about -- in A literary baseline.

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       Buch Wien

       The Viennese book festival Buch Wien runs from tomorrow through the 14th, and since I am in the neighborhood I hope to check it out.
       The program looks good -- and I haven't been to a book fair in quite a few years now, so I am curious what that will be like.

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

       Clemens Setz's Büchnerpreisrede

       They announced a while ago that Clemens Setz would receive this year's Georg Büchner Prize -- the biggest German author-award -- and he got to pick it up on Saturday.
       In the Süddeutsche Zeitung they now have his acceptance speech, in full (and: in German).

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       Schweizer Buchpreis

       They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winner of this year's Swiss Book Prize, and it is Die Erfindung des Ungehorsams, by Martina Clavadetscher; see also the Unionsverlag publicity page.

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       Gurnah in Tanzania

       At the BBC Priya Sippy considers Why Tanzanian Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah is hardly known back home.
       Among the observations:

One reason for this is that Gurnah writes in English -- not in Swahili, the language spoken by the majority of Tanzanians and which is the Nobel laureate's mother tongue.

       So it's good to hear that an effort is being made to translate his work.
       Also interesting to learn that:

After the Zanzibar uprising, the new regime overhauled the education curriculum, placing less emphasis on literature. Currently none of Zanzibar's three universities teach literature as a degree.

       See also my previous mention: Reacting to the Nobel in ... Tanzania.

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       Trust review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Domenico Starnone's Trust.

       This is the third of Starnone's novels translated by Jhumpa Lahiri; see also her Afterword to this one.

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

       Q & A: Jalal Barjas

       At Qantara.de Rim Najmi has a Q & A with author Jalal Barjas, winner of this year's International Prize for Arabic Fiction with his Notebooks of the Bookseller, in "Some Arab writers present distorted images of their societies",
       Among his observations:

Some Western publishing houses do operate according to the Orientalist view of Arabic literature, which presents Arabs as backward and out of step with human civilization. There are also publishing houses which make their decisions about what to translate of Arabic literature on commercial grounds -- whether such material might be accepted by readers, or not. That is why we find some Arab novelists who have been translated, and regularly so, even though they are not the best writers the Arab world has to offer. This is because they have complied with expectations that qualify their texts for translation in the West. Indeed, some Arab writers present distorted images of their societies.

       I look forward to seeing the English translation of his book.

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       Q & A: Daribha Lyndem

       Daribha Lyndem's Name Place Animal Thing is shortlisted for this year's JCB Prize for Literature -- see the Zubaan publicity page -- and in The Shillong Times Patricia Mukhim now has a Q & A with her, City girl gets literary achievement.
       I particularly like the presentation of this Q & A. Okay, maybe they should have mentioned the subject's name earlier in the piece -- maybe every local newspaper reader is expected to recognize her from the photo ? -- but otherwise I like this neat listing up of questions, then answers, and then the bullet-point overview of the novel.
       More Q & As like this, please !

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

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       Dave Eggers profile

       Dave Eggers has a new book out -- The Every -- and in The Guardian Sam Leith profiles him, in ‘The Every is about an all-powerful monopoly that seeks to eliminate competition’: why Dave Eggers won’t sell his new hardback on US Amazon.
       Eggers' not-on-Amazon decision has gotten a lot of attention -- and, hey, of course you should buy the hardback (if you're interested in the book) at McSweeney's or your local independent, where it: "will be available in perpetuity (in 2021 and 2022, and 2039…) in a dizzying, ever-expanding, and entirely randomized array of cover variations" (so the publicity page). And in his review in The Washington Post, Ron Charles goes so far as to suggest -- so the headline --: You won’t find Dave Eggers’s new book on Amazon. That’s the most interesting thing about it.
       Lost in the fine print -- and entirely in the Leith profile, where it goes unmentioned -- is the fact that the paperback edition, available 16 November, (i.e. practically at the same time as the hardcover, rather than the usual the-year-after publication) is available at Amazon (yes, pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk -- and, from the sales-rank figures, it looks like a lot of people are).
       It seems to me this makes Eggers' gesture seem more ... token.
       Eggers does note:

Most companies, and distributors, are locked into contractual obligations with Amazon that preclude them from having a choice. Which is part of the problem.

       And while McSweeney's is the hardcover-publisher, in paperback it's coming out from big commercial publishers -- and that's of course where the money is (for him, too), hence the near coterminous publication date, sapping some of the energy from the message he means to send.
       If this is a stand ... well, at least it gets some (somewhat misleading) media coverage, and maybe that's all one can ask for.

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       University Presses

       At Publishers Weekly Lisa Bayer and Peter Berkery ask the (eternal) question, Can University Presses Keep Up with the Times ?
       I was particularly struck by this, which of course applies, in many respects, to all publishing:

“My most immediate concern is inflation,” [Tony Sanfilippo, Ohio State University Press' director] says. “Paper and print capacity are hard to find, and logistics are in crisis mode. We know that scarcity will result in higher costs. The question is how much, and how will that impact print prices and e-book format share. If our books are so expensive that they are out of reach of all but the most privileged, then we are a barrier to education and that is the opposite of our mission. This is the problem I’d like to spend the rest of my career tackling.”

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

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       Diagram Prize shortlist

       As The Bookseller reports: The Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year 2021 Shortlist is Revealed.
       Interestingly: "For the first time in the Diagram's 43-year history, all six shortlisted titles come from university presses or academia".
       The public will be able to vote for the winning title (the link for that was not yet working, last I checked), with the winner to be announce 3 December.

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

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       Sally Rooney (not) in Israel (cont'd)

       I mentioned the to-do and commentary around Sally Rooney declining to proceed with the translation of her latest book into Hebrew a few weeks ago, and now it's back in the news, as, as widely reported, leading Israeli booksellers Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim are pulling her books from their (physical and online store) shelves; see, for example, the BBC report, Israeli bookstores pull Sally Rooney's books in boycott row.
       It's gotten to the point where, when Sian Bayley interviews Ken Follett about his new blockbuster, Never, a good chunk of the interview is devoted: "the recent controversy surrounding Sally Rooney". Sigh.

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       Two Lines Press Q & A

       At the Literary Hub Corinne Segal continues their series with Interview with an Indie Press: Two Lines Press.

       Two Lines Press have an impressive little list of attractive books -- well worth checking out.

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

       Dalkey Archive re-launch

       As you know, Depp Vellum took over legendary publishing house Dalkey Archive Press -- much loved hereabouts (there are a decent number of Deep Vellum titles under review at the complete review, but there are a whole lot more Dalkey Archive titles under review) -- and it's good to see things seem to be moving ahead nicely, as now reported by Sophia Stewart at Publishers Weekly, in Deep Vellum to Relaunch Dalkey Archive in April 2022, as well as their press release, Dalkey Archive 2.0 (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).
       A lot happening before next year already -- I can't wait to see those books, and I keep my fingers crossed about the website (there are many hundreds of links to the site at the complete review, and if those are changed without forwarding I will be ... devastated (hey, I think I still have some stray Center for Book Culture links hanging around ...)). But very good to hear that the back issues of CONTEXT will be available online again !

       (Updated - 6 November): The site is up in the new look; it looks ... clean enough. A few (presumably teething) glitches -- (links to, say the author interviews, under 'Crtitical Materials', don't go anywhere yet) -- and while CONTEXT-issues appear to be free, you still have to 'buy' them (put them in the shopping cart, etc.), which is not a very agreeable form of accessible, but the book information on the books is there, which is after all the heart of the matter. All under new (and not forwarded-to ...) links, alas, so, yes, I am weeping, buckets, and have been beating my head against the wall.

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       More Mishima coming !

       There's so much more of Mishima Yukio's work -- he wrote an incredible amount -- that hasn't been translated into English, but it's great to hear that one of the more famous novels is finally making it into English: Beautiful Star, coming as a Penguin Classic in Stephen Dodd's translation -- at least to the UK; no publicity page yet, but pre-order your copy at Amazon.co.uk; I have to presume a US edition will also become available sometime next year.
       This is one I've been waiting for -- very exciting news indeed.

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

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       Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize

       I have no idea how to rate the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize, a prize for Chinese fiction which hasn't even been around very long, but, hey, The Invisibility Cloak-author Ge Fei was one of the judges this year, so maybe there is something to it. In any event, as they now report: Winners of 2021 Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize announced Post-90s author, Chen Chuncheng, takes home the honors, as 夜晚的潜水艇 ('The Submarine at Night') by Chen Chuncheng has taken the prize.
       Fancy sponsors, too -- Blancpain and Imaginist.

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       ANSA World Cup

       While you wait for the FIFA World Cup™ you can enjoy the ANSA World Cup -- where, as Yekini Jimoh reports in 32 Young Writers Battle For Prizes In ANSA World Cup Literary Competition in the Nigerian Tribune:

Writers are pitted against one another in a head-to-head multi-stage literary combat. They are made to produce original and creative pieces of literature (poetry, prose, play, etc) on diverse genres within a limited time.

       'Head-to-head multi-stage literary combat' ! Writers made to produce literature, on demand !
       See also the ANSA press release for this "rave-making, revolutionary international literary contest" ! And then enjoy ! (It runs today through 24 December.)

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

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       Fast One review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Paul Cain's classic 1933 thriller, Fast One.

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       Booker Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Booker Prize for Fiction, and it is The Promise, by Damon Galgut.

       Embarrassingly, despite all the praise that this has garnered and despite being a fan of his work, I haven't sought this one out, or seen it, yet; meanwhile, see the publicity pages at Chatto & Windus and Europa Editions, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Prix Goncourt (and prix Renaudot)

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Goncourt, the leading French literary prize, and it is La plus secrète mémoire des hommes, by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr; see also the Philippe Rey publicity page.

       Sarr's Brotherhood came out from Europa Editions this summer; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

       They also announced the winner of France's number two prize, the prix Renaudot -- and it is Premier sang, by Amélie Nothomb; see also the Livres Hebdo report.
       It's her biggest prize-win since the 1999 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française (though she was a Goncourt-finalist last year, with Thirst). Meanwhile, Premier sang has apparently been the best-selling title of this year's 'rentrée' (though the Sarr will no doubt soon overtake her).

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       'Taste' in literature

       Via I'm pointed to Jonathan P. Lamb's paper in Textual Cultures, What Books Taste Like: Bacon and the Borders of the Book (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).
       As the Abstract explains:

This paper explores the language of book taste in early modern England to argue that a key shift occurred in Francis Bacon’s famous aphorism about eating books: “Some bookes are to bee tasted, others to bee swallowed, and some few to bee chewed and digested: That is, some bookes are to be read only in partes; others to be read, but cursorily, and some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention”. Writers for the next century would quote and adapt this line, a process that would culminate in a shift from “taste” in the sense of sample to “taste” in the sense of discrimination and distinction.

       It's really quite fascinating; well worth a look.

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       NBCC Translation Prize introduced

       The (American) National Book Foundation added a prize for Translated Literature to their annual slate of awards just a few years ago, and now the National Book Critics Circle has admirably followed suit, as they've announced: National Book Critics Circle To Launch A New Prize for Books in Translation, Named in Honor of Longtime Board Member Gregg Barrios.
       The National Book Award is open to works of fiction and non, and this one goes even further, open to books in all genres (i.e. it's not just a translated-novel prize). And, whereas the NBA is limited to works by living authors (and translators), the new NBCC prize is open to works by deceased authors (i.e. all those old classics); it will even consider new translations of previously translated works -- which, for example, the much-missed Best Translated Book Award, did not.
       The fact that it will consider works by deceased authors and new translations of previously translated work really sets it apart from the NBA, and it will be interesting to see how their shortlists etc. compare. (The NBA is, strictly speaking, also open to re-translations -- but only of works by living authors, and there are only a handful of those every year; the vast majority of re-translation are of works by dead authors -- the classics +.)

(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 biggest Scandinavian book prize, and it is Naasuliardarpi by Greenlandic author Niviaq Korneliussen; the book has also been published in Danish, as Blomsterdalen.
       Niviaq Korneliussen's HOMO sapienne, which was a finalist for the 2015 Nordic Council Literature Prize, has been translated into English -- published in the US as Last Night in Nuuk (Black Cat) and in the UK as Crimson (Virago).
       For more about Naasuliardarpi, see the Nordic Council information page, or the publicity pages at milik publishing for the book, in Greenlandic and Danish.

       This is the first Greenlandic winner of the prize, which has a very fine list of winners; quite a few are also under review at the complete review.

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       Wole Soyinka Q & A

       Another Q & A with Wole Soyinka, this time at The New Yorker, where he 'explains the origins of his latest book's title, why novels are harder to write than plays, and the masochistic pull of political activism' to Vinson Cunningham, in The Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka Discusses His First Novel in Nearly Fifty Years.
       (That novel is, of course: Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.)

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       Audiobooks

       In Publishers Weekly Thad McIlroy has an intriguing piece on audiobooks, which continue to gain in popularity, as now: "The percentage of Americans 18 and older who have listened to an audiobook is now 46%, up from 44% in 2019" --, in AI Comes to Audiobooks.
       Mostly, this is about the technological advances that can eventually (and to quite some extent, in many cases, already have) cut out the human reader, with audiobooks recorded entirely digitally.
       Interesting to see that Amazon-subsidy Audible -- which controls: "as much as 50% of the audiobook market" -- is still holding out and insists on human-voice recording .....

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       The Lost Library review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Walter Mehring's The Lost Library: The Autobiography of a Culture.

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       Sergio Ramírez Q & A

       With the Nicaraguan general election (of sorts ... (e.g.)) approaching, author (A Thousand Deaths Plus One, etc.) and former Nicaraguan vice president -- under Ortega, no less -- Sergio Ramírez weighs in on this and more in an elDiario.es Q & A with Gumersindo Lafuente that's now also available in English, at the Havana Times, as Sergio Ramirez: Pope Francis' Loud Silence on Nicaragua.
       Regarding the election, he notes that: "The candidates that are left are all a mirage created by the regime" -- and as to Ortega himself:

He could have gone down in history as a revolutionary leader, but he’s going to be judged as a tyrant, a dictator from the old school of dictatorships that have always existed in Latin America. The ideological color doesn’t matter -- without a doubt, he’s a dictator. Without qualifying adjectives. A dictator, period.

       He also explains his choice to now go into exile in Spain.
       There's also a lengthy (Spanish) Q & A with him in Clarín -- and see also the Alfaguara publicity page (complete with brief English description) for his latest novel, Tongolele no sabía bailar.

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       Pushkin House Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Pushkin House Book Prize, a prize for the best non-fiction writing on Russia, celebrating: "books which combine excellence in research with readability", and it is The Human Factor, by Archie Brown, about: 'Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher, and the End of the Cold War'.
       See also the Oxford University Press publicity page.

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       Nigeria Prize for Literature

       The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates through four different categories, year by year, and this year the prize was for a work of prose (the other categories are: poetry, drama, and children's fiction), and they've now announced the winner: The Son of the House, by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia; see, for example, the Premium Times report, NLNG announces winner of $100,000 Literature Prize.
       The book was selected from 202 entries -- yes, more than the Booker jury considered (it pays out more than the Booker, too ...) -- with the eleven finalists also listed in that report.
       The book is already out in UK and Canadian (but not a US) editions; see the publicity pages from Europa Editions (UK) and Dundurn Press, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Reacting to the Nobel in ... Tanzania

       International reactions to the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Literature are always amusing to follow, but national reactions can be quite interesting, too, and in Foreign Policy Elsie Eyakuze looks at how Tanzanians Are Very Proud of the Nobel Winner We Haven't Read -- noting that:

(T)he obscurity of Gurnah in his home country until this month has brought up some tough questions about our own identity, literary culture, and divisions.

       Nicely put:

By winning the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, Gurnah has done Tanzania, the Swahili Coast, and Africa a great service. He has complicated matters.

       And, of course, disappointing too the realization that:

But if these stories became part of our public curriculum, what fires might we light in young Tanzanian minds, and what else might they discover ? No, no. The government prefers to tell us that we are an oral culture and that too much reading is an elite pursuit of the leisured class.

       Sigh.

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       Amitava Kumar Q & A

       Amitava Kumar has a new novel out, A Time Outside This Time, and in The Hindu Rohan Manoj has a Q & A with him, ‘You can’t save the world, but you must record it’: Amitava Kumar.
       Kumar explains:

This novel asks the question, “What is the role of fiction when we are surrounded by this fiction called fake news ?”

       And he sells it pretty well:

I always wanted to write a novel that would be like blood on a bandage. It would have a sense of immediacy, a certain clear sense of having a wound underneath.

       See also the publicity pages at Knopf and Picador, or get your copy at Amazon.com or pre-order it at Amazon.co.uk.

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       Krimi enthusiasm

       I missed this last week, but in Foreign Policy Thomas Kniesche writes about Germany's Love Affair With Crime Fiction.
       Yes, a lot of the focus is on (the TV-series) Tatort, but it offers a decent overview of German Krimi-reading enthusiasm as well.

       (I've been in Vienna for a few days now and note with some amusement that of the first six books I've purchased, three are, indeed, Krimis .....)

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       The Anomaly review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hervé Le Tellier's 2020 prix Goncourt-winning novel, The Anomaly, due out shortly in the US, and at the beginning of next year in the US.

       This has been one of the bestselling titles in France in recent memory -- and the second-bestselling prix Goncourt-winner ever, with more than a million copies sold. I don't think the translation will do those kinds of numbers -- but it may well sell more than all the previous Le Tellier translations have together (they're all under review at the complete review).

       Quite a few prix Goncourt winners are under review at the complete review -- but there are still more prix Renaudot winners under review .....
       (This year's prizes will be announced this week .....)

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

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