opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 June 2023

11 June: Anton Hur Q & A | Irish literature | Literature in Nigeria
12 June: Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize | The New York Times Book Review | Mrs. S review
13 June: Hamdi Abu Golayyel (1967-2023) | Elizabeth Gilbert withdraws book
14 June: Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023) | Xi Jinping, prolific author | New Executive Editor at Coffee House Press
15 June: Women's Prize for Fiction | Europese Literatuurprijs shortlist | Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: profile | Robert Gottlieb (1931-2023) | Naveen Kishore Q & A
16 June: EBRD Literature Prize | Walter Scott Prize | Pushkin House Book Prize | Ariane, a Russian Girl review
17 June: Translating Korean literature | Translating Tamil literature
18 June: 'The Black British experience' | Jean Améry profile
19 June: Russian culture | The Unseen review
20 June: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade | Miles Franklin shortlist

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       Peace Prize of the German Book Trade

       They've announced that this year's Peace Prize of the German Book Trade will go to Salman Rushdie; he will receive it at the end of this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, on 22 October.
       Not a surprising choice, but certainly a deserving winner of this prestigious prize.

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

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       Miles Franklin shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, one of the leading Australian literary prizes.
       The winner will be announced on 25 July.

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

       Russian culture

       In The Observer Kenan Malik makes the case that We can revile Putin's violence in Ukraine, but we're not at war with Russian culture.
       As he notes:

It is one thing to call for the boycott of state institutions or of those acting in an official capacity. It is quite another to argue that The Nutcracker or War and Peace should be banned because their creators were Russian. That is to accept a Putinesque view of the relationship between culture and nation, of Russian culture as belonging to the Russian nation and of defining its soul.

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

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       The Unseen review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the first in Roy Jacobsen's The Barrøy Chronicles, The Unseen.

       I have the next three volumes as well, and should be getting to them; the start is certainly very good.

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

       'The Black British experience'

       At The Guardian they had a number of: "leading writers, artists, politicians and broadcasters" choose "75 books to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush", in Windrush at 75: books that shaped the black British experience.

       The only one of these titles under review at the complete review is Arthur Japin's The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi.

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

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       Jean Améry profile

       At Tablet David Mikics profiles the Charles Bovary, Country Doctor-author, in The Horrible and Enlightening Life of Jean Améry.

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

       Translating Korean literature

       In The Korea Times Kwak Yeon-soo reports on Translators -- unsung heroes behind globalization of Korean literature -- complete with charts of the number of publications, and the number of languages into which Korean literature is translated (27 in 2022).

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

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       Translating Tamil literature

       In Frontline Jinoy Jose P. and Saatvika Radhakrishna report on How a textbook department opened new avenues for literature in translation.
       That would be the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TNTBESC).
       Interesting that:

The Tamil Nadu government is the first and only State government to undertake such translation initiatives with the goal of spreading literature beyond linguistic barriers. Saravanan emphasised the reciprocal translation process in place, along with collaborations with publishers from different States.

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

       EBRD Literature Prize

       The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced the winner of their EBRD Literature Prize, awarded to the: "best work of literary fiction translated into English, originally written in any language of the EBRD's regions where it currently invests, and published for the first time by a European (including UK) publisher", and it is Bianca Bellová's The Lake, in Alex Zucker's translation; see also the Parthian Books publicity page.

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

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       Walter Scott Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and it is These Days, by Lucy Caldwell.
       See also the Faber publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Pushkin House Book Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Pushkin House Book Prize, awarded to a non-fiction book dealing with Russia in English which combines readability, originality and excellence in research, and it is Overreach, by Owen Matthews.

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

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       Ariane, a Russian Girl review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a new translation of Claude Anet's 1920 novel, Ariane, a Russian Girl, coming out from New York Review Books.

       This is the novel that the Billy Wilder movie Love in the Afternoon is based on.

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

       Women's Prize for Fiction

       They've announced the winner of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, and it is Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver -- which also shared this year's Pulitzer Prize.
       I haven't seen this one -- but two major prizes already ......
       See also the publicity pages from Harper 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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       Europese Literatuurprijs shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Europese Literatuurprijs, a leading Dutch prize for a work in translation by a European author.
       Four titles are left in the running -- works by Claire-Louise Bennett, Krasznahorkai László, Eva Menasse, and Leïla Slimani.

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

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       Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: profile

       In The Guardian Carey Baraka has Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature -- a long profile.

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

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       Robert Gottlieb (1931-2023)

       Editor Robert Gottlieb, of Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker, has passed away; see, for example, coverage in The New York Times and Publishers Weekly
       In an appreciation in The New Yorker, David Remnick writes that he: "may have been the most important book editor of his time".
       The Paris Review has also taken down the paywall, for now, for Larissa MacFarquhar's Q & A, Robert Gottlieb, The Art of Editing No. 1.

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

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       Naveen Kishore Q & A

       At My Kolkata Pooja Mitra has a Q & A with the Seagull Books-publisher, ‘Writing is as much a daily practice as publishing’: Naveen Kishore.

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

       Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023)

       As widely reported, highly-regarded American author Cormac McCarthy has passed away; see, for example, obituaries in The New York Times and The Guardian..

       None of his work is under review at the complete review -- and I have to admit that I never really took to it (but should certainly explore more of it).

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

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       Xi Jinping, prolific author

       At the MCLC Resource Center, David Bandurski has a look at His authorship, Xi Jinping, finding that in China: "one writer reigns supreme at the printing press, and in the headlines"..
       Previous Chinese leader Hu Jintao published 1.5 titles per year, Jiang Zemin 1.4 -- while in: "his first decade in power, Xi published an average of 12 unique titles per year". All that while he has a day job, too.
       No novels, though ...... Or poetry (which Mao dabbled in).
       If you're eager to sample some Xi Jinping -- or go all in --, check out the Foreign Language Press site

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

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       New Executive Editor at Coffee House Press

       At Publishers Weekly Claire Kirch reports that Coffee House Press Names Executive Editor, and an excellent hire it is -- Jeremy Davies. He started off at Dalkey Archive Press, which is already a great pedigree .....
       Coffee House Press has a solid list, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

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

       Hamdi Abu Golayyel (1967-2023)

       As ArabLit reports, Egyptian author Hamdi Abu Golayyel has passed away.
       Several of his works have been translated into English, including the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature-winning A Dog with No Tail; see also the AUC Press publicity page.

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

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       Elizabeth Gilbert withdraws book

       Popular American author Elizabeth Gilbert has withdrawn her forthcoming novel, The Snow Forest, from publication, as she explained on Twitter..
       The problem ? It's set in .... (Soviet) Russia. There may be more to this -- I haven't seen the book -- but apparently that's it.
       Gilbert is a (very) commercial author, so I assume she's reading her room right -- but still .....
       This has been widely reported -- see articles at, for example, The Guardian, Vulture, and The Atlantic .
       Impressively, the publishers -- Riverhead in the US and Bloomsbury in the UK -- have pulled the book from their websites already (though there's still a Google cache, as I write this ...). It is also still up at Amazon.co.uk (though not at the US Amazon.)
       It'll be interesting to see when she and her publishers believe it will be publishable again.

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

       Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, awarded to a: 'book-length literary translation into English from any living European language', and it is Monica Cure's translation of Liliana Corobca's The Censor's Notebook.

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

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       The New York Times Book Review

       In Publishers Weekly Sophia Stewart looks at how The ‘New York Times Book Review’ Mixes It Up under new editor Gilbert Cruz.
       Among the changes from previous administrations: "It no longer runs “double-reviews” (two reviews by different critics of a single book), which Cruz felt “sends a mixed message to the reader.”".
       And Cruz also says:

One of his primary goals, in this first year at the helm, “is to try a lot of stuff.”

       Stewart notes of the NYTBR that: "print editions have noticeably slimmed down in recent years" -- and, sigh: "Cruz doubts it will ever return to the larger page counts of yore".

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

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       Mrs. S review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of K. Patrick's Mrs. S, recently out from Fourth Estate in the UK and out shortly from Europa Editions in the US.

       This is Patrick's novel-debut; the author was recently named to Granta's latest batch of 'Best of Young British Novelists'.

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

       Anton Hur Q & A

       At Scroll.in Sayari Debnath has a Q & A with Anton Hur, ‘The match between a translator and a writer is alchemical. It’s like being married’: Anton Hur.
       Among his responses:

Let’s imagine that Anton Hur has been asked to create a Translator’s Paradise. What are the top three things you will have in such a space ?

A room of one’s own, steady income, and an agent to take care of rights haggling, pitching, and other problem-solving that has nothing to do with the actual act of translation.

       Sounds good.

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

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       Irish literature

       At ABC News Nicola Heath takes a closer look at Why so many of the world's best writers hail from Ireland, from James Joyce to Colm Tóibín.

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

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       Literature in Nigeria

       In The Nation Edozie Udeze has a Q & A with Chijioke Uwasomba on, among other things, ‘How literature has redefined nationhood’
       He begins:

The state of literature in Nigeria, like any other productive engagement is not as excellent as one would have joyfully expected.

       He also suggests:

Post-colonial hell-holes like Nigeria requires a literature that interrogates the contradictions and inanities that have hobbled them and made them unlivable environments on earth. Nigerian literature, right from its beginnings has been an active force in the building and redirection of the country.

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

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