opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       De Filter Vertaalprijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's De Filter Vertaalprijs, a leading Dutch translation prize, and it is the (2160 page) translation by Anne Sytske Keijser, Mark Leenhouts, and Silvia Marijnissen of Cao Xueqin's The Story of the Stone -- which is, after all, one of the greatest works of world literature.
       See also the Athenaeum publicity page for the Dutch translation.

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       Pushkin House Book Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Pushkin House Book Prize, which: "recognises the very best non-fiction writing on Russia", and it is Not One Inch by M. E. Sarotte; see also the Yale University Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Translation in ... India

       In the Deccan Herald Asra Mavad and Barkha Kumari report that there is High demand, but not enough literary translators.

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       The Valiant Little Tailor review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Éric Chevillard's take on the Brothers Girmm tale, The Valiant Little Tailor, recently out from Yale University Press in their Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

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       Dayton Literary Peace Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prizes, and they are The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (fiction) and How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith (non-fiction); see also the official press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).
       The prizes will be handed out 13 November.

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       Dangarembga and Barnes verdict

       The Zimbabwe trial of Nervous Conditions-author Tsitsi Dangarembga and Julie Barnes has ended with a guilty verdict -- though fortunately only a suspended prison sentence; see, for example, Nyasha Chingono's report in The Guardian , Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga found guilty of inciting violence.
       It is, of course, ridiculous that they were ever charged -- and disappointing that they were found guilty.

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       Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction -- twelve titles; see also Ruth Comerford's report at The Bookseller, Keyes and Osman shortlisted for Bollinger Everyman as Florence chairs judges.
       The winner will be announced on 22 November.

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       Berkeley Japan Prize

       Gold Rush-author Yu Miri will be awarded this year's Berkeley Japan Prize at an event today.
       The first recipient of this prize was Murakami Haruki; Yu is the fifth winner.

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       Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française; among the eleven titles are ones by Yasmina Khadra and Alain Mabanckou.
       The shortlist will be announced 13 October and the winner 27 October.

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       Grand prix de littérature américaine longlist

       Always fun to see what foreigners think the best American novels are -- so check out the longlist for this year's Grand prix de littérature américaine; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       Obviously some familiar titles here -- though in fact I haven't seen any of these .....
       The winner will be announced 8 November.

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       Johannes Vermeer Prijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's Johannes Vermeer Prijs a Dutch prize awarded to an artist in any discipline, paying out €100,000 "mainly to be used for the realisation of a special project", and it is Arnon Grunberg.
       Quite a few Grunberg titles are under review at the complete review:

• Het aapje dat geluk pakt
• Amuse-Bouche
• De asielzoeker
• Het bestand
• Huid en haar
• The Jewish Messiah
• De man zonder ziekte
• Monogaam (writing as Marek van der Jagt)
• Onze oom
• Phantom Pain
• Silent Extras
• The Story of My Baldness (writing as Marek van der Jagt)
• Tirza
• Het tweede bestand

       Previous winners of this prize include Rem Koolhaas (2013) and Steve McQueen (2016).

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       Kjell Espmark (1930-2022)

       I missed this, more than a week ago, but Swedish Academician -- Chair no. 16 -- has passed away; see also the Swedish Academy announcement.
       Several of his works have been translated into English -- including ... Béla Bartók Against the Third Reich; see also the Shearsman Books publicity page..

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       HWA Crown Awards longlists

       The Historical Writers' Association has announced the longlists for this year's HWA Crown Awards 2022: -- twelve titles in each of the three categories.
       The only longlisted title under review is Gold Crown Award longlisted Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
       The shortlists will be announced 25 October, and the winners on 23 November.

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       Freeway review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jorge Enrique Lage's Freeway: La Movie, just (about) out from Deep Vellum.

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       Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Wilhelm Raabe Literary Prize -- though not yet at the official site, last I checked ... -- and it is Trottel by Jan Faktor; see, for example, the Börsenblatt report.
       Paying out €30,000, this prize actually pays out more than the German Book Prize -- for which this novel has also been shortlisted. Will it do the double ?
       See also the Kiepenheuer & Witsch foreign rights page for Trottel.

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       Shortlist: Royal Society Science Book Prize

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Royal Society Science Book Prize, with six titles left in the running
       The winner will be announced 29 November.

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       Shortlist: Scotiabank Giller Prize

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize, with five titles left in the running -- two story collections and three novels.
       The winner will be announced 7 November.

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       The Famous Magician review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of César Aira's The Famous Magician, another volume in New Directions' new Storybook ND-series (and the eleventh Aira under review at the site).

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       Prix Jean-Monnet

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Jean-Monnet de littérature européenne, and it is the French translation of Jón Kalman Stefánsson's Fjarvera þín er myrkur; see, for example, the report at ActuaLitté; see also the Forlagið publicity page for the book.
       This prize, awarded since 1995 (Antonio Tabucchi's Pereira Declares !). has a pretty good record of winners.

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       Publishing in ... Canada

       At Publishers Weekly Ed Nawotka looks at Publishing in Canada 2022: Canadian Publishing Adapts to New Challenges.
       Among the interesting numbers: "starting in 2020, online book sales eclipsed sales in physical bookstores. Online now accounts for 55% of overall book sales, while sales in physical stores represent 45%", and:

“Prepandemic, there were 8,000 new ISBNs issued each month,” says Noah Genner, CEO of BookNet. “Now that number is down to 6,000 to 7,000.”

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       Writing and motherhood

       An interesting piece -- with lots of data ! -- at Slate by Karen Bourrier and John Brosz finding that Women Writers Have Had Plenty of Babies. Here’s the Data.

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       Translation in ... India

       In the Financial Express Shubhangi Shah looks at How the rise in translations have helped in bridging language barrier in India.

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       Island of Bewilderment review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Novel of Modern Iran by Simin Daneshvar, Island of Bewilderment -- a 1993 work now out in English, from Syracuse University Press.

       Best-known for her novel Savushun (also translated as A Persian Requiem -- which I really should get to ... --, it's great to see another novel by Daneshvar available in translation.

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       Book World is back

       The Washington Post's standalone Book World-section is back, with new books editor John Williams now Reintroducing Book World.
       A stress on politics is understandable; as to the plan to: "delve more often into the lives and minds of writers" ... well, my book-coverage preference is always a focus on the books rather than on writers, but I understand why it's popular .....
       Meanwhile, one of the section's old editors also weighs in, as Michael Dirda offers: Book World began on Watergate's heels: A look back at the early days.

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       William Boyd: Q & A

       Any Human Heart-author William Boyd has a new book coming out -- The Romantic -- and at The Guardian Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with the author, William Boyd: ‘The books world is much tougher now’.
       Interesting (and troubling) to hear how times have changed:

How has the writing life changed since you began publishing ?

The 1980s was a kind of boom period but the challenge for a literary novelist now is to just keep the show on the road. It used to be you could write a novel every couple of years or so and have a perfectly nice bourgeois life. Now the mid-list has gone. The brutal fact is you either sell or you don’t. Friends of mine who’ve written 12 novels can’t get published or their advances have dropped by 80%. It’s a much tougher world.

       As to Stendhal, I' m not so sure that he: "isn’t read so much in English nowadays", as Cummins has it -- recall also, that there's a new translation of Red and Black, by Raymond N. MacKenzie, just out from the University of Minnesota Press; see their publicity page.

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       Cypriot translation

       In the Cyprus Mail Sarah Ktisti reports that Scheme launched to translate literary works to boost understanding between Cypriot communities.
       Grants will be provided for: "the translation of works by renowned Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot writers from Greek into Turkish and from Turkish into Greek", which sounds like a great idea. Of course, it would be nice to see translations of some of these works into English as well ......

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       Hilary Mantel (1952-2022)

       As widely noted, two-time Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel has passed away; see, for example, the obituary by Lisa Allardice in The Guardian, or tributes by a variety of "leading contemporaries", also in The Guardian.
       Half a dozen of her works are under review at the complete review, but I haven't reviewed anything of hers (or updated the existing reviews, sigh) in well over a decade -- i.e. once she hit it so big.

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       Q & A: Yiyun Li

       At Bomb Sarah Rose Etter has a Q & A with Yiyun Li, who has a new novel out, The Book of Goose.

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       Q & A: Boubacar Boris Diop

       At Public Books Sarah Quesada and Aarthi Vadde speak with The Knight and His Shadow-uathor Boubacar Boris Diop, in a Q & A which you can either listen to or read (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) .
       Especially interesting: his turning from writing in French to writing in Wolof:

When you write in French, you write -- that's what I discovered when I started writing in Wolof, you write your language you never hear in your daily life. To put it the way I can say, when I start writing in French, I shut the door, I shut the window, and I tell the words of my people, you are not welcome. Don't enter, I don't need you. So that's why, and now, now, wherever you go in Senegal, people, they speak Wolof. So the difference is that when I arrive in France, I don't hear the words I’m writing. When I write in Wolof, I hear everything, every word.

       He also notes that: "It's very, very difficult to translate from Wolof to French, and the other way round from French to Wolof". English, too, I bet.

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       Europese Literatuurprijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's Europese Literatuurprijs, a prize for the best European novel translated into Dutch, and it is Agustín Fernández Mallo's Nocilla-trilogy.
       The first two titles in the trilogy are under review at the complete review: Nocilla Dream and Nocilla Experience (I haven't seen the third volume ...).

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       FT Business Book Award shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, with six books left in the running.
       The winner will be announced on 5 December.

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       Cundill History Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Cundill History Prize, "the world's leading history prize", with eight titles left in the running.
       The finalists will be announced 20 October, and the winner 1 December.

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       Baillie Gifford Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, "the most prestigious non-fiction prize in the UK".
       I've only seen one of these twelve titles (and haven't reviewed it yet); the selection was made from 362 books.
       The shortlist will be announced 10 October, and the winner on 17 November.

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       Sarah Maguire Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation, a biennial prize for: "the best book of poetry by a living poet from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East published in English translation", with the £3,000 prize money to be shared between the author and the translator(s).
       I haven't seen any of these six -- though I very much hope to see The River in the Belly by Fiston Mwanza Mujila -- but it looks like a very interesting list.
       The winner will be announced 1 November.

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       Nobel Prize in Literature betting

       The 2022 Nobel Prize in Litrature will be announced on 6 October -- and betting odds are now up at Ladbrokes.
       They posted odds, but this is surely not how even only semi-literate bettors would rate the contenders (beyond sentimental favorite (but unlikely choice) Salman Rushdie (8/1)). Stephen King is tied for third, at 10/1 (sorry, it ain't going to happen), and eight authors have odds of 12/1 or better -- tilting this exercise ridiculously way in the house's favor. (Given that we don't even know whether some of these authors have been nominated -- and only five or so remain in the final running -- odds in general should be much higher.) Oh, and Michel Houellebecq is the favorite, at 7/1.
       Uneven diacritical marking -- well done with Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o, Hélène Cixous, and Dubravka Ugrešić; couldn't be bothered with 'Mircea Cartarescu', 'Maryse Conde', or 'Ivan Vladislavic' --, ineligible authors (Javier Marías: he dead), and simple carelessness ('Both Strauss') suggest just how (un)serious(ly) they take the whole thing, but, hey, it attracts attention and the eyeballs/clicks (and presumably more than just occasional betting-dollars).

       (As to more serious discussion, the World Literature Forum is valiantly doing its part -- 1418 posts in their Nobel Prize in Literature 2022 Speculation-thread as I write this --, and there's a bit of action at The Mookse and the Gripes discussion board on their 2022 Nobel Prize-thread (101 posts, at this time), but I have to admit I haven't been paying much attention.
       Most of my personal favorites are much the same as in previous years, with no new(er) authors breaking through for a while now, so I don't have much to add. But maybe I will as the announcement approaches ?)

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       PEN Presents shortlist

       English PEN has announced the shortlist for its new PEN Presents award, a dozen translations from seven Indian languages
       Now:

Six samples will be chosen from the shortlist by the PEN Presents Selection Panel -- seven experts from across the UK and Indian literary sectors -- to be showcased in an issue on the PEN Presents platform, an online catalogue of the most outstanding, original, and bibliodiverse literature not yet published in English translation. They will be given editorial support from English PEN and promoted to UK publishers.

       So no guarantees yet, but there's a good chance we'll be seeing some of these published in full in translation.

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       WIT Festival

       The inaugural WIT: Words, Ideas, and Thinkers Festival, hosted by the Authors Guild, runs today through Sunday in Lenox, Massachusetts; the theme is: 'Reimagining America', and there are quite a few promising-sounding sessions.

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       Prix Sade finalists

       They've apparently announced the finalists for the prix Sade -- with the winner to be announced 1 October -- and ... there seem to be a lot more books in the running now (18) than on the first longlist (11); compare the reports at Livres Hebdo for the longlist and the finalists.
       Either way/list, certainly some titles of interest.

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       Deutscher Buchpreis shortlist

       They've announced the six-title shortlist for this year's German Book Prize, the leading German novel prize; see also Christine Lehnen's report at Deutsche Welle.
       I might try to have a look at some of these before the winner is announced -- maybe Spitzweg.
       The winner will be announced 17 October.

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       Yagi Emi Q & A

       At Electric Lit J.R.Ramakrishnan has a Q & A with the Diary of a Void-author, in My Work-Life Balance Improved Dramatically With My Fake Pregnancy.
       Yagi also describes the novel she is currently working on:

I’m writing about a woman who has a part-time job talking to a statue of Venus. I have no idea what’s going to happen at this point, but I’m looking forward to finding out !

       Which seems like an ... interesting way of going about it.

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       Fitzcarraldo classics list

       In The Bookseller Ruth Comerford previews a new classics list from publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions that certainly sounds promising, in Fitzcarraldo kicks off new classics list with de Andrade 'modernist masterpiece'.
       Neat to hear that:

Other acquisitions include two novels by Witold Gombrowicz, including Possessed, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones directly into English for the first time, and with a foreword by Olga Tokarczuk; The Book Against Death by Elias Canetti, translated by Peter Filkins; and Lili is Crying and Twenty Minutes of Silence by Hélène Bessette, translated by Kate Briggs.

       Sounds good.

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       Imperial poetry

       Kyodo News reports that Poems by Emperor Meiji now in English after over 30 yrs of work.
       The book is Bridge on the Shikishima Way, a selection of 100 poems by the emperor, "who, during his lifetime, composed around 100,000 poems". So I guess we shouldn't be expecting a translation of the collected works anytime soon .....
       See also the Chuo Koron Shinsha publicity page for the book.

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       Translation hurdles

       In the Los Angeles Review of Books Lily Meyer writes about the difficulties of Breaking into English.

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       Eine Liebe in Pjöngjang review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Andreas Stichmann's Eine Liebe in Pjöngjang.

       This is one of the twenty titles longlisted for this year's German Book Prize -- the shortlist for which will be announced ... today.

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       Wilhelm Raabe-Literaturpreis shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Wilhelm Raabe Literary Prize.
       Paying out €.30,000 to the winner, this German fiction prize is actually bigger than the German Book Prize (which pays out €.25,000 to its winner).
       Only one of the four shortlisted titles has also been longlisted for this year's German Book Prize -- Jan Faktor's Trottel.
       The winner will be announced 6 November.

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       The Enigma of Room 622 review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Joël Dicker's international bestseller, The Enigma of Room 622, now also out in English.

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       Q & A: Shehan Karunatilaka

       In The Hindu Stanley Carvalho has a Q & A with the author, in Sri Lanka is cursed but its storytellers are blessed: Shehan Karunatilaka, author of Booker-shortlisted The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.
       Among other things, he also describes how The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida differs from the earlier version published in India as Chats with the Dead:

The book was revised for an international audience during the pandemic. So that the details of Sri Lanka in 1989 and the complexity of the afterlife wouldn’t confuse. It’s the same book, though Moons is more accessible to an audience unfamiliar with Sri Lankan politics and folklore.

       See also my review of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

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       Q & A: Geetanjali Shree

       In the Business Standard Sandeep Kumar has a Q & A with the author, in Future of Hindi literature set to prosper: Booker winner Geetanjali Shree.
       Among her responses:

You have been writing for more than three decades. Can a Hindi writer make a living only by writing ? Are writers financially better off today ?

My plain answer is ‘No’. I cannot detect any improvement in the financial condition of Hindi writers. The same is more or less true for writers in other Indian languages.

       See also my reviews of her Tomb of Sand and The Empty Space.

       (Updated - 19 September): See now also Rohan Datta's Q & A with the translator of the International Booker-winning novel at My Kolkata, Trust and a sense of shared purpose behind success: Daisy Rockwell on ‘Tomb of Sand’.

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       (American) National Book Award for Fiction longlist

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced the longlist for this year's National Book Award for Fiction, ten titles selected from 463 (regrettably not revealed ...) titles.
       I have not seen any of these.
       The shortlists in all the National Book Award categories will be announced 4 October, and the winners on 16 November.

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       Ian McEwan Q & A

       Ian McEwan answers readers' question in The Guardian, in Ian McEwan: ‘The perfect novella is always just out of my reach’.

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       Metropolitan Books

       At Publishers Weekly Jim Milliot reports that Henry Holt Lays Off Metropolitan Books Staff.
       Founded in 1997, and run by Sara Bershtel since 2008, the imprint has had a very solid list; it's a shame it is being closed down.

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       Österreichischer Buchpreis longlist

       I'm a bit late with this one, but they've announced the ten titles for this year's Austrian Book Prize -- with two of the ten titles also on the longlist for the German Book Prize, the novels by Anna Kim and Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker.
       The finalists were selected from 110 submissions.
       The shortlist will be announced 10 October, and the winner on 24 November.

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       Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize finalists

       The generous -- C$60,000 -- Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize has announced its five finalists -- which include two translations.
       The winner will be announced 2 November.

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       More National Book Award longlists

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced two more longlists, in the Nonfiction and Poetry categories, with ten titles each.
       The shortlists will be announced 4 October, and the winners on 16 November.

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       (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist

       The (American) National Book Foundation has announced the ten-title strong longlist for this year's National Book Award for Translated Literature:

• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
• The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
• Ibn Arabi’s Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan, translated by William M. Hutchins
• Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker
• Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti
• A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
• Scattered All Over the Earth by Tawada Yoko, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
• Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour, translated by Sara Khalili
• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
• Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić, translated by Damion Searls

       Damion Searls impressively manages to have two titles longlisted -- translated from different languages, no less.
       The finalists in this and all the categories will be announced 4 October, and the winners on 16 November.

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       Siddhartha at 100

       At Deutsche Welle Manasi Gopalakrishnan writes on 100 years of Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha'

       No doubt, you read it in high school or college, but if you need a new copy you can get it at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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       The Bad Angel Brothers review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Paul Theroux's latest novel, The Bad Angel Brothers.

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       Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prize in its two categories, fiction and non -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, the report at 'The Hub'
       The winners will be announced on 27 September.

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       More French prize longlists

       The French literary prize season continues apace, with yet more longlist announcements, including now the Medicis and the Femina -- of interest also because in addition to a French-language best novel category they also have one for translated fiction.
       Among the titles making both prizes' longlists: Colm Tóibín's The Magician and Andrey Kurkov's (or Andreï Kourkov's ...) Grey Bees.
       See the reports at Livres Hebdo on the prix Medicis and the prix Femina.

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

       The novel in ... India

       In The Print Humra Laeeq finds that: "There’s new enthusiasm among readers and publishers for fact, data, narrative, theory, and experiences. Fiction's time under the Indian sun might just be over" as she wonders: Is the novel dying in India ? Publishers chasing more and more non-fiction.
       Apparently: "The share of non-fiction has gone up 58 per cent in the last few years", while: "The best decade for fiction was the 2000s, says Advaita Kala", as:

There was a “buoyant” space for commercial writers — Chetan Bhagat, a writer previously treated “very shabbily” was catapulted into a commercial cult with the release of Five Point Someone in 2004, which sold over a lakh copies in no time of its launch.

That was the high for Indian fiction. Now it’s mostly for literature aficionados and college students.

       [A brief pause here, as I weep.]

       I'm not sure the situation is so bleak -- I think the surge in interest in fiction in translation from and into Indian languages is very promising.
       And, of course, I remain convinced that fiction is what really matters, and that Indian readers too will eventually see that light .....

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

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       Adam Gopnik on Simenon and Maigret

       In The New Yorker Adam Gopnik writes on Georges Simenon and The Mysterious Case of Inspector Maigret.
       Interesting that he believes: "The Maigret books, seventy-five in all, seem the likeliest to live" -- rather than: "the romans durs, the “hard books,” often set outside Paris and meant as works of more self-conscious art". Much as I enjoy the Maigrets -- e.g. Maigret Hesitates -- I think there are more standouts among the romans durs -- e.g. The Mahé Circle.
       But it's an interesting look at the author and his work.

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

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