opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 December 2021

21 December: New World Literature Today | Klaus Wagenbach (1930-2021) | Amitav Ghosh Q & A | Atlas of Remote Islands review
22 December: PEN Translates awards | The year in crime-writing panel | Estonian Literature Day
23 December: Central European literature discussion | Korean literature abroad | Cremation review
24 December: Joan Didion (1934-2021) | Le Parisien's top ten of 2021
25 December: Saba Awards | Whisper review
26 December: New Japanese Beatrix Potter translations | Babel Prize | The Hindu's top ten | South African 'best reads of 2021'
27 December: Top 10 translations from the Russian 2021 ? | Sofi Oksanen Q & A | Bibliolepsy review
28 December: Keri Hulme (1947-2021) | Deutscher Krimipreis | Top African books of 2021 ?
29 December: Würth-Preis für Europäische Literatur | Birgit Vanderbeke (1956-2021) | Go Back at Once review
30 December: Bestselling in 2021 in ... Germany | Lazer Lederhendler Q & A
31 December: Sahitya Akademi Awards | Sankar profile | Life in the Cosmos review

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Sahitya Akademi Awards

       The Sahitya Akademi is the Indian National Academy of letters, and they honor literary works in 24 Indian languages annually, one of the most prestigious Indian literary awards -- and they've now announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) this year's winners. (Well, they've announced the winners in 20 of the languages; winners in Gujarati, Maithili, Manipuri, and Urdu will be announced at a later date.)
       Only two of the winning works are novels, with five short story collections and seven poetry collections -- and one work of epic poetry -- among those taking the prizes.
       The English-language winner, by unanimous choice, was Namita Gokhale's novel Things to Leave Behind; see also the Penguin India publicity page.

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

---

       Sankar profile

       In the Times of India they have a PTI profile of the Chowringhee-author, in Sankar: From the ‘Great Unknown' via ‘Chowringhee' to literary colossus at 88.

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

---

       Life in the Cosmos review

       The most recent addition to the complete review -- and the last one of the year -- is my review of Manasvi Lingam and Avi Loeb's textbook, Life in the Cosmos: From Biosignatures to Technosignatures, out earlier this year from Harvard University Press.

       Loeb has gotten quite a bit of attention in recent years for his suggestion that the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua might be extraterrestrial technology -- see, for example, his Q & A with Isaac Chotiner at The New Yorker -- and he published another book earlier this year about that, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, see also the Mariner publicity page. That books sounds rather ... sensationalistic; Life in the Cosmos is anything but.

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

       Bestselling in 2021 in ... Germany

       In Börsenblatt Matthias Glatthor reports on what titles sold the most copies in Germany in 2021 (well, through 26 December, because god forbid they'd actually wait and do this kind of thing when the year is actually over ...)
       Juli Zeh's Über Menschen was the bestselling fiction title, with 445,000 copies sold (and 570,000 in all formats), beating out the latest Sebastian Fitzek and Lucinda Riley's The Missing Sister; see also the full top-25. (The only one of these titles under review at the complete review is Ken Follett's Never, which came in at nr. 16.)
       The Zeh is due out in English from World Editions; see also the Luchterhand foreign rights page.
       The bestselling work of non-fiction was by Hape Kerkeling; it sold 500,000 copies.

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

---

       Lazer Lederhendler Q & A

       At CBC Ryan B. Patrick has a Q & A with the Canadian translator, Lazer Lederhendler believes every translator needs an imaginative mind.
       While he established himself as a translator from the French, he explains that now:

I am not going to be translating from French anymore. I'm shifting into another kind of translation, which is from my mother tongue, Yiddish.

       Sounds good; we could certainly use more translation from the Yiddish.

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

       Würth-Preis für Europäische Literatur

       The Würth Prize for European Literature is a €25,000 biennial author prize with a solid list of winners -- including Nobel laureates Herta Müller (2006) and Peter Handke (2016) -- and they've now announced the 2022 winner: Annie Ernaux.

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

---

       Birgit Vanderbeke (1956-2021)

       German author Birgit Vanderbeke, best known for The Mussel Feast, has passed away; see, for example, the short report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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

---

       Go Back at Once review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Robert Aickman's Go Back at Once, completed in 1975 but only widely available now, from And Other Stories.

       Aickman is best-known for his supernatural fiction -- with which I am entirely unfamiliar. I wonder whether this novel -- which doesn't have anything truly supernatural to it (there's some sleepwalking and some vivid dreams, but not much more than that) -- reads differently for someone who has read his other work (and thus also possibly comes to this one with different expectations).

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

       Keri Hulme (1947-2021)

       Keri Hulme, winner of the 1985 Booker Prize for The Bone People, has passed away; see, for example, Lee Kenny reporting Keri Hulme, titan of NZ literature and the country's first Booker Prize winner, has died at Stuff; see also the Keri Hulme-page at Read NZ.

       I've long been meaning to add a review of The Bone People, so maybe I will now finally get around to it; meanwhile, see the publicity pages from Penguin Books and Picador or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Deutscher Krimipreis

       They've announced the winners of this year's German Mystery Prize.
       In the German category, Die Experten by Merle Kröger took the top prize; see also the Suhrkamp foreign rights page. Kröger previously won in 2013, and was runner-up in 2016.
       In the International category the final volume in David Peace's trilogy, Tokyo Redux, took the top prize.

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

---

       Top African books of 2021 ?

       There are now a couple of lists of top African books of 2021:

        - Africa: The top 20 must-read literary books of 2021 by Dami Ajayi at the africa report

        - The best African books of 2021 by Samira Sawlani at African Arguments

        - 50 Notable African Books of 2021 at Brittle Paper

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

       Top 10 translations from the Russian 2021 ?

       At Russia Beyond Alexandra Guzeva presents what they consider the 10 best Russian books published in English in 2021.
       Some big names here, and several volumes from the Russian Library at Columbia University Press, including the one of these ten titles that is under review at the complete review, Yury Tynyanov's The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar.

       Good to see these certainly impressive books being translated into English, and yet the list is disappointing -- shocking, even. Why ? Because only one of the titles is by a living author (Maria Stepanova's In Memory of Memory). Where is the contemporary Russian fiction ?

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

---

       Sofi Oksanen Q & A

       At hlo they have the latest instalment in their 'The State of Things'-series of Q & As, this time with Sofi Oksanen: Art and Literature Help People to Feel Empathy.

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

---

       Bibliolepsy review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gina Apostol's Bibliolepsy, published in the Philippines in 1997, and winner of the Philippine National Book Award in 1998 but only now available in a US edition, from Soho Press.
       Hard to understand why it took so long for this to be published in the US.

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

       New Japanese Beatrix Potter translations

       Hayakawa has announced the publication of new Japanese translations of the twenty-three Beatrix Potter animal-featuring tales, with the first three to come out in March -- but the big news is who is doing the translating: Kawakami Mieko.
       Yes, the author of Breasts and Eggs and Heaven is translating Beatrix Potter -- explaining, in the Yomiuri Shimbun article New Japanese translation of Peter Rabbit set to hit shelves in March:

I make sure the fun rhythms of the original are carefully translated, and I will choose more modern expressions when it comes to words and phrases related to class and gender.

       (English-speaking readers, meanwhile, get to look forward to another volume of Kawakami's own writing next May, with her novel All the Lovers in the Night; see the publicity pages from Europa Editions and Picador, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.)

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

---

       Babel Prize

       The Babel Prize is a new prize for: "a major lifetime achievement in translation between any two languages", which seems like a nice idea; they've now announced the first winner of the prize -- and it is Eqerem Gaxholli, who is apparently: "considered the best literary translator working from French into Albanian".

       For now the prize is: "honorary until funding is found for a monetary recognition", and I don't know anything more about it; still, I might suggest that if you're launching a new prize, announcing the first winner in a Christmas Day press release is maybe not the way to go

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

---

       The Hindu's top ten

       The Hindu has announced their 2021 Top 10 in fiction and Ten best non-fiction books of the year.

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

---

       South African 'best reads of 2021'

       The Sunday Times: "asked some of our favourite wordsmiths, authors and reviewers to tell us about their best reads of the year", in Best reads of 2021.

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

       Saba Awards

       With, as noted at Agenda.ge, "the other of the two principal literary awards of the local scene cancelled earlier this year", the Saba Literary Awards are both the last Georgian literary prizes standing and, by default, the top ones, and they've now announced this year's winners in the eight categories; see also the Agenda.ge article, Saba Literary Prize juries award 2021 winners from prose, poetry and more.
       The novel prize went to Tamta Melashvili, for her შაშვი შაშვი მაყვალი ('Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry'); see also the Sulakauri foreign rights page. (Her გათვლა is already under review at the complete review.)
       The best translation (into Georgian) prize was shared by translations of works by Rumi and one of T.S.Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

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

---

       Whisper review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Chang Yu-Ko's supernatural novel, Whisper, recently out from Honford Star.

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

       Joan Didion (1934-2021)

       As widely noted, Joan Didion has passed away; see, for example, William Grimes' Joan Didion, ‘New Journalist’ Who Explored Culture and Chaos, Dies at 87 at The New York Times and Joan Didion, American journalist and author, dies at age 87 by Sian Cain and Edward Helmore in The Guardian.

       Lots of her material is currently freely accessible online, as many paywalls have been lifted, so delve into: her pieces for The New York Review of Books, Joan Didion: the National Review Years, her 1961 essay from Vogue, On Self-Respect, and, at The Paris Review, Joan Didion, The Art of Nonfiction No. 1.

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

---

       Le Parisien's top ten of 2021

       Le Parisien's has announced their le top 10 de nos romans préférés de 2021 -- paywalled at their site, but conveniently listed at Livres Hebdo.

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

       Central European literature discussion

       hlo has writers Magdalena Grzebałkowska, Katarína Kucbelová, and Edina Szvoren in conversation with Sarolta Deczki "about Central Europe, realism, and their own work", in Central European Writers in Conversation.

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

---

       Korean literature abroad

       In The Korea Herald Song Seung-hyun reports on Korean literature becoming popular overseas as the Literature Translation Institute of Korea reports that: "180 literary works were translated into 29 different languages" with their assistance this year.

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

---

       Cremation review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Rafael Chirbes' Cremation.

       This 2007 novel was quickly translated into most continental European languages, but only recently came out in English, from New Directions.
       This is a novel that was number two on ABC's 2013 list of ten best novels of the century (to then date), Las diez mejores novelas españolas del siglo -- and the last of the top nine to be translated into English (the tenth hasn't been translated yet). It also was the fourteenth on El País' (2016) list of top 100 books of the last 25 years, 25 años en 100 libros. And, as I recently noted, Chirbes' diaries topped El País' list of the fifty best books of the year, Los 50 mejores libros de 2021. So .... maybe a big deal ?
       For all that, this translation hasn't gotten much attention yet. Dustin Illingworth did just write about: "The exhilarating bleakness of Rafael Chirbes's fiction" in Carnival of Souls in The Baffler, and no doubt there will be a few reviews, but still ....

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

       PEN Translates awards

       English PEN have announced their latest batch of PEN Translates awards (which are actually grants, funding: "up to 75% of translation costs").
       The 18 grants are for books from 15 countries and 13 languages, to be published by 17 different publishers. Among them is the 2020 German Book Prize-winner, Annette by Anne Weber, in Tess Lewis' translation, as well as books by Maryse Condé, Faïza Guène, and Abdourahman Waberi. A lot to look forward to here.

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

---

       The year in crime-writing panel

       In The Los Angeles Times Paula L. Woods leads a panel where America's top mystery book critics break down the year in crime.
       The contributing critics are: Steph Cha, Oline Cogdill, Maureen Corrigan, Molly Odintz, and Sarah Weinman.

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

---

       Estonian Literature Day

       ERR reports that Ministry calls for Estonian Literature Day to become national holiday, as the: "Ministry of Culture wants to create a new national holiday honoring Estonian literature on January 30", the birthday of author A.H.Tammsaare.
       With the Anniversary of Tartu Peace Treaty, celebrated on 2 February this year, already a national holiday, the timing seems to speak against it, but it's a nice idea

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

       New World Literature Today

       The January-February issue of World Literature Today is now out, with a special section on the NSK Neustadt Prize-winner, Cynthia Leitich Smith.
       Lots of good material, as always -- and don't forget the book review section.
       And remember that World Literature Today is going back to a bi-monthly schedule in 2022, so this is the first of six issues that will be appearing next year..

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

---

       Klaus Wagenbach (1930-2021)

       German publisher Klaus Wagenbach -- of Verlag Klaus Wagenbach -- has passed away; see, for example, the obituary in Börsenblatt.

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

---

       Amitav Ghosh Q & A

       In Dissent Siddhartha Deb has a Q & A with Amitav Ghosh on The Deep History of Climate Change.

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

---

       Atlas of Remote Islands review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Judith Schalansky on Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will, in Atlas of Remote Islands.

       Her more recent An Inventory of Losses, in Jackie Smith's translation, won both the 2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize and is now out in paperback; I just got a copy and look forward to getting to that soon, too.

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

previous entries (11 - 20 December 2021)

archive index

- search the site -

- return to top of the page -

© 2021 the complete review


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