opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 August 2024

21 August: German Book Prize longlist | Saudi literature | The Night of Baba Yaga review
22 August: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize longlist | Simenon's roman durs | Chinese 'small-town literature'
23 August: Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize | Susan Bernofsky Q & A | Heinrich-Heine-Preis | Best Australian 21st century books ?
24 August: Prêmio Oceanos longlists | Prix du Titre finalists
25 August: French slush-pile prize | North Korean fiction | The Seventh Veil of Salome review
26 August: M.G.Vassanji Q & A | Wole Soyinka in Cuba | Coming in the fall
27 August: New World Literature Today | William Saroyan Prize
28 August: Weston International Award | Leonard Riggio (1941-2024) | Precipice review
29 August: Prix Transfuge | Literature in ... Taiwan
30 August: Fall previews | Harlequin Butterfly review
31 August: Daisy Rockwell Q & A | Naguib Mahfouz Medal shortlist

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       Daisy Rockwell Q & A

       Geetanjali Shree's Our City That Year is now out in English -- see the India Hamish Hamilton publicity page, and this excerpt --, translated by Daisy Rockwell, who also translated Shree's International Booker Prize-winning Tomb of Sand, and in the Hindustan Times Chintan Girish Modi has a Q & A with Daisy Rockwell – “Do whatever you need to do, but do not remain silent”.
       US and UK editions will eventually be available -- the US edition from HarperVia; see their publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com.

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

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       Naguib Mahfouz Medal shortlist

       The American University in Cairo Press has announced the shortlist for this year's Naguib Mahfouz Medal, a leading Arabic-language novel prize.
       There are six titles left in the running, selected from 181 submissions from 18 countries.
       The winner will be announced 11 December.

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

       Fall previews

       New fall book previews include Time's The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024 and Hillel Italie at AP on how Fall is bringing fantasy (and romantasy), literary fiction, politics and Taylor-ed book offerings.

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       Harlequin Butterfly review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of EnJoe Toh's Akutagawa Prize-winning Harlequin Butterfly, another in Pushkin Press' Japanese novella series.

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       Prix Transfuge

       It's 'rentrée littéraire'-time in France, the annual seasonal big flood of books unleashed on the market, and the prix Transfuge, awarded in nine categories, suggests some of the big titles; see this year's winners -- with Kamel Daoud's Houris winning for best French novel; see also the Gallimard publicity page.
       There's no general foreign fiction prize, but they do honor the best Latin American, 'Anglo-Saxon' (i.e. English-language), and Russian novels.

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       Literature in ... Taiwan

       In the Taipei Times Thomas Bird talks with Grayhawk literary agent and Books from Taiwan editor in chief Joshua Dyer about 'what's hot in contemporary Taiwanese literature', in Making literary waves.

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       Weston International Award

       They've announced the winner of this year's Weston International Award -- a C$75,000 author prize administered by Writers' Trust of Canada, honoring: "career achievement in nonfiction writing" -- and it is Butter Chicken in Ludhiana-author Pankaj Mishra

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       Leonard Riggio (1941-2024)

       Longtime Barnes & Noble head Leonard Riggio has passed away; see, for example, Hillel Italie's AP report.

       I grew up near the 105 Fifth Avenue flagship store -- before B & N became a superstore empire -- and it was a favored haunt (along with the Sales Annex across the street ...) in my teen years. The 'superstores' were, over the years, of very uneven quality, but at their best at least some of them were pretty good.

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       Precipice review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Robert Harris' latest novel, his semi-documentary Precipice.

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       New World Literature Today

       The September/October issue of World Literature Today is now out, with a feature on 'Contemporary Women's Literature in Japan' -- and, of course, the extensive book review section.

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       William Saroyan Prize

       They've announced the winners of this year's William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, a biennial prize "encouraging and celebrating the works of new and emerging writers", and they are 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster, by Mirinae Lee, and Orphan Bachelors, by Fae Myenne Ng.

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

       M.G.Vassanji Q & A

       At Scroll.in Mandira Nayar has a Q & A with the author, in ‘If I was a believer, I’d talk like him’: Why MG Vassanji wrote a novel about physicist Abdus Salam.
       The novel is Everything There Is; see, for example, the Anchor Canada publicity page.

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       Wole Soyinka in Cuba

       At Radio Havana Cuba they report on Wole Soyinka picking up the Haydée Santamaría Medal in Cuba -- awarded to him: "by Presidential Decree No. 874" -- , in Cuban president talks with Nigerian Nobel Literature Prize winner Wole Soyinka.

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       Coming in the fall

       As part of The Observer's 'Autumn fiction special' they look at The best new novels for autumn 2024, from Sally Rooney to Jonathan Coe and Haruki Murakami. Mainly big titles, but certainly some of interest.
       UK-based, many of these titles have diferent US release dates ......

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

       French slush-pile prize

       The French have a seemingly endless number of literary prizes -- including the Prix Envoyé par La Poste, which is basically for a (now published) book that was an (unsolicited) manuscript sent in the mail (hence the postal service backers of the prize), and they've now announced this year's winner, À l’ombre des choses, by Anatole Edouard Nicolo; see also all of this year's finalists.
       See also the Calmann-Lévy publicity page.

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

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       North Korean fiction

       As I've often mentioned, we see far too little North Korean fiction in translation. Fortunately, the weblog North Korean Literature in English provides -- and shares -- the occasional glimpse of North Korean fiction; so also now with 부쉬소동 -- described there as, as the post-title has it: Much Ado about Bush (2004): Mafia goons take over the White House.
       Why is no one publishing this stuff in English ? Yes, yes, I know ... still, for all the South Korean fiction getting published in translation, we really deserve to see this kind of stuff as well. As wild as some of the latest South Korean fiction is, this is surely hard to top.

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

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       The Seventh Veil of Salome review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's new novel, The Seventh Veil of Salome.

       Given my longtime preöccupation with the Salome-story, culminating in my recent novel Salome in Graz, of course I had to review this -- indeed, it's hardly surprising that this turned out to be the longest review on the site so far this year.

       It certainly has a more ... eye-catching cover ...:

       ... than my novel:

       (But I do explain About the cover .....)

       Moreno-Garcia does also offer an extensive (Spotify) playlist with her novel -- but no Strauss !

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

       Prêmio Oceanos longlists

       The longlists for this year's Prêmio Oceanos -- a leading Lusophone literary award -- are out, in the two categories, poetry and prose+ (including drama and short story collections); see, for example, the report at publishnews.
       These are long lists -- thirty titles in each category -- but consider how many they were selected from: 1207 (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) in the poetry category and 1420 (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) in the prose+ category. (Yes, admirably they reveal all the titles considered -- as every literary prize should !)
       So next time the Booker judges whinge again about how many books they have to consider -- ooh, all of ... 156 novels this year ... -- point them to this prize ......

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

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       Prix du Titre finalists

       The prix du Titre de Hôtel de Paris -- a French literary prize that focuses first on the title of a work ... -- has announced its finalists; see, for example, the report at ActuaLitté.

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

       Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize -- honoring an outstanding literary translation from German into English published in the USA or Canada -- , and it is Jon Cho-Polizzi, for his translation of Max Czollek's De-Integrate.
       See also the Restless Books publicity page for De-Integrate.

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       Susan Bernofsky Q & A

       At Asymptote Xiao Yue Shan speaks with the Tawada Yoko-translator, in Nocturnal Tonguejests: Susan Bernofsky on translating Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel.
       Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel is the title of the US edition -- published by New Directions; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com -- but this is being published in the UK as Spontaneous Acts, by Dialogue Books; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.co.uk, and Bernofsky does address this publisher-in(s)anity:

The UK title, Spontaneous Acts, also has an interesting story, because Dialogue Books -- which is a really great publishing house -- had a vision for the book that was, among other things, a little more commercial than the New Directions version. We asked Yoko Tawada what she thought about Spontaneous Acts, and she said it seemed like a fine title to her. She's very interested in rolling the dice and seeing what comes up, so now we have a chance to see what fortunes this book will have under the title Spontaneous Acts. Will the different titles and different covers find different readerships ?

       (As I've often noted, I think it is ridiculous and foolish for different English-language translations (or originals for that matter) to have different titles in different markets -- especially in this age of online-look-up. But publishers obviously know what they are doing ..... And this isn't the first time they've done this to a Tawada-work: what was published as The Emissary in the US was published as The Last Children of Tokyo in the UK)
       Dialogue Books is new to me -- but, as a Hachette UK imprint, is certainly much more commercial than US independent New Directions, and I guess it's good to see Tawada hit it big(ger) in this way.

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

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       Heinrich-Heine-Preis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Heinrich Heine Prize, a biennial German author prize paying out €50,000, awarded: "to personalities 'who, through their intellectual work in the spirit of the fundamental human rights for which Heinrich Heine campaigned, promote social or political progress, serve international understanding or spread the knowledge of the unity of all people'", and it is Writing in the Dark-author David Grossman.
       Yuri Andrukhovych got the prize in 2022, and previous winners include Max Frisch (1989), W.G.Sebald (2000), Elfriede Jelinek (2002), and Amos Oz (2008).

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

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       Best Australian 21st century books ?

       Another best-of-the-21st-century books-list is out, as The Conversation presents their Best Australian books of the 21st century: as chosen by 50 experts.
       (And they let us know that we can look forward to a New Zealand version soon as well. Hey, every country should do this !)

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

       Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, awarded for the finest work of: "non-fiction on modern and contemporary Indian history" -- ten titles, on a variety of subjects.

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

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       Simenon's roman durs

       Georges Simenon wrote many books beyond the Maigret-novels, and in France they're now publishing a(n apparently) limited-times series, Le monde de Simenon -- his seventy roman durs; see also the accompanying article at Le Monde.

       Quite a few Simenon-titles are under review at the complete review -- both Maigret-novels (e.g. Maigret Hesitates) and roman durs (e.g. The Blue Room), as well as, for example, When I was Old -- but there's a lot more I'd love to get to. Penguin have brought out new translations of the Maigrets, as well as of some of the roman durs, but there are a lot more of these to get to -- and even some of those already out haven't gotten US editions .....

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       Chinese 'small-town literature'

       In the Global Times Lin Xiaoyi offers a Deep focus: China’s ‘small-town literature’ goes viral on social media, reflecting people’s nostalgia for hometown amid rapid urbanization -- though the article focuses more on 'small-town literature'-inspired photography than the actual literary works.

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

       German Book Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's German Book Prize, the biggest of the German novel awards, twenty titles selected from 197 (unfortunately not revealed ...) titles that were considered. (The jury apparently called in seventeen titles, as there were only 180 submissions.)
       There are quite a few familiar authors with titles in the running -- though none who have previously won the prize --, and several have other works which have been translated into English.
       The one I am most curious about is Clemens Meyer's Die Projektoren -- yet another very large-scale work by the author, not least in weighing in at 1056 pages. There are no German reviews up yet because the book is not yet out (release date is the 27th), but I think I'll have a look. (I was concerned that at over 1000 pages it might have trouble finding an English-language publisher, but I should have known better: world English rights have already gone to Fitzcarraldo Editions (who have had quite some success with Meyer previously); see also the S.Fischer foreign rights page).
       The shortlist will be announced 17 September, and the winner on 14 October.

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

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       Saudi literature

       In Arab News Waad Hussain writes about how Saudi Arabia's literary renaissance captivates local and international audiences.
       And, apparently:

     The literary movement in Saudi Arabia can be divided into two main themes: “Cultural Reflections” and “Modern Narratives.”

       In any case, it's good to see there is a lot of activity -- and hopefully we'll see more in translation as well.

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

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       The Night of Baba Yaga review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Otani Akira's The Night of Baba Yaga, recently out in the US from Soho Press, and coming soon in the UK, from Faber.

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

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