opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 18 September 2024

11 September: (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist | Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis | Hawthornden Prize | A Muzzle for Witches review
12 September: Singapore Literature Prize | Prix Sade finalists | Prize-winning historical fiction | Russian publishing abroad
13 September: Prix Jean Monnet | Prime Minister's Literary Awards | Schweizer Buchpreis finalists | ALTA shortlists | Guillaume Musso Q & A
14 September: (American) National Book Award for Fiction longlist | Grand prix de littérature américaine longlist
15 September: Virginie Despentes Q & A | Dagger of the Mind review
16 September: Elias Khoury (1948-2024) | Contemporary Hindi literature
17 September: Booker Prize shortlist | Overstaying review
18 September: Deutscher Buchpreis shortlist | FT Business Book of the Year Award shortlist | Caine Prize | Reading in ... South Korea

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       Deutscher Buchpreis shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's German Book Prize.
       Clemens Meyer's behemoth, Die Projektoren, is one of the six titles left in the running; I have a(n e-)copy, and it's the title I am most curious about; see also the S.Fischer foreign rights page. (Fitzcarraldo Editions is bringing it out in English -- though given its length, that'll probably be a while .....)

       The winner will be announced 14 October.

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

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       FT Business Book of the Year Award shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award.
       Six titles are left in the running; the winner will be announced 9 December.

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

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       Caine Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Caine Prize for African Writing, a leading African story prize, and it is 'Bridling' (warning ! dreaded pdf format !), by Nadia Davids.
       There were 320 entries for this prize this year.

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

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       Reading in ... South Korea

       In The Korea Times Baek Byung-yeul profiles Kim Ho-woon, president of the Korean Writers' Association, in Writers' clan chief pushes for digital shift to revitalize Koreans' reading habits, as:

According to the national reading survey conducted every two years by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korean adults read an average of 3.9 books from September 2022 to August 2023, a drop from the 4.5 books recorded in the previous survey conducted from September 2020 to August 2021

       Not sure he's on the right track here:

"The reason people read less today is because we haven't properly taught the importance of reading," Kim said, pointing out that many people, including writers themselves, have strayed from books.

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

       Booker Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Booker Prize, with six titles left in the running:

• Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
• Held by Anne Michaels
• James by Percival Everett
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

       I haven't seen any of these.
       The winner will be announced 12 November.

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

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       Overstaying review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ariane Koch's Overstaying.
       This came out in the UK, for Pushkin Press, in the spring, and is out ... today in the US, from Dorothy.

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

       Elias Khoury (1948-2024)

       Lebanese author Elias Khoury has passed away; see, for example, the AP report.
       Much of his work has been translated into English, with Archipelago Books publishing a good selection.

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

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       Contemporary Hindi literature

       In The Print Krishan Murari considers, at some length, Is Hindi literature adapting to survive ? It has more Chetan Bhagats than Omprakash Valmikis, as apparently:

Fresh voices are injecting energy, but there are currently more Chetan Bhagats of new Hindi writing than Premchands or Nirmal Vermas. A substantial contemporary literary canon seems absent -- one that truly captures the zeitgeist through imagination and craft.

       And: "The qualitative drift in Hindi literature is closely tied to the slow decay of the pillars that once supported it. Cultural institutions [...] which bolstered Hindi writers from the 1950s onwards, are now flailing" -- so also:

Up until the 1980s or so, Hindi departments were epicentres of the literary scene. [...] But today, the influence of Hindi departments has faded. They’ve become largely powerless within the campus, clinging to old practices and modes of thinking.

       So now:

Two very different streams are shaping contemporary Hindi literature. On one side are fierce new Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi voices who are breaking ground with stories and poems that challenge the status quo. On the other is a steady pulp invasion, advancing from footpath stalls to reputed publishers and even university syllabi, once the domain of serious, weighty prose.

       Far too little is translated from Hindi -- much less published/distributed beyond India -- and I'd certainly love to see more -- including more of that "pulp invasion".

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

       Virginie Despentes Q & A

       In The Observer Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with Virginie Despentes: ‘I wasn’t writing Baise-Moi from a very good place’.
       Despentes has a new novel out -- Dear Dickhead; see also the publicity pages from Farrar, Straus and Giroux and MacLehose 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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       Dagger of the Mind review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kenneth Fearing's 1941 novel, Dagger of the Mind.

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

       (American) National Book Award for Fiction longlist

       The (American) National Book Foundation has now announced all the longlist for its 2024 prizes, including that for fiction.
       Ten titles -- and I haven't seen any of them .....

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

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       Grand prix de littérature américaine longlist

       They've announced the ten-title longlist for this year's Grand prix de littérature américaine, a French prize for the best ... American novel (that's been translated into French); see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The winner will be announced 12 November.

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

       Prix Jean Monnet

       They've announced the winner of this year's Prix Jean Monnet de littérature européenne, and it is Lessons by Ian McEwan -- beating out finalists Pascal Quignard and Olga Tokarczuk, among others .....
       Quite a few McEwan titles are under review at the complete review, but I haven't seen this one yet.

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

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       Prime Minister's Literary Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards, "the most substantial literary prize in the nation, with a tax-free prize pool of [A]$600,000".
       Anam, by André Dao, won the fiction category.

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

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       Schweizer Buchpreis finalists

       After the longlists for the German and Austrian Book Prizes, they've now announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the five finalists for the (German-language) Swiss Book Prize.
       The winner will be announced 17 November.

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

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       ALTA shortlists

       The American Literary Translators Association has announced a slew of shortlists -- for: the Italian Prose in Translation Award, the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award, and the ALTA First Translation Prize.
       The winners wil be announced 26 October.

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

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       Guillaume Musso Q & A

       At The Connexion Theophile Larcher has an Interview: Guillaume Musso, the top-selling French author inspired by Agatha Christie.
       Who would have guessed that: "In England and the United States mainly, it’s the sophistication of the novels that comes through" ? Not I .....
       And I did have to laugh when Larcher notes that, despite Musso selling so much and so well: "It took me a week to find one of your readers".

       The only Musso title under review at the complete review is The Reunion.

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

       Singapore Literature Prize

       They've announced the (many) winners of this year's Singapore Literature Prize -- impressive, because books in several languages are honored, with fiction winners in English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay, for example.
       Some interesting-looking titles here, which will hopefully also find distribution abroad ..... And I am particularly curious about Shubigi Rao's Pulp-series, the third volume of which (out of a planned five) won the Creative Nonfiction in English prize.

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

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       Prix Sade finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's prix Sade, awarded for a book: "déjoue l'ordre moral et se veut hors des carcans de la littérature et de la société" (which: 'thwarts the moral order and aims to break free from the shackles of literature and society') -- surely something we can all get on board with. (Alas, they don't have a dedicated website, just a ... F*c*book page ?!??)
       What's most noteworthy about this year's selection process is that they've gone through three rounds but have eschewed the usual progression from long- to short- to finalists list:

• In May they announced their 'first selection' (see) -- selecting nine titles
• In June they announced their second cut (see) -- which did not so much cut as add titles, bringing the total under consideration to thirteen
• So what about the just-announced list of finalists (see) ? Yes, there are now nineteen titles in the final running .....

       It's good to see they're ... open-minded, willing to add titles they overlooked before, and this is not entirely unheard of with French literary prizes, where titles are occasionally added to the mix after the original longlist -- but I've never come across it at anywhere near this scale.

       I'm pleased to see more books -- some intriguing-sounding titles here, not least the French tranlsation of Undinė Radzevičiūtė's Grožio ir blogio biblioteka, which sounds fun (see also the publicity pages at Les Éditions Viviane Hamy (French) and Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla (Lithuanian)).
       I'm not sure about David Muhlmann's Urophilie (see the Éditions In Press publicity page), however. Or Grégoire Ming's Une histoire érotique de l'Angleterre (see the Payot publicity page), for that matter .....

       The winner will be announced 28 September.

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

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       Prize-winning historical fiction

       In The Nation Alexander Manshel explores How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon, noting that: 'In contemporary publishing, novels fixated on the past rather than the present have garnered the most attention and prestige', as:

The novels recognized by major literary prizes have largely abandoned the present in favor of the past. Contemporary fiction has never been less contemporary.

       (It hasn't garnered much attention or prestige, but, yes, my recent novel Salome in Graz is also steeped in the historical .....)

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

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       Russian publishing abroad

       At npr Michele Kelemen reports on how Russian publishers in exile release books the Kremlin would ban.

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

       (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced the longlist for its Award for Translated Literature -- ten titles selected from 141 (unfortunately not revealed) submissions.

       I will be getting to the Solvej Balle soon(est), but three of the titles are already under review at the complete review:

• Saskia Vogel's translation of Linnea Axelsson's Ædnan
  
  
• Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain's translation of Bothayna Al-Essa's The Book Censor's Library
  
  
• Roland Glasser's translation of Fiston Mwanza Mujila's The Villain's Dance

       The finalists in this and all the NBA categories will be announced 1 October, and the winners on 20 November.

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

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       Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis

       The Wilhelm Raabe Literary Prize pays out €30,000 -- €5000 more than the German Book Prize -- and they've now announced this year's winner, Saša Stanišić's possibly too long-titled Möchte die Witwe angesprochen werden, platziert sie auf dem Grab die Gießkanne mit dem Ausguss nach vorne; see also the Luchterhand foreign rights page.

       Several Stanišić-titles have been translated into English -- e.g. Where You Come From -- but apparently foreign rights for this one have only been sold to ... Poland.

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

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       Hawthornden Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Hawthornden Prize for Literature, "one of Britain's oldest literary awards" and paying out £15,000, and it is Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

       I haven't seen this one but am curious about it; it's also been longlisted for this year's Booker Prize.

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

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       A Muzzle for Witches review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Merima Omeragić in conversation with Dubravka Ugrešić, A Muzzle for Witches -- Ugrešić's final book, just (about) out in English, from Open Letter.

       A couple of weeks ago, Open Letter's Chad Post tweeted that: "our distributor advanced a grand total of 143 units of Dubravka Ugresic's MUZZLE FOR WITCHES to ALL indie bookstores across the country", and also that: "They project sales of 175 TOTAL through indie stores, and 840 units across all sales channels" -- which is both shocking and depressing.
       Surely, Ugrešić has more of a following, and it's hard to imagine this, her final word, not shifting more copies. But perhaps such really is the contemporary literary (ha !) marketplace (as she was all too well aware of ...) .....

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

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