opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 8 August 2025

1 August: Nicholas Clapp (1936-2025) | Butter review
2 August: Jantar Publishing Q & A
3 August: Jan Michalski Prize semi-finalists | Death and the Gardener review
4 August: Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists | Junot Díaz Q & A
5 August: Books under consideration for the Warwick Prize | Blancpain-Imaginist longlist | Sympathy Tower Tokyo review
6 August: Sophie Castille Awards finalists | Bára Dočkalová Q & A
7 August: Korean literature abroad | Plagiarism in ... China
8 August: Banned in ... Kashmir | Tor Åge Bringsværd (1939-2025) | Bad F**king review

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       Banned in ... Kashmir

       As, for example, Aijaz Hussain's AP report has it, Indian authorities in Kashmir ban books by eminent writers and scholars, as an order issued on Tuesday by the region's Home Department "declared the 25 books 'forfeit' under India's new criminal code of 2023". (I haven't been able to access the Home Department site to see the order.)
       You can see the full list of banned books at the end of Bashaarat Masood's The Indian Express report.
       Among them is, for example, Law and Conflict Resolution in Kashmir -- see the Routledge publicity page -- one of those books: "found to excite secessionism and endangering sovereignty and integrity of India", with material such as: "a detailed survey of relevant legislation and international documents".
       Not good.

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

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       Tor Åge Bringsværd (1939-2025)

       Norwegian author Tor Åge Bringsværd has passed away; see, for example, the Cappelen Damm mention.
       Best-known -- certainly in English -- as a children's book author, he also wrote science fiction; see, for example, the entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. See also the Cappelen Damm Agency author page.

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

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       Bad F**king review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kurt Palm's Bad F**king -- which hasn't been translated nto English yet.

       This won the 2011 Glauser-Preis, one of the leading German-language mystery prizes; the title refers to a place -- and, though fictional, the name isn't unheard of for Austria, where there was a plain old F**king until 2021, when they changed the name to Fugging (see e.g.).

       I read and was very impressed by Palm's Vom Boykott zur Anerkennung: Brecht und Österreich -- a version of his doctoral dissertation -- when it came out some forty years ago. It chronicles the fascinating relationship between Bertolt Brecht and Austria in the post-war years -- with Brecht famously settling in East Berlin (i.e. the German Democratic Republic), but hedging his bets by doing so as an Austrian citizen (not that everyone in Austria was thrilled with him getting an Austrian passport ...).

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

       Korean literature abroad

       As, for example, Park Han-sol reports in The Korea Times More Korean fiction finds its way to global shelves, as: "overseas sales of translated titles more than doubled", as:

Korean literary works published with the help of grants from the state-run agency sold more than 1.2 million copies abroad in 2024, a 130 percent leap from 520,000 the year before.

Both the volume of published books and total sales saw a dramatic rise. The average number of copies sold per title reached an all-time high of 1,271, with 24 books surpassing the 10,000 threshold -- a rare feat for translated literature.

       Nobel laureate Han Kang leads the way, as:

Her works, rendered into 28 languages and released in 77 editions with LTI Korea’s backing, sold over 310,000 copies in a single year.

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

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       Plagiarism in ... China

       Firstpost reports that: 'A plagiarism scandal is rocking China's literary world, exposing widespread copying and undermining trust in the state-backed publishing establishment', as China probes what China does: Plagiarism scandal shakes Beijing's state-backed literary scene.

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

       Sophie Castille Awards finalists

       The Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation is awarded 'for the best translation of graphic novels into a variety of languages around the world', and they've now announced the nine finalists for translations into English.
       The winner will be announced 27 September.

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

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       Bára Dočkalová Q & A

       At Radio Prague International Danny Bate has a Q & A with the Magnesia Litera prize winner (in the category for children and young people), in “We need to be willing to play, and to be curious”: Award-winning author Bára Dočkalová on writing Czech and teaching English.

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

       Books under consideration for the Warwick Prize

       The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation admirably reveals all the titles in the running for the prize every year and has now released the List of eligible titles entered for the prize (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) for this year's prize -- 145 titles, translated from 34 languages.
       As I repeat ever year: every literary prize should do this. Readers deserve to know what's actually in the potential running for a prize !
       As you can see, it's also a great resource.

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

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       Blancpain-Imaginist longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize, a Chinese prize which: "aims to create a literary accolade that is impartial, authoritative, professional and enduring while honoring the outstanding writers under 45 years old each year"; see also Andrew Rule's reader's guide at Paper Republic.

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

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       Sympathy Tower Tokyo review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Qudan Rie's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel, Sympathy Tower Tokyo, due out shortly in English (from Summit Books in the US and Penguin in the UK).

       This got some attention/coverage when it won the Akutagawa Prize, because of Qudan's mention that she had used AI for parts of it, but that's more a distraction than anything else. More interesting are the discussions of language in the novel, including how foreign languages and usage are creeping into Japanese; in her Exophony Tawada Yoko similarly complains about the katakanaization of Japanese -- and, of course, there's Mizumura Minae's The Fall of Language in the Age of English.

       Yet another Akutagawa Prize-winner under review; these are really piling up.

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

       Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's (South African) Sunday Times Literary Awards in its two categories, fiction and non.

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

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       Junot Díaz Q & A

       Junot Díaz is apparently still ... around, and at Frontline Majid Maqbool has a Q & A with him, in Eagerness to be near books still drives my love of reading: Junot Díaz.

       (Gotta love the appearances page at Díaz's official site .....)

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

       Jan Michalski Prize semi-finalists

       They actually announced this a couple of weeks ago, but apparently not very loudly -- I haven't seen mention of it anywhere, but the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature has announced its second selection -- five titles left in the running,
       Titles still up for the prize include On the Calculation of Volume (I) by Solvej Balle and books by Pierre Bayard, Lydia Davis, and Guadalupe Nettel.
       They'll presumably announce three finalists before they get around to declaring a winner.

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

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       Death and the Gardener review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Georgi Gospodinov's latest novel, Death and the Gardener -- already out in the UK, and coming to the US in early October.

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

       Jantar Publishing Q & A

       At Radio Prague International Ian Willoughby has a Q & A with Michael Tate on Czech roots, Prague -- and the serendipitous birth of Jantar Publishing.

       Several Jantar titles are under review at the complete review -- e.g. Jan Křesadlo's GraveLarks -- and I certainly expect to get to more.

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

       Nicholas Clapp (1936-2025)

       As Mike Barnes reports in The Hollywood Reporter, Nicholas Clapp, Documentarian and Author Known as a “Modern-Day Indiana Jones,” Dies at 89.

       One of his works is under review at the complete review -- Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen.

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

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       Butter review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Novel of Food and Murder by Yuzuki Asako, Butter.

       I finally got my hands on a (library) copy of this, and, as I mention in the review, it's a welcome change from the usual contemporary Japanese fare found in translation (mysteries; fiction with quirky/fantastical elements; slim Akutagawa Prize-winners).
       (Among the rare other recent offerings in this category is Matsuie Masashi's The Summer House (published in the UK as Summer at Mount Asama, because ... *sigh*), but, if not quite as polished, Yuzuki's novels offers considerably more to chew on, as it were.)

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

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