opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 August 2024

11 August: South Indian literature abroad | Kate Atkinson profile | Twenty-two years of the Literary Saloon
12 August: AI and translation | Literary censorship in Russia | Jonathan Kramnick Q & A | Late Fragments review
13 August: Royal Society Science Book Prize shortlist | Österreichischer Krimipreis
14 August: Márcio Souza (1946-2024) | Paul-Celan-Preis | The Red House Mystery review
15 August: Shanghai Book Fair | UK literary festivals
16 August: Shortlists: Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize - Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalists | A Prague Flâneur review
17 August: Sunday Times bestseller list | English-language books in European markets | German license sales abroad
18 August: M - the TV series | George Orwell papers
19 August: Janet Frame at 100
20 August: Nepali literary magazines | New in the German dictionary | FT Business Book of the Year longlist | Office Politics review

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       Nepali literary magazines

       In The Kathmandu Post Abhi Subedi gives an overview of Nepali literary magazines, in Icons of literary times.

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

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       New in the German dictionary

       Duden is the definitive German dictionary, and they now report that they've added 3000 new words (bringing the total to 148,000).
       Among those added, mentioned there or in the Börsenblatt-report, are way too many English words and phrases: 'Social Distancing', 'Bucketlist', 'Granola' ..... And to my disappointment 'die Awareness' is apparently not even pronounced Germanly ('a-vah-ray-ness') .....
       It's almost encouraging that 'Triggerwarnung', 'nerdig', and 'Gojibeere' have only made it in now -- though I am surprised 'Intimbehaarung' is new.

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

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       FT Business Book of the Year longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year, sixteen titles selected from more than 600 (unfortunately not revealed, sigh ...) entries.
       The shortlist will be announced 17 September, and the winner on 9 December.

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

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       Office Politics review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Wilfrid Sheed's 1966 novel, Office Politics, back in print (shortly), in a new edition from McNally Editions.

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

       Janet Frame at 100

       At The Guardian Catherine Taylor profiles the New Zealand author, in From poverty, psychiatric hospital and writing in a shed to literary stardom: Janet Frame at 100.

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

       M - the TV series

       They've made an eight-part TV series based on Antonio Scurati's M: Son of the Century -- the first volume in a planned tetralogy --, which will be shown out of competition at the upcoming Venice Film Festival before coming to screens near you, and in The Guardian Philip Oltermann now has a profile of its director, 'I want the audience to be seduced': Joe Wright on his Mussolini biopic; see also Gianmaria Tammaro in The Hollywood Reporter last year, on Joe Wright and Luca Marinelli on Daring to Make Mussolini Charming for 'M. Son of the Century'.
       See also the pages at production company The Apartment and IMDb.

       What I really want to know, however, is: where the hell are the English translations of the rest of the series ? The third volume of the French translation came out a year ago; the fourth (!) volume of the German translation is coming out in October (admittedly concurrently with the Italian original ...) ..... Did the English translation do so poorly that they've held off on the rest ?
       Disappointing -- if hardly unusual ... -- that the US/UK market isn't keeping up.

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

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       George Orwell papers

       In The Observer Dalya Alberge reports that 'Businesses are selling off priceless documents piecemeal, after publisher gave the order to 'get rid of' them', in 'It could disappear for ever': Anger over sale of George Orwell archive.
       Shocking, really:

All the board asked us to do was to get rid of as much material as possible ... and the rest ... had to be thrown away.

       But I don't know about the argument: "What hope for future biographers and historians ?" -- surely that's an argument for destroying the whole lot .....

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

       Sunday Times bestseller list

       At the Sunday Times they "celebrate 50 years of the Sunday Times bestseller list" with a list of The 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years -- reckoned by how many weeks a books appeared on the list.
       A somewhat surprising mix -- with A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking claiming the top spot, with 264 weeks on the list, 28 more than the runner-up.
       Only three titles under review at the complete review made the top 100 -- far down the list:

• 93. Schott's Original Miscellany, Ben Schott
• 87. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
• 86. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

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

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       English-language books in European markets

       With English proficiency in many continental European countries now very high -- see e.g. the EF English Proficiency Index (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) -- sales of English-language books have increased significantly in some major markets in recent years, with new titles often bought by readers in the English original before the translation into the local language is available. This is increasingly becoming an issue in the German market, where especially younger readers are flocking to English-language originals (there are quite a few articles about this in the German press (e.g.), but I haven't found a non-paywalled one yet), but the market which seems hardest hit is that with the most proficient English speakers -- that of the Netherlands.
       This has been an issue there for a while -- leading also to some bigger releases actually being published preëmptively in Dutch translation, i.e. before the English original is available; see, for example, my mention (from fifteen years ago !) re. J.M.Coetzee's Summertime -- and is one of the things addressed in the BookBrunch Q & A with Lisanne Mathijssen, senior commissioning editor at HarperCollins Netherlands, The problem with books in English (which I was pointed to via).
       She notes that, amazingly:

English-language books accounted for one in five books sold in the Netherlands in 2022 and almost one in four books in 2023, and we believe it will be one in every four books this year.

       One aspect I was not aware of is that:

The Dutch edition is almost always more expensive than the English version, because we have a fixed book price on Dutch books which doesn't apply on books in a foreign language.

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

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       German license sales abroad

       At Börsenblatt Sabine Cronau has an overview of the German license sales -- German titles sold to foreign publishers -- in 2023, in In diese Länder reist die deutsche Literatur.
       Only 6527 titles were sold abroad -- 128 fewer than in 2022. Children's and YA titles remained -- by far -- the most popular category, making up 38 per cent of the total.
       Astonishingly, neither the US nor UK figure among the top five export markets for German titles -- while Russia was still (!) the third biggest taker, with 368 titles. China remains number one, with 754 total titles -- though it dropped from number one in the children's/YA category in 2022 (with 347 titles) to fourth (with only 163 titles). Italy dropped from second place overall to fourth in 2023
       'Belletristik' -- basically trade fiction -- made up 21.7 per cent of all sales. In this category, the most popular languages titles are to be translated into are Dutch (!), with 117 titles, followed by Spanish (114) and Italian (111). Only 64 titles are to be translated into English -- with a mere four in the 'Spannungssegment' (thrillers and mysteries); what the hell is going on here ?

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

       Shortlist: Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize, for translations (in any genre) from German published in the US and Canada in 2023.
       There are six titles on the shortlist, selected from twenty-four submissions -- which, admirably, they all reveal (as all literary prizes should ...), which also makes a handy overview of what's been translated from German in the past year.
       Several of the submitted titles are under review at the complete review, but the only shortlisted one is Thomas Brussig's The Short End of the Sonnenallee -- though my review is of the German original, covered long before Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson translated it.

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

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       Shortlists: Prime Minister's Literary Awards

       They've announced the shortlists for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards -- Australia's "richest literary prize".
       The shortlists, in six categories, were selected from 533 (unfortunately not revealed ...) entries.
       The winners will be announced 12 September.

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

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       Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalists

       The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the finalists for its Book Awards in the two categories, fiction and non.

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

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       A Prague Flâneur review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Vítězslav Nezval's account of being A Prague Flâneur, coming from Twisted Spoon Press.

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

       Shanghai Book Fair

       The Shanghai Book Fair runs through 20 August.
       This is Shanghai has an overview of some of what's on offer; see also Zhang Kun's article at China Daily, Over 30,000 titles, 1,000 activities highlight Shanghai book fair, and Ke Jiayun reporting at Shine on how Foreign titles make a splash at Shanghai Book Fair.

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

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       UK literary festivals

       At The Guardian Ella Creamer notes that 'After sponsor Baillie Gifford ended its support, book festivals urgently need new models to survive financially', leading her to consider The future of UK literary festivals: ‘There is no magic fairy’.

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

       Márcio Souza (1946-2024)

       Brazilian author Márcio Souza has passed away; see, for example, the CNN Brasil report.

       I enjoyed the books of his published in translation in the great Bard/Avon-series -- mass market paperbacks ! (see e.g.) --, way back when, but all his work in translation seems to be long out of print.

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

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       Paul-Celan-Preis

       The German Literature Fund has announced the winner of this year's Paul Celan Prize, a leading German translation prize -- now paying out €25,000 --, and it is Thomas Weiler for his translations from Belarusian, Russian, and Polish, with a special mention for his translation of Alhierd Bacharevič's Europas Hunde; see also the Voland & Quist publicity page.

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

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       The Red House Mystery review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A.A.Milne's 1922 novel, The Red House Mystery.

       Yes, that's the Winnie-the-Pooh-author; this was his only mystery novel.

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

       Royal Society Science Book Prize shortlist

       The Royal Society has announced the shortlist for their Trivedi Science Book Prize -- six titles, selected from 254 (unfortunately not revealed) submissions.
       The winner will be announced on 24 October.

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

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       Österreichischer Krimipreis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Österreichischer Krimipreis, a prize for the best Austrian mystery writer, and it is Eva Rossmann.
       None of her work appears to be available in English yet, but see English-language information at her website.

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

       AI and translation

       At Eurozine Ian Giles writes about Artificial Intelligence and translation, covering many of the basics, in Pirate AI.

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

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       Literary censorship in Russia

       At Carnegie Politika Galina Yuzefovich reports on Weapons of the Weak: Fighting Literary Censorship in Contemporary Russia.

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

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       Jonathan Kramnick Q & A

       At Public Books Colleen Ruth Rosenfeld has a Q & A with the Criticism and Truth-author, in Public Thinker: Jonathan Kramnick on the Craft of Criticism amid Institutional Decline.

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

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       Late Fragments review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the collection of Late Fragments by Charles Baudelaire -- Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed -- out a couple of years ago from Yale University Press in their Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

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

       South Indian literature abroad

       In The Times of India they report on the Book Brahma Literature Festival -- looking in particular at Scholars: Make south Indian literary works accessible to global audience.

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

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       Kate Atkinson profile

       At The Guardian Alex Clark profiles the Case Histories-author, in Novelist Kate Atkinson: 'I do feel a need to prove myself'.

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

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       Twenty-two years of the Literary Saloon

       The complete review turned twenty-five earlier this year; this Literary Saloon weblog was a (not much) later addition, with the first post posted twenty-two years ago today.
       Glad to see you still find it worth a visit !

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

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