opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 August 2022

21 August: Translation in ... India | David Davidar Q & A
22 August: Fall 'big-hitter books' | Sharon Dodua Otoo Q & A | Anuradha Roy in conversation with Pankaj Mishra
23 August: Chinese fiction abroad | Mekong Review | And Other Stories Q & A | The Medieval Chastity Belt review
24 August: German Book Prize longlist | Sales of The Satanic Verses
25 August: James Tait Black Prizes | The Lisbon Syndrome Q & A | The Tragic Muse review
26 August: Singapore Literature Prizes | the seams
27 August: Warwick Prize submission list | The Washington Post's book coverage | Murata Sayaka profile | Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood in conversation | Sultana's Dream and Padmarag review
28 August: Nigeria Prize for Literature shortlist | Neal Stephenson Q & A
29 August: The Nobel for Rushdie ? | Let No One Sleep review
30 August: New World Literature Today | Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize | Prix de la littérature arabe longlist
31 August: International crime fiction | The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida review

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       International crime fiction

       At The Conversation Stewart King, Alistair Rolls, Jesper Gulddal look at How crime fiction went global, embracing themes from decolonisation to climate change

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

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       The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Shehan Karunatilaka's Booker Prize-longlisted novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

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       New World Literature Today

       The September-October issue of World Literature Today is now up, with a focus on: 'Bearing Witness: Confronting Injustice through Art'.
       As always, lots of great material -- especially the extensive book review section.

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       Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize

       Death and the Penguin-author Andrey Kurkov will get this year's Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize; see, for example, Larissa Kyzer's report in the Iceland Review.

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       Prix de la littérature arabe longlist

       They've announced the eight-title longlist for this year's prix de la littérature arabe -- a prize for works by authors from the Arab League published in French, either in the original or in translation. (Three of this year's longlisted titles are translations from the Arabic; the rest were written in French.)
       The winner will be announced in November.

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       The Nobel for Rushdie ?

       At The New Yorker David Remnick makes the case that It's Time for Salman Rushdie's Nobel Prize.
       Rushdie has long been a problematic figure for the Nobel-deciding Swedish Academy: Remnick writes that, when the fatwa against Rushdie was first issued: "Among the more cowardly acts of the time was the Swedish Academy's refusal to issue a statement in support of Rushdie". Some of the academicians of the time agreed: as, for example UPI reported back in the day, Two Swedish Academy members resign over Rushdie affair. (The two were Kerstin Ekman and Lars Gyllensten; since Swedish Academy membership at the time was of the Hotel California variety -- you could never check out, voluntarily or otherwise -- they in fact officially remained members, but no longer took their seats or participated in activities of the Academy.)
       It seems very unlikely that Rushdie will be this year's laureate: though he was probably nominated by someone, the Nobel Committee winnowed down the contenders to a shortlist of presumably five in May, and the winner will be selected from them; I do not think he made that final cut. (The old-school Swedish Academy would also shy away from being pressured to select someone to send a message -- though in the post-Dylan age maybe anything goes.)
       As to whether Rushdie would be deserving ... Remnick is right that: "his role as an uncompromising defender of freedom and a symbol of resiliency" certainly counts strongly in his favor, but I do hope that they make the decision based on his literary accomplishments, and I think the case isn't as straightforward there. (I think he was a much stronger candidate in the 1990s.)

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       Let No One Sleep review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Juan José Millás' Let No One Sleep, just out from Bellevue Literary Press.

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       Nigeria Prize for Literature shortlist

       The Nigeria Prize for Literature has announced the three-title-shortlist for this year's prize; see also, for example, the report by Emelike Obinna in Business Day, Agema, Oriogun, Dzukogi compete for $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature.
       The winner will be announced 14 October -- with the winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism also to be announced then.

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       Neal Stephenson Q & A

       At Politico Derek Robertson has 5 questions for Neal Stephenson.
       I'm certainly intrigued by the suggestion that:

even something as simple as constructing a very tall building or a tall tower and using that as a launch platform, or as a way to accelerate things up upward, could really change the economics of spaceflight.

       Ah, yes, "as simple as" .....

       Over a dozen Stephenson titles are under review at the complete review, from Snow Crash to Termination Shock.

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       Warwick Prize submission list

       The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation has published its List of eligible titles entered (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) for this year's prize -- 138 titles originally written in 33 languages.
       This is obviously a great resource, if you want to know what fiction by women has been translated into English in the past year -- but it's also something every literary prize should do: readers should know what books are in the running for a prize (and too often they don't).
       Great to see so much fiction from so many languages up for this year's prize -- but it is a bit disappointing how much European languages dominate. Indeed, with 25 titles French alone is better-represented than all the non-European languages put together -- that's not a healthy situation.

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       The Washington Post's book coverage

       The Washington Post's old stand-alone Book World section was discontinued in 2009 but, as former editor Ron Charles now reports: "The Washington Post's stand-alone print book section is coming back !" -- on 25 September.
       This is certainly good to hear. With the Canadian The Globe & Mail apparently also re-making their Arts & Books section as a stand-alone (on 10 September), this almost looks like a trend ..... Who will be next ?

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       Murata Sayaka profile

       At Wired Thu-Huong Ha profiles the Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings author, in Sayaka Murata Inhabits a Planet of Her Own.
       Apparently:

Though her editors warn her not to say weird things in public, strange comments invariably flow out, like vomit.

       Clearly, we're still missing something, given how little of her work has been translated into English:

In one of her popular untranslated books, called The Birth Murder in Japanese, the government has instituted a bizarre incentive to urge its shrinking populace to procreate: Anyone who has 10 babies is allowed to kill one person of their choosing. The system ends up becoming a grotesque cycle of corporeal sacrifice.

       A new collection of her stories is out in English, Life Ceremony -- see the Grove publicity page --, but, sigh, I haven't seen it yet.

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       Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood in conversation

       At Interview they have quite the pairing: Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood on All Things Evil !

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       Sultana's Dream and Padmarag review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Two Feminist Utopias by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Sultana's Dream and Padmarag, in an updated Penguin Classics edition that now includes an Introduction and two short essays; the original translation came out in 2005.

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

       Singapore Literature Prizes

       They've announced the twelve winners of this year's Singapore Literature Prizes -- winners in three categories (fiction, non, and poetry) in each of four languages (Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil).
       Impressive, too, as Toh Wen Li reports in The Straits Times, that Wang Gungwu, Suratman Markasan, both 91, are Singapore Literature Prize's oldest winners. Not one but two nonagenarian winners !

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       the seams

       They've announced a new collective -- the seams, translators whose aim is to promote and support Southeast Asian literary translation!.
       As longtime readers know, I've long lamented how under-represented South-East Asian literature is in translation, so it's great to see this organized effort to try to help change that.
       See also their official site -- and the useful list of Southeast Asian Literature Translated Into English (only one Lao title, sigh ...).

       See also the index of South East Asian literature under review at the complete review.

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       James Tait Black Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's James Tait Black Prizes, with A Shock, by Keith Ridgway, winning the fiction prize, and Finding the Raga, by Amit Chaudhuri taking thebiography prize.

       I actually have both of these, but haven't gotten to them yet.

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       The Lisbon Syndrome Q & A

       At the Asymptote blog Xiao Yue Shan has Sculpting Words: An Interview with Eduardo Sánchez Rugeles and Paul Filev -- the author and the translator of The Lisbon Syndrome.

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       The Tragic Muse review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Henry James' 1890 novel, The Tragic Muse.

       Not the most popular James novel, I take it.

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       German Book Prize longlist

       They've announced the twenty (!) title strong longlist for this year's German Book Prize, the leading German novel prize, selected from 233 titles (which are, unfortunately and outrageously, not identified).
       A couple of names that might be familiar to English-speaking readers, such as Esther Kinsky -- who, like Dagmar Leupold, has now been longlisted for the third time.
       The shortlist will be announced on 20 September , and the winner on 17 October.

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

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       Sales of The Satanic Verses

       The recent outrageous assault on author Salman Rushdie was presumably motivated by some misguided misunderstanding of his novel The Satanic Verses, so it's good to see that, as for example Sarah Shaffi reports in The Guardian, UK sales of The Satanic Verses surge after Rushdie stabbing, as:

In the first full week of sales since the attack, from 14 to 20 August, the 1998 paperback edition of The Satanic Verses sold 2,179 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks physical book sales in more than 7,000 book retail outlets in the UK.

       I hope US sales are up as well; while Midnight's Children is the Rushdie must-read, and Shame is his best, The Satanic Verses is very, very good as well; get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Chinese fiction abroad

       At The World of Chinese Nicky Harman wonders 'How well are translated Chinese novels doing ?' in Found In Translation.
       Her focus is on translations into English -- and, unfortunately, she doesn't offer hard numbers -- but still of interest.
       A lot is, of course, not surprising -- including the disappointing observation that: "whole swathes of writers never get translated".

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       Mekong Review

       Sad to hear that the Mekong Review "is ending its run under current management"; hopefully, someone can be found to take it over and continue doing what they've been doing.
       See also Michael Tatarski's conversation with Minh Bui Jones at Vietnam Weekly, Mekong Review Shuts Down.

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       And Other Stories Q & A

       At the Literary Hub Corinne Segal has the latest in their series, Interview with an Indie Press: And Other Stories, speaking with founder Stefan Tobler and senior editor Tara Tobler.
       See also the And Other Stories site -- lots of great books, quite a few of which are under review at the complete review.

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       The Medieval Chastity Belt review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Albrecht Classen's monograph on A Myth-Making Process, The Medieval Chastity Belt.

       This is a volume in Palgrave Macmillan's The New Middle Ages Series; lots of intriguing-sounding titles here.

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

       Fall 'big-hitter books'

       At The Observer Alex Preston offers some insight into Seven big-hitter books for autumn 2022, from Maggie O'Farrell to Cormac McCarthy
       Not sure how many of these I'll get to, but I am curious about a few of them.

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       Sharon Dodua Otoo Q & A

       In The Oxonian Review Ella Labeau has An Interview with Sharon Dodua Otoo -- probably best-known for having won the 2016 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (though she wasn't the first winner who had begun writing in a different language (in her case, English)).
       Her Ada's Room is due out in English translation next spring; see, for example, the Riverhead publicity page.

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       Anuradha Roy in conversation with Pankaj Mishra

       At The Paris Review's The Daily weblog Pankaj Mishra has Mountains Hidden by Clouds: A Conversation with Anuradha Roy.
       As Mishra notes, Roy set up: "Permanent Black, now India's premier intellectual publisher, with her husband, Rukun Advani"; see their website.
       Roy says:

In this situation, the kind of books we publish at Permanent Black and the kind of books I write seem to me like faint shouts in an aggressive cacophony that drowns out reasoned debate and dissent. We are completely marginal to the mainstream discourse, which is clamorous, angry, and often abusive. In Germany, a hundred years ago, this was the initial stage of a fascist process. India is far more diverse, populous, and difficult to control centrally, so there is some hope.

       One keeps one's fingers crossed .....

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       Translation in ... India

       In Frontline Mini Krishnan finds that 'the bumpy map of English translations is expanding' in India, in Speaking in tongues.
       Some interesting history here, including:

When the history of translations is written, a page will surely be reserved for the MR.AR Educational Trust, which funded the publication of 37 volumes through Macmillan India in 1992-2000 and helped Oxford University Press (OUP) with 40 translations in 2001-12. Later, OUP published another 40 translations on its own. Katha Books was also predicated on outside support, which Geeta Dharmarajan sourced successfully for nearly 30 years. Small indie and niche publishers set up vigorous lists but with a history of poor marketing, small print-runs, and very often no re-prints.

       She also notes:

Since translations became trendy about five years ago there has been something of a rush to promote only contemporary writers at the cost of the older writers who drew the map of our social and ethnic histories. This might well intensify the general amnesia about important writers or literary movements among the next generation of readers. This neglect is further complicated by caste and gender perspectives. And, of course, by the neglect of the translator herself.

       But, hey, at least translations have become trendy !

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

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       David Davidar Q & A

       David Davidar has a new anthology coming out, A Case of Indian Marvels: Dazzling Stories from the Country's Finest New Writers, and at Scroll.in Sayari Debnath has a Q & A with him, Publisher David Davidar on why young writers make him hopeful about Indian fiction in English.
       He also addresses translation:

I’m delighted by the burgeoning interest in translations by readers, publishers, and the executors of literary prizes, but it’s nowhere near enough. We need generous funding by corporates with cultural leanings to support Indian literature created in languages other than English as also translation projects that will make work in these languages available to readers in English and languages other than those in which the work was originally created.

       I'm not so sure about hoping for/relying on "big industry" for financial support, however .....

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

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