opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 30 November 2022

21 November: Schweizer Buchpreis | Tractatus Logico-Suicidalis review
22 November: Österreichischer Buchpreis | John Dos Passos Prize finalists
23 November: The NY Times' 100 Notable Books of 2022 | Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize | Nights of Plague review
24 November: Jan Michalski Prize | Prix de la littérature arabe | Irish Book Awards | PEN Presents winners
25 November: Warwick Prize | The Egg and I in the Czech Republic
26 November: Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929-2022) | HWA Crown Awards | Ice review
27 November: Will Self Q & A | Classic recommendations
28 November: Shehan Karunatilaka Q & A | Miss Lizzie review
29 November: Merve Emre Q & A on Murnane | '100 notable African books of 2022' | 'Ghana and the Literary Industry' | Clouds review
30 November: Royal Society Science Book Prize | NYTBR 10 Best Books of 2022 | Tom Phillips (1937-2022)

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       Royal Society Science Book Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Royal Society Science Book Prize, and it is A (Very) Short History of Life On Earth by Henry Gee.
       See also the publicity pages from St. Martin's Press and Picador, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       NYTBR 10 Best Books of 2022

       "The staff of The New York Times Book Review choose the year's standout fiction and nonfiction", with their The 10 Best Books of 2022.
       I haven't seen any of these, so .....

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

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       Tom Phillips (1937-2022)

       Tom Phillips, best known for his incredible treated novel, A Humument, has passed away; see, for example, Charles Darwent's obituary in The Guardian and the official Tom Phillips-site.
       My first A Humument was the green-covered first revised edition of 1987, and it made a very great impression on me; if I had to winnow down my book-collection to, say, 100 volumes, this would certainly be one of them.
       Get your copy (of the final edition) at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

       Merve Emre Q & A on Murnane

       In the Sydney Review of Books Joseph Steinberg has a Q & A with Merve Emre on Gerald Murnane's Signposts.

       I have a pile of Murnanes to get to, but several are already under review at the complete review, including my favorite, Barley Patch.

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

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       '100 notable African books of 2022'

       At Brittle Paper they list 100 notable African books of 2022 -- a useful overview.
       I'm disappointed by how few of these I've seen. Two of them are, however, under review at the complete review: Casablanca Story, by In Koli Jean Bofane, and The Night Will Have Its Say, by Ibrahim Al-Koni.

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

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       'Ghana and the Literary Industry'

       At PEN Transmissions Elizabeth Johnson writes: "on the literary scene in Ghana, who's building it, and the value of publishing on the continent", in Ghana and the Literary Industry.

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

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       Clouds review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Aristophanes' Socratic comedy, Clouds.

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

       Shehan Karunatilaka Q & A

       At Scroll.in Sayari Debnath has a lengthy Q & A with the Booker Prize-winning author of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, in ‘I guess now I finally have a writing career’: Shehan Karunatilaka on winning the 2022 Booker Prize.
       Karunatilaka also discusses his earlier novel, Chinaman -- and he muses:

I still have half a mind to continue my copywriting career. I enjoy it and it’s a good break. I’m eager to get away from the publicity trail and go back home, start typing again, and inhabiting another world.

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

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       Miss Lizzie review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Walter Satterthwait's 1989 Lizzie Borden novel, Miss Lizzie.

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

       Will Self Q & A

       At The Guardian Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with Will Self: ‘I’m seen as a still-walking dead white man’, as Self has a new book coming out, Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021.
       Self notes:

Until fairly recently, certainly since 2001, I probably wrote an average of 150,000 words of journalism every year, so there’s a vast amount to choose from.

       He also acknowledges:

With the possible exception of Umbrella, which lost the Booker to Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies by a short nose, almost all my books have been Marmite.

       See also the publicity pages for Why Read from Grove and Grove Press UK.

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

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       Classic recommendations

       Antigone has now reached 250 articles published, and they have a nice piece celebrating that milestone, asking their writers and readers: "what their favourite Greek or Latin text is", in The Classic Classic ? Antigone Hits 250.
       Lots of good suggestions -- including Alexander Andrée's:

Frenetic, disgusting, and iconoclastic, Lucan’s Pharsalia has been a nail in the eye to Classicists of purist tastes. Mockingly dedicated to Nero and disguised in the tragedy of the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, the amputated epic offers a twisted parody of Vergil’s Aeneid and the government it hails, the Principate. Through its morbid illustrations of power expressed in its most violent and perverted forms, Pharsalia works on every reader in the right mind as an effective inoculation against tyranny. A much neglected must-read.

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

       Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929-2022)

       German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger -- who was awarded the leading German author prize, the Georg Büchner Prize, way back in 1963 -- has passed away; see, for example, the report by Heike Mund and Verena Greb at DeutscheWelle, German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger dies, or the notice from his German publisher, Suhrkamp.
       Several of his works -- though a very unrepresentative selection -- are under review at the complete review:

• Dialoge zwischen Unsterblichen, Lebendigen und Toten
• Drawbridge Up / Zugbrücke außer Betrieb
• Mr. Zed's Reflections
• Zu große Fragen

       Seagull Books publish quite a few of his books in English translation.
       Enzensberger was also the co-founder and longtime publisher of the excellent Die Andere Bibliothek

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

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       HWA Crown Awards

       The Historical Writers' Association has announced the winners of this year's HWA Crown Awards, with the Gold Crown Award going to The Fortune Men, by Nadifa Mohamed.

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

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       Ice review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Anna Kavan's 1967 classic, Ice.

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

       Warwick Prize

       They've announced the winners of this year's Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and there are two of them this year, Daisy Rockwell's translation of Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand and Peter Graves' translation of Marit Kapla's Osebol; see also Sian Bayley's report in The Bookseller.

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

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       The Egg and I in the Czech Republic

       At Radio Prague International Ruth Fraňková reports on literary theorist Jiří Trávníček's new book, Betty a my, exploring: The Egg and I: Why is 1945 US bestseller topping Czech readers' lists ?
       The enduring popularity of Betty MacDonald's book -- Trávníček notes that repeated studies have found her to be: "the most popular and most read author in Czechia" -- is indeed something of a headscratcher. But it's apparently been the case for a while -- a phenomenon that even found mention in Philip Roth's The Prague Orgy, as noted in the piece.
       See also the Host publicity page for Trávníček's book -- and I hope we'll get to see this in English at some point; it sounds like a fascinating local-reading/publishing study.

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

       Jan Michalski Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, a CHF 50,000 prize for a work of world literature, regardless of what language it is written in, and it is Les fossoyeuses, by Taina Tervonen.
       See also the French Publishers' Agency information page and the Éditions Marchialy publicity page.

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

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       Prix de la littérature arabe

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix de la littérature arabe, a leading fiction prize for a work by an Arab author written or translated into French, and it is Bel abîme, by Yamen Manaï; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       See also the elyzad publicity page.
       Manaï's The Ardent Swarm has been translated into English (get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk), and we should be seeing this one In English too, eventually.

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

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       Irish Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's An Post Irish Book Awards, with winners in eighteen categories (which include Bookshop of the Year).
       Trespasses Louise Kennedy was named Novel of the Year -- see also the publicity pages from Bloomsbury and Riverhead Books -- while EL, by Thaddeus Ó Buachalla, was named Irish Language Book of the Year -- see also the Coiscéim publicity page.

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

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       PEN Presents winners

       PEN Presents is a new English PEN award for sample translations from underrepresented languages and regions, and they've now announced the first batch of winners, six translators representing four of the languages of India.
       This sounds like a very promising prize -- and hopefully it will lead to complete and published translations.

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

       The NY Times' 100 Notable Books of 2022

       The New York Times Book Review has announced their 100 Notable Books of 2022
       Unfortunately, they don't simply list the titles, but as best I can tell five of them are under review at the complete review:

• The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk
• Case Study, by Graeme Macrae Burnet
• Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux
• Index, A History of the, by Dennis Duncan
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka

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

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       Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and it is The Trees, by Percival Everett; see also Sian Bayley's report in The Bookseller.
       See also the publicity pages for The Trees from Graywolf Press and Influx Press, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Nights of Plague review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's latest novel, Nights of Plague.

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

       Österreichischer Buchpreis

       On Sunday they announced the Swiss Book Prize -- see my mention -- and then yesterday they announced the winner of this year's Austrian Book Prize, the leading Austrian fiction prize, and it is Mon Chéri und unsere demolierten Seelen, by Verena Roßbacher; see also the Kiepenheuer & Witsch foreign rights page.

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

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       John Dos Passos Prize finalists

       I missed this a few days ago, but they've announced the four finalists for this year's John Dos Passos Prize, awarded to: "an underappreciated writer whose work offers incisive, original commentary on American themes" (and which is: "the oldest literary award given by a Virginia college or university").
       The four finalists are: Bibliolepsy-author Gina Apostol, Carolina De Robertis, Jaime Manrique, and The Lost Time Accidents-author John Wray.
       The winner will be announced "in the coming weeks".

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

       Schweizer Buchpreis

       They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winner of this year's Swiss Book Prize, and it is ... the winner of this year's German Book Prize, Blutbuch, by Kim de l'Horizon; see also the swiss.info report.
       See also the DuMont foreign rights page; unsurprisingly, English rights have already sold -- apparently to Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

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

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       Tractatus Logico-Suicidalis review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Hermann Burger's manifesto On Killing Oneself, Tractatus Logico-Suicidalis.
       This is just (about) out from Wakefield Press -- yet another one of the remarkable titles they have brought out.
       The translation is by Adrian Nathan West, whose translation of Burger's Brenner came out, from Archipelago Books, earlier this year; see their publicity page; I should be getting to that too.

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

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