opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 September 2022

11 September: Orhan Pamuk profile | Minakshi Thakur Q & A | 'Books for the Century'
12 September: Javier Marías (1951-2022) | Case Study review
13 September: The novel in ... India | Adam Gopnik on Simenon and Maigret
14 September: Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalists | More French prize longlists
15 September: (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist | Siddhartha at 100 | The Bad Angel Brothers review
16 September: Österreichischer Buchpreis longlist | Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize finalists | More National Book Award longlists
17 September: (American) National Book Award for Fiction longlist | Ian McEwan Q & A | Metropolitan Books
18 September: Q & As: Shehan Karunatilaka - Geetanjali Shree
19 September: Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis shortlist | The Enigma of Room 622 review
20 September: Imperial poetry | Translation hurdles | Eine Liebe in Pjöngjang review

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       Imperial poetry

       Kyodo News reports that Poems by Emperor Meiji now in English after over 30 yrs of work.
       The book is Bridge on the Shikishima Way, a selection of 100 poems by the emperor, "who, during his lifetime, composed around 100,000 poems". So I guess we shouldn't be expecting a translation of the collected works anytime soon .....
       See also the Chuo Koron Shinsha publicity page for the book.

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

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       Translation hurdles

       In the Los Angeles Review of Books Lily Meyer writes about the difficulties of Breaking into English.

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

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       Eine Liebe in Pjöngjang review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Andreas Stichmann's Eine Liebe in Pjöngjang.

       This is one of the twenty titles longlisted for this year's German Book Prize -- the shortlist for which will be announced ... today.

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

       Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Wilhelm Raabe Literary Prize.
       Paying out €.30,000 to the winner, this German fiction prize is actually bigger than the German Book Prize (which pays out €.25,000 to its winner).
       Only one of the four shortlisted titles has also been longlisted for this year's German Book Prize -- Jan Faktor's Trottel.
       The winner will be announced 6 November.

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

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       The Enigma of Room 622 review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Joël Dicker's international bestseller, The Enigma of Room 622, now also out in English.

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

       Q & A: Shehan Karunatilaka

       In The Hindu Stanley Carvalho has a Q & A with the author, in Sri Lanka is cursed but its storytellers are blessed: Shehan Karunatilaka, author of Booker-shortlisted The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.
       Among other things, he also describes how The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida differs from the earlier version published in India as Chats with the Dead:

The book was revised for an international audience during the pandemic. So that the details of Sri Lanka in 1989 and the complexity of the afterlife wouldn’t confuse. It’s the same book, though Moons is more accessible to an audience unfamiliar with Sri Lankan politics and folklore.

       See also my review of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

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

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       Q & A: Geetanjali Shree

       In the Business Standard Sandeep Kumar has a Q & A with the author, in Future of Hindi literature set to prosper: Booker winner Geetanjali Shree.
       Among her responses:

You have been writing for more than three decades. Can a Hindi writer make a living only by writing ? Are writers financially better off today ?

My plain answer is ‘No’. I cannot detect any improvement in the financial condition of Hindi writers. The same is more or less true for writers in other Indian languages.

       See also my reviews of her Tomb of Sand and The Empty Space.

       (Updated - 19 September): See now also Rohan Datta's Q & A with the translator of the International Booker-winning novel at My Kolkata, Trust and a sense of shared purpose behind success: Daisy Rockwell on ‘Tomb of Sand’.

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

       (American) National Book Award for Fiction longlist

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced the longlist for this year's National Book Award for Fiction, ten titles selected from 463 (regrettably not revealed ...) titles.
       I have not seen any of these.
       The shortlists in all the National Book Award categories will be announced 4 October, and the winners on 16 November.

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

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       Ian McEwan Q & A

       Ian McEwan answers readers' question in The Guardian, in Ian McEwan: ‘The perfect novella is always just out of my reach’.

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

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       Metropolitan Books

       At Publishers Weekly Jim Milliot reports that Henry Holt Lays Off Metropolitan Books Staff.
       Founded in 1997, and run by Sara Bershtel since 2008, the imprint has had a very solid list; it's a shame it is being closed down.

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

       Österreichischer Buchpreis longlist

       I'm a bit late with this one, but they've announced the ten titles for this year's Austrian Book Prize -- with two of the ten titles also on the longlist for the German Book Prize, the novels by Anna Kim and Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker.
       The finalists were selected from 110 submissions.
       The shortlist will be announced 10 October, and the winner on 24 November.

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

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       Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize finalists

       The generous -- C$60,000 -- Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize has announced its five finalists -- which include two translations.
       The winner will be announced 2 November.

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

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       More National Book Award longlists

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced two more longlists, in the Nonfiction and Poetry categories, with ten titles each.
       The shortlists will be announced 4 October, and the winners on 16 November.

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

       (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced the ten-title strong longlist for this year's National Book Award for Translated Literature:

• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
• The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
• Ibn Arabi’s Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan, translated by William M. Hutchins
• Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker
• Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti
• A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
• Scattered All Over the Earth by Tawada Yoko, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
• Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour, translated by Sara Khalili
• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
• Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić, translated by Damion Searls

       Damion Searls impressively manages to have two titles longlisted -- translated from different languages, no less.
       The finalists in this and all the categories will be announced 4 October, and the winners on 16 November.

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

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       Siddhartha at 100

       At Deutsche Welle Manasi Gopalakrishnan writes on 100 years of Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha'

       No doubt, you read it in high school or college, but if you need a new copy you can get it at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       The Bad Angel Brothers review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Paul Theroux's latest novel, The Bad Angel Brothers.

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

       Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prize in its two categories, fiction and non -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, the report at 'The Hub'
       The winners will be announced on 27 September.

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

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       More French prize longlists

       The French literary prize season continues apace, with yet more longlist announcements, including now the Medicis and the Femina -- of interest also because in addition to a French-language best novel category they also have one for translated fiction.
       Among the titles making both prizes' longlists: Colm Tóibín's The Magician and Andrey Kurkov's (or Andreï Kourkov's ...) Grey Bees.
       See the reports at Livres Hebdo on the prix Medicis and the prix Femina.

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

       The novel in ... India

       In The Print Humra Laeeq finds that: "There’s new enthusiasm among readers and publishers for fact, data, narrative, theory, and experiences. Fiction's time under the Indian sun might just be over" as she wonders: Is the novel dying in India ? Publishers chasing more and more non-fiction.
       Apparently: "The share of non-fiction has gone up 58 per cent in the last few years", while: "The best decade for fiction was the 2000s, says Advaita Kala", as:

There was a “buoyant” space for commercial writers — Chetan Bhagat, a writer previously treated “very shabbily” was catapulted into a commercial cult with the release of Five Point Someone in 2004, which sold over a lakh copies in no time of its launch.

That was the high for Indian fiction. Now it’s mostly for literature aficionados and college students.

       [A brief pause here, as I weep.]

       I'm not sure the situation is so bleak -- I think the surge in interest in fiction in translation from and into Indian languages is very promising.
       And, of course, I remain convinced that fiction is what really matters, and that Indian readers too will eventually see that light .....

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

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       Adam Gopnik on Simenon and Maigret

       In The New Yorker Adam Gopnik writes on Georges Simenon and The Mysterious Case of Inspector Maigret.
       Interesting that he believes: "The Maigret books, seventy-five in all, seem the likeliest to live" -- rather than: "the romans durs, the “hard books,” often set outside Paris and meant as works of more self-conscious art". Much as I enjoy the Maigrets -- e.g. Maigret Hesitates -- I think there are more standouts among the romans durs -- e.g. The Mahé Circle.
       But it's an interesting look at the author and his work.

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

       Javier Marías (1951-2022)

       Spanish author Javier Marías has passed away -- a major loss. We have no way of knowing if he was on the shortlist for this year's soon-to-be-announced Nobel Prize in Literature, but there is little doubt that he was nominated -- and probably has been numerous times previously; he would have been a worthy laureate -- he was that good..

       See for example Spanish literary great Javier Marías dies aged 70 by Javier Rodríguez Marcos at El País, Spanish novelist Javier Marías dies at home in Madrid aged 70 by Sam Jones in The Guardian, links to a whole lot of Spanish-language coverage of Marías' death -- and football (soccer) club Real Madrid's official announcement .

       Several works by Javier Marías are under review at the complete review:

• Bad Nature
• Berta Isla
• Dark Back of Time
• The Infatuations
• The Man of Feeling
• Thus Bad Begins
• When I Was Mortal
• While the Women are Sleeping
• Written Lives
• Your Face Tomorrow-trilogy:
  1. Fever and Spear

       Also under review is Gareth J. Wood's very good Javier Marías's Debt to Translation.
       And, yes, I really should get around to posting reviews of the rest of the Your Face Tomorrow-trilogy .....

       Meanwhile, a book I'm very much looking forward to is Michael Hingston's Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda -- see the Biblioasis publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk -- as Redonda is one of those places that figure very large in many things Marías.

       (Updated - 13 September): See now also Alberto Manguel on Javier Marías: modern literature’s great philosopher of everyday absurdity in The Guardian.

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

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       Case Study review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Graeme Macrae Burnet's recently Booker Prize-longlisted novel, Case Study.

       This came out in the UK last fall, and French, German, and Spanish translations have been available for a while now, but a US edition is only coming out in November -- and that from Canadian publisher Biblioasis.
       Having just reviewed another title by a prominent author that was published in the UK two years ago and in numerous translations since before finally coming out in the US (Jonathan Coe's Mr. Wilder and Me), I have to wonder -- even more than usual ... -- what the hell is going on with American publishing.

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

       Orhan Pamuk profile

       Orhan Pamuk's Nights of Plague is coming out in English shortly, and at The Guardian Lisa Allardice profiles him, in Author Orhan Pamuk: ‘I used to have three bodyguards, now I have one’.
       Among the bits of interest:

While Pamuk is by no means poor (he was born into a wealthy family and is Turkey’s bestselling writer), ink cartridges, along with everything else, have become so expensive in Turkey under Erdoğan’s “economic war of independence”, he has reverted to using old-fashioned refillable fountain pens. He always writes by hand, only using the computer to check his email and the news.

       Meanwhile, at Daily Sabah, we learn about his next book, as: Orhan Pamuk reveals plot of his new book 'The Card Players' (via).

       I haven't seen Nights of Plague yet but do hope to; meanwhile, see the publicity pages at Knopf and Faber, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Minakshi Thakur Q & A

       At Scroll.in Sayari Debnath talks with Minakshi Thakur: "about setting up imprints for translations and regional language publishing, the future of the publishing industry, and more", in the interesting ‘Multi-platform publishing is the future’: Minakshi Thakur on Westland’s new innings with Pratilipi.

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

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       'Books for the Century'

       Foreign Affairs' Foreign Affairs at 100 issue is now out, and in the review-section: "reviewers each selected a set of books essential to understanding the past century and another set essential for imagining the century ahead"; it is now up, at Books for the Century -- an interesting selection.

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

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