opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 October 2022

11 October: Prix Sade | Fitzcarraldo profile | Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist | Duel review
12 October: Österreichischer Buchpreis shortlist | Prix Medicis finalists | Proust exhibit | Palace of Flies event
13 October: Chinese fiction in ... Viet Nam | Governor General's Literary Awards finalists | MacArthur Fellows
14 October: Gordon Burn Prize | Grand prix du Roman shortlist | T.S.Eliot Prize shortlist | Armory Square Prize Q & A
15 October: Arunava Sinha profile | Lady Joker (II) review
16 October: Nigeria Prize for Literature | Folio Society
17 October: Prix Renaudot shortlists | Bambi review
18 October: Booker Prize | Deutscher Buchpreis | Premio Planeta de Novela
19 October: Carmen Callil (1938-2022) | Grand prix de Littérature américaine shortlist
20 October: The Dutch canon ? | Translation in ... India | Shehan Karunatilaka profile

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       The Dutch canon ?

       Via I'm pointed to the latest attempt to figure out what the Dutch canon might be, anno 2022 (twenty years after the last big round-up).
       They went all out/in, with an entire Canon Festival, but the goods are in the lengthy report, De Nederlandstalige literaire canon(s) anno 2022 (warning ! dreaded pdf format !), with all the results from the detailed survey they conducted.

       There's quite a bit of Dutch literature under review at the complete review, and what they find to be the canonical works are especially well-covered:

1. Max Havelaar, Multatuli
2. Van den vos Reynaerde ('Of Reynaert the Fox'), Willem die Madocke maakte
3. The Evenings, Gerard Reve
4. The Dark Room of Damokles, Willem Frederik Hermans
5. The Sorrow of Belgium, Hugo Claus
6. The Discovery of Heaven, Harry Mulisch
7. Beyond Sleep,, Willem Frederik Hermans
8. Chapel Road, Louis Paul Boon
9. The Assault, Harry Mulisch
10. Sunken Red, Jeroen Brouwers
11. Cheese, Willem Elsschot
12. The Black Lake, Hella S. Haasse
13. Eline Vere, Louis Couperus
14. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
15. Character, F. Bordewijk
16. Turkish Delight, Jan Wolkers

       The top three remain unchanged from the 2002 list, while Joost van den Vondel is the most prominent drop-out: his Gijsbreght van Aemstel plummeting from 4th to 33rd, and his Lucifer from 16th to 36th (as plays generally did not fare very well).
       Lots of fascinating sub-categories and arrangements here, including, for example, the top ranking twenty-first century works (Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's Grand Hotel Europa ahead of Arnon Grunberg's Tirza) or the most unjustly forgotten titles and authors. Interesting also to see that, for example, books by Willem Frederik Hermans got the most votes among male respondents, but he only ranked fifth among female respondents (while Harry Mulish ranked third among women but only fifth among men). On the other hand, no surprise that Belgian respondents had Hugo Claus as number one .....

       Meanwhile, see also the editorial at NRC, making the case that De literaire canon is niet het eind, maar het begin van een gesprek, while as an alternative check out the 2019 Journal of Cultural Analytics paper that considers The Canon of Dutch Literature According to Google.

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

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       Translation in ... India

       Another article on translation in India, as Rachel Lopez offers Retell therapy: Indian literature is flourishing in translation in the Hindustan Times -- with lots of recommendations at the end.

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

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       Shehan Karunatilaka profile

       Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was awarded the Booker Prize earlier this week, and in The Guardian Lisa Allardice now profiles him, in ‘Writers all want to be rock stars’: Booker winner Shehan Karunatilaka on ghosts, war and childish dreams.
       One can hope, as he does:

His dream for Seven Moons is that in 10 years’ time, readers in Sri Lanka will regard it as fantasy, “because the Sri Lanka that they live in does not resemble this”. He hopes people will say: “Did that really happen? Did you make this stuff up ?” But, he continues: “Sadly, people are now drawing parallels between today and then.”

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

       Carmen Callil (1938-2022)

       Carmen Callil, founder of the wonderful Virago, has passed away; see, for example Liz Thomson's obituary as well as Lennie Goodings on how Virago founder Carmen Callil was a powerhouse who changed the publishing world for the better, both in The Guardian.

       Virago books are among those that, when I see one in a bookstore, I automatically at least take a closer look. Over the years, I've made a lot of nice discoveries thanks to this imprint. (Too bad the books are apparently now no longer in the old green and black uniform looks -- I loved those, and have some shelves full.)

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

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       Grand prix de Littérature américaine shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Grand prix de Littérature américaine -- the French prize for what they think is the best American book (that's been translated into French); see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Four books remain in the running; the winner will be announced 8 November.

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

       Booker Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Booker Prize, and it is The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.
       Yes, this one is actually already under review at the complete review -- all the more surprising, given that the next most recent winner under review at the site is that from ... 2011.
       Sort of Books brought this out in the UK (and kindly provided me with a review copy); W.W.Norton picked up US rights, and will be bringing it out, well-timed, in two weeks.

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

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       Deutscher Buchpreis

       They've announced the winner of the German Book Prize -- modeled on the Booker Prize -- and it is Blutbuch ('Blood Book'), by Kim de l'Horizon; see also the DuMont foreign rights page.
       It wasn't quite your usual prize-announcement, either, as the winning author shaved their head on stage (in solidarity with the women of Iran, apparently).

       (Updated - 19 October): See now also Christine Lehnen's report at Deutsche Welle, Nonbinary author wins German Book Prize.

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

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       Premio Planeta de Novela

       Sure, the Booker is the best-known, and the German Book Prize the leading German novel prizes, but neither can compete as far as prize money goes with the Premio Planeta.
       They've announced this year's winner, and it is Lejos de Luisiana, by Luz Gabás; see, for example, the Al Día report by Andrea Rodés, An epic about the colonization of Louisiana.
       There were 846 (!) entries -- with the winning title getting €1,000,000 (!). (Even the runner-up won more than the Booker and German Book Prize winners combined -- €200,000.)

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

       Prix Renaudot shortlists

       They've announced the deuxièmes sélections -- the longer shortlists -- for this year's prix Renaudot; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The finalists will be announced 27 October and the winners on 3 November.

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

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       Bambi review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Felix Salten's classic Bambi: Or, Life in the Forest.

       This review is of the Damion Searls translation, just out from New York Review Books -- the second translation of Bambi to appear this year. (The other is Jack Zipes', published by Princeton University Press.)
       New York Review Books did not publish this in their Children's Collection, and it certainly isn't (just) the kid's book one might expect, given the Disney-connection .....

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

       Nigeria Prize for Literature

       They've announced the winner of this year's Nigeria Prize for Literature, the leading Nigerian literary prize, which rotates through four genres; this year was a poetry year.
       The prize went to Nomad, by Romeo Oriogun; see, for example, the New Telegraph report, or get yout copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

       They also awarded the prize in Literary Criticism, which went to Sakiru Adebayo.

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

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       Folio Society

       In The Guardian Alice Fisher takes a look at Seventy-five years of richly illustrated literary classics -- in pictures -- looking at the fine-looking volumes from The Folio Society.

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

       Arunava Sinha profile

       In The Hindu Priya Ramani offers Meet Arunava Sinha, likely India's most prolific translator
       With: "70 or so published translations" he is indeed prolific -- and appropriately obsessive, saying: "I translate compulsively, it's a drug".

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

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       Lady Joker (II) review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the second (and concluding) part of Takamura Kaoru's mammoth crime novel, Lady Joker (II), just (about) out in the US (though it'll still be a few months before the UK edition is out).

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

       Gordon Burn Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Gordon Burn Prize, celebrating: "the year's most dazzlingly bold and forward-thinking fiction and non-fiction written in English", and it is Aftermath by Preti Taneja.
       This is published by Transit Books in the US -- see their publicity page -- and And Other Stories in the UK -- see their publicity page --; get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Grand prix du Roman shortlist

       The Académie française has announced the finalists for its Grand prix du Roman, with just three titles remaining in the running.
       The winner will be announced 27 October.

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

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       T.S.Eliot Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's T.S.Eliot Prize, "awarded annually to the author of the best new collection of poetry published in the UK and Ireland", with ten titles selected from the 201 submissions.
       The winner will be announced 16 January 2023.

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

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       Armory Square Prize Q & A

       They announced the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation earlier this year - see my previous mention -- and at Words without Borders they have a Q & A with jury chair Jason Grunebaum and partner and co-founder of Armory Square Ventures Pia Sawhney, in A New Translation Prize: The Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation.
       As Grunebaum notes:

Bangla, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Kannada, and Malayalam are the “usual suspects,” but there are so many more South Asian languages out there that are even more underrepresented.

       It sounds like a promising undertaking.

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

       Chinese fiction in ... Viet Nam

       At Asia Sentinel they find: 'Gooey romance novels thrill everybody but the government' in considering China’s Novelistic ‘Soft Power Invasion’ of Vietnam.

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

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       Governor General's Literary Awards finalists

       The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards -- five each in each of seven categories, and that in English and in French.
       Admirably, too, they reveal all the titles that have been submitted for consideration. (Every literary prize should do this !)
       The winners will be announced on 16 November.

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

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       MacArthur Fellows

       They've announced this year's MacArthur Fellows -- awarded these so-called 'genius grants', paying out US$800,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years.
       Only one is described as solely as a 'writer' -- Kiese Laymon -- but several others are, among other things, also writers.

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

       Österreichischer Buchpreis shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Austrian Book Prize.
       Among the five finalists is Robert Menasse's Die Erweiterung -- the sequel to his The Capital. See also the Suhrkamp foreign rights page for Die Erweiterung.
       The winner will be announced 21 November.

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

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       Prix Medicis finalists

       They've announced the finalists for the prix Medicis in its three categories -- fiction, translated fiction, and non-fiction; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Novels by Virginie Despentes and Anne Serre remain in the running for the French fiction prize, while Andrey Kurkov's Grey Bees is a finalist in the foreign category.
       With titles including: Le célibataire absolu, Nos apocalypses, and Z comme zombie, among others, the non-fiction category sounds pretty rough.

       The winners will be announced 7 November.

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

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       Proust exhibit

       At the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand) a new exhibit, Marcel Proust, la fabrique de l'œuvre, has opened; it runs through 22 January.
       With some 370 pieces this looks like an extensive and impressive exhibit.

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

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       Palace of Flies event

       At the Austrian Cultural Forum New York they're having a book presentation event tonight at 19:00, for Walter Kappacher's Palace of Flies, in Georg Bauer's ACFNY Translation Prize-winning translation.

       I'm a bit surprised (and disappointed) that this novel hasn't gotten more attention -- the author is a Georg Büchner Prize-winning author (the highest German-language author-honor) and the subject-matter is the fascinating Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Strauss librettist, co-founder of the Salzburg Festival, and author).

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

       Prix Sade

       They announced the winner of this year's prix Sade a few days ago -- and it is L'apparence du vivant, by Charlotte Bourlard; see, for example, the report at Livres Hebdo.
       See also the Inculte publicity page for L'apparence du vivant

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

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       Fitzcarraldo profile

       UK publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions must be doing something right as, as Anna Cafolla writes in The Guardian, with Annie Ernaux's Nobel win last week they're at Four Nobels and counting: Fitzcarraldo, the little publisher that could.
       While obviously it's the content of the books that counts, I'm pleased to see that they prove that simple, plain, uniform covers -- as also common especially in France -- don't stand in the way of critical or popular success:

The covers, designed by Ray O’Meara, are sleek and chic, with uniform blue for fiction and white for nonfiction. They’re now a ubiquitous Instagram grid fixture. Where aesthetics and trends vie for readers’ attention, Fitzcarraldo is stoic.

       And publicity director Clare Bogen makes a good point about the uniform look in noting:

One of our writers told me: ‘If my book looks like Olga Tokarczuk’s book, it’s a great equaliser.’ People are willing to take that risk with us and discover books in different ways.

       In any case, it's always worth following what Fitzcarraldo is bringing out.

       (Updated - 14 October): See now also Alex Marshall's profile in The New York Times, on How a Tiny British Publisher Became the Home of Nobel Laureates.

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

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       Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, with six titles left in the running.
       I haven't seen any of these, but it looks like an interesting variety.
       The winner will be announced on 17 November.

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

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       Duel review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Borys Antonenko-Davydovych's 1928 novel, Duel -- a revised edition of the 1986 translation, now out from Glagoslav.

       Antonenko-Davydovych is an interesting figure -- a Ukrainian-writing Soviet author who published both before and after the Second World War, his career interrupted by some two decades in Siberian exile, including ten years hard labor in a gulag.

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

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