opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       New immortels

       They've filled two of the vacant fauteuils at the Académie française: The Fascination of Evil-author Florian Zeller was elected to fauteuil 14 -- succeeding Hélène Carrère d’Encausse --, running unopposed and taking 23 of the 25 votes submitted and Éric Neuhoff was elected to fauteuil 11, succeeding Gabriel de Broglie, beating out Julien Kilanga and Arnaud-Aaron Upinsky, who each only received one vote, with twelve votes in the first and only round of voting.
       Thirty-five of the forty fauteuils are now filled -- with a pretty disappointing ratio of only four women to thirty-one men .....

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       Booker inspirations

       At The Guardian the authors shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize -- whose winner is to be announced tomorrow -- explain: ‘I had a year to write it from scratch’: the 2025 Booker finalists on the stories behind their novels.

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       William Boyd Q & A

       At npr Scott Simon has Writer William Boyd talks about his latest book, 'The Predicament'.
       The novel is the second to feature Boyd's Gabriel Dax; the first was Gabriel's Moon.

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       New Swedish Book Review

       The 2025:2 issue of the Swedish Book Review is now online -- lots of material, including excerpts and reviews.
       Among the excerpts: a bit from Hjalmar Söderberg's Astray.

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       Chinese Literature

       Via I'm pointed to the useful resource of Tables of Contents of Chinese Literature -- as well as the pdfs of many of the issues, at the very impressive Bannedthought.net.

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       (US) National Translation Awards

       The American Literary Translators Association has announced the winners of its National Translation Awards, including the Prose winner, Barbara Romaine's translation of Omar Khalifah's Sand-Catcher, and the First Translation Prize, Lin King's translation of Yáng Shuāng-zǐ's Taiwan Travelogue,

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       Governor General's Literary Awards

       The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the winners of this year's Governor General's Literary Awards, awarded in seven categories each in English and French.
       Kyle Edwards' Small Ceremonies won the English fiction prize, while Katia Belkhodja's Les déterrées won the French fiction prize.

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       Prix du meilleur livre étranger

       They've announced the winners of this year's prix du meilleur livre étranger, a French translated-book award, in the categories of fiction and non, as well a the 'special' prize; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The French translation of Clear, by Carys Davies, took the fiction prize.

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       Amazon does AI translation

       I guess the only surprise is that it took so long: Amazon has announced that: Amazon introduces Kindle Translate, an AI-powered translation service for authors to reach global readers,
       Sigh, sigh, sigh.

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       Goldsmiths Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Goldsmiths Prize, rewarding: " fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form", and it is We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose; see also the Melville House publicity page.

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       Prix Médicis

       More French prize-announcements, including now the prix Médicis - awarded to Kolkhoze by Emmanuel Carrère; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       And, again: the French literary prize juries have big names -- this one included Marie Darrieussecq, Anne Garréta, Patrick Grainville, and Andreï Makine.

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       Georgi Gospodinov Q & A

       At the Literary Hub translator Angela Rodel has a Q & A with the Death and the Gardener-author, in Georgi Gospodinov on the Loss of His Father and Writing About Death.

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       Your Name Here review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff's long-anticipated Your Name Here, finally available in print, from Dalkey Archive Press.

       More high profile author-profile/story-behind-the-novel reports so far -- A Work of Genius or a Complete Mess ? Even Its Author Can't Decide (presumably paywalled) by Alexandra Alter in The New York Times; ‘Your Name Here’ has tortured its co-authors for 20 years (presumably paywalled) by Sophia Nguyen in The Washington Post -- yawn/sigh --, but at least it's getting attention. (It did also make Publishers Weekly's Top 10 list of the best books of the year.)

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       Prix Goncourt

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Goncourt, the biggest French book prize, and it is La maison vide, by Laurent Mauvignier, which got six votes in the first and only round of voting, beating out Le Bel Obscur by Caroline Lamarche, which got four votes; La nuit au cœur by Nathacha Appanah -- announced as the prix Femina winner on Monday -- and Kolkhoze by Emmanuel Carrère, the two other finalists, didn't get any votes.
       See also the Les Éditions de Minuit publicity page for La maison vide.
       Mauvignier's The Birthday Party got decent attention when it was published in the US and UK, and we can probably expect to see this one -- despite its length -- in English fairly soon.

       They also announced the winner of the number two prize, the prix Renaudot -- Je voulais vivre, by Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre; see also the Livres Hebdo report and the Grasset publicity page for the book.
       (As I've noted before, these French prizes have some pretty impressive juries: among those judging the Renaudot this year were Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, Patrick Besson, and Frédéric Beigbeder.)

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       Baillie Gifford Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and it is How to End a Story, by Helen Garner; see also the publicity pages from Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Pantheon, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       David Cohen Prize

       New Writing North has announced the winner of this year's David Cohen Prize for Literature, a UK/Ireland author prize, and it is Alan Hollinghurst.

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       Premio Cervantes

       They've announced the winner of the 2025 Premio Cervantes, the leading Spanish-language author prize, and it is Mexican author Gonzalo Celorio.
       Not much of his work has been translated into English, but the University of Texas Press did publish his novel And Let the Earth Tremble at Its Centers; see their publicity page. See also the Tusquets author page for Spanish information about many of his other works.

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       Prix Femina

       The week of big French book prize announcements has begun, with the prix Femina first up: La nuit au cœur by Nathacha Appanah takes the prize; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       See also the Gallimard publicity page for La nuit au cœur.

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       French-Vietnamese literature

       At Việt Nam News Lương Thu Hương reports on a new book, Nguyễn Giáng Hương's Văn Học Việt Nam Pháp Ngữ 1913-1986, about Vietnamese Literature in French from 1913 to 1986, in The overlooked legacy of French literature
       Sounds interesting; see also the Hồ Chí Minh General Publishing House publicity page for the book.

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       Prêmio Jabuti

       They've announced the winners of this year's Prêmio Jabuti, the leading Brazilian literary awards.
       This has tons of categories, from best books in various genres to best cover (won by this).
       A fat volume (640 pp) of Byron won the translation category -- see the Editora Perspectiva publicity page -- and O ouvidor do Brasil: 99 vezes Tom Jobim, a volume of crônicas by Ruy Castro, won book of the year: see also the Companhia das Letras publicity page.

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       Salman Rushdie profile

       In the Sunday Times Johanna Thomas-Corr has a profile of Salman Rushdie: ‘I had no pulse. That’s how close it was’ (possibly paywalled ?).
       Among Rushdie's comments:

He feels fiction has lost some of this openness and scope. “People on writing courses are endlessly told to write what you know. And I say to them, only write what you know if what you know is interesting. Quite often it isn’t. A lot of these people come from bourgeois, middle-class families and their experiences are quite similar. I say go out and find something interesting.” He wishes more fiction writers would have the ambition of Charles Dickens, to range across society.

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       The last 100 reviews

       Another 100 reviews down, so it's time for the next overview of the most recent batch of 100 reviews -- 5301 through 5400.

       - The last 100 reviews were posted over 307 days, about the same rate as the previous 100 (302); as I've mentioned, things will continue to be a bit slower going for a bit, but should pick up again by the spring.
       The average reviewed book was 266.47 pages long, slightly more than the previous 100 (256.5).
       One title clocked in 1046 pages, and a total of eight were over 500 pages, one more than in the previous 100. Only three books were shorter than 100 pages (eight in the previous hundred), with the shortest having 62 pages.

       - The last 100 reviews were 125,962 words long, up considerably from the mere 100,471 of the previous 100. While 1260 seems a good average review length, the figures are a bit skewed because there were more very long reviews than usual: the longest review was 3859 words, and four more were also over 3000 words long (compared to only one in the previous 100). The shortest came in at 390 words.

       - Reviewed books were originally written in 29 different languages (including English), with English again the most popular language, with 26 titles. French was again the next most-popular, with 15, followed again by Japanese (14).
       Three new languages were added -- Akkadian, Pali, and Swahili --; the total number of languages represented is now 88. (See also the updated full breakdown of all the languages books under review were originally written in.)
       (I think 100 languages might be within reach; it'll probably take another thousand reviews or so, but I think I can reach it.)

       - Male-written books continued to be in the (super-)majority, but 31 books were written by women -- the biggest proportion ever. (Actually, 29 were written by women; four were co-written by male and female authors, and I split the difference.) The historic sexist average of written-by-women titles under review has now crept up to ... 17.71.

       - No book rated an 'A', much less an 'A+', but there were four graded 'A-' (way down from the nine rated 'A-' or higher in the previous hundred). Forty-five books were rated 'B+', and thirty-eight 'B'; none were rated lower than 'B-'.

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       David Bellos (1945-2025)

       Academic and translator David Bellos has passed away; there have been Bluesky mentions (e.g. and here) but the first media mention I've seen is only out now -- Denis Cosnard on how David Bellos, traducteur et grand spécialiste de Georges Perec, est mort (presumably paywalled) at Le Monde.

       I was honored when he volunteered to write a piece for the (now dormant) crQuarterly on The Englishing of Ismail Kadare: Notes of a retranslator (as Bellos translated many of Kadare's works -- but from the French translations); Google Scholar has it cited in 21 publications.
       Quite a few of his translations are under review at the complete review, as are two of his books: his superb biography of Georges Perec and the fun Is That a Fish in Your Ear ?

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       Cundill History Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Cundill History Prize, and it is Summer of Fire and Blood, by Lyndal Roper; see also the publicity pages from John Murray Press and Basic Books.

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       Niko Pfund Q & A

       Yale News has Pressing matters: A Q&A with new Yale University Press director Niko Pfund

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       Little Amélie

       An animated film based on Amélie Nothomb's The Character of Rain, Little Amélie, opened in the US yesterday; see, for example, the IMDb page or some of the (very positive) reviews:

• AV Club
• The Hollywood Reporter
• The New York Times (presumably paywalled)
• RogerEbert.com
• Slant
• Variety

       Jordan Mintzer suggests: "the film feels at times like Terrence Malick meets Hayao Miyazaki for tykes" in The Hollywood Reporter.

       Disappointingly, the film is apparently not 'big' enough to warrant a re-issue of the novel, which appears to be out of print in English; a shame: Nothomb's early-childhood novels are very good (with Loving Sabotage still my favorite).

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       Grand Prix du Roman

       The Académie française has announced the winner of this year's Grand Prix du Roman, and it is Passagères de nuit, by Yanick Lahens, which narrowly pipped Un pont sur la Seine by Pauline Dreyfus, eleven votes to ten.
       See also the Sabine Wespieser éditeur publicity page for Passagères de nuit.

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       Shortlists: Crossword Book Awards

       The Crossword Book Awards -- a leading Indian literary award -- has announced its shortlists in its five categories (including Translation) -- though not yet at the official site, as far as I can tell, but see the Scroll.in report.
       The winners will be announced 3 December.

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       Shortlist: William Hill Sports Book

       They've announced the seven titles shortlisted for this year's William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.
       The winners will be announced 25 November.

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       Straelener Übersetzerpreis

       Kunststiftung NRW has announced the winner of this year's Straelener Übersetzerpreis, a €25,000 prize for best translation into German, and it is Claudia Sinnig for her translation of Ričardas Gavelis' Vilnius Poker; see also the S.Fischer publicity page.

       Open Letter published an English translation in 2009, and it was re-issued by Pica Pica Press.

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       AI fiction

       At Emerge Josh Quittner reports that AI Novel Tops Japan's Biggest Fiction Website, Sparking Literary Uproar.
       Hey, at least it's still causing an uproar.

       Amusing -- though not surprising -- to hear that:

What made the project explosive wasn’t just that it was AI-written -- it was the speed, with the author publishing so quickly it exploited Kakuyomu’s algorithm, which rewards frequent updates, total page views, and follower growth. The result was a self-perpetuating surge: more chapters (and the subsequent AI-written notoriety) meant more clicks, more visibility, and more engagement, propelling the story to the platform’s No. 1 daily ranking.

       The cost/speed advantage of generative AI will be hard to beat .....

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       Sad Tiger review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Neige Sinno's Sad Tiger.

       This was a finalist for the prix Goncourt and has won numerous European literary prizes -- and it's a finalist for this year's National Book Award for Translated Literature.

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       Literary Arts Fund

       The launch of a new Literary Arts Fund has been announced; it: "will distribute at least $50 million over the next five years, concluding in 2031":

The Literary Arts Fund will award grants to U.S.-based nonprofit or fiscally sponsored literary organizations and publishers that support contemporary writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or hybrid literary forms through an annual open call beginning November 10.

       With literature: "receiving only 1.9% of the $5 billion in arts grants awarded in 2023" in the US this is certainly very welcome.

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       Prix Goncourt finalists

       The Académie Goncourt has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the four finalists for this year's prix Goncourt, with books by Nathacha Appanah and Laurent Mauvignier still in the running -- though I expect Emmanuel Carrère to take the prize with his Kolkhoze.
       The winner will be announced 4 November.

       They've also announced the finalists for the number two French prize, the prix Renaudot, with five works left in the running in the fiction category, including books by Anne Berest and Justine Lévy; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.

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       Bayerischer Buchpreis

       They've announced the winners of the Bavarian Book Prize, and after winning the German Book Prize two weeks ago Die Holländerinnen, by Dorothee Elmiger, took the fiction prize here as well.

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       Forward Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Forward Prize for Poetry; see also, for example, Emma Loffhagen in The Guardian, Forward prize names poets Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie its first joint winners.

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       New World Literature Today

       The November-December issue of World Literature Today is now up -- with the theme of: 'World Lit in the Age of AI'.
       A lot that is of interest -- and, of course, the usual big batch of book reviews.

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       Shortlist: Wodehouse Prize

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, "designed to highlight the funniest novel of the past twelve months, which best evokes the Wodehouse spirit of witty characters and perfectly timed comic prose" -- eight titles, selected from 107 submissions.

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       Shortlist: BRICS Literature Award

       They've announced the shortlist for the first BRICS Literature Award -- not yet at the official site, last I checked, but see, for example, the TV BRICS report, BRICS Literature Award announces shortlist in Indonesia.
       Ten authors -- one each from each of the BRICS countries -- are shortlisted.
       The winner will be announced on 27 November.

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       Emulating authors' styles: AI vs. MFAs

       A recent paper by Tuhin Chakrabarty, Jane C. Ginsburg, and Paramveer Dhillon finds ... Readers Prefer Outputs of AI Trained on Copyrighted Books over Expert Human Writers.
       Basically, they compared the output by 'MFA-trained expert writers' with those of generative AIs asked to emulate "50 award-winning authors’ (including Nobel laureates, Booker Prize winners, and young emerging National Book Award finalists) diverse style" and found that, especially if the AI results were further fine-tuned by AI, readers ('expert' ("MFA candidates from top U.S. writing programs") and lay) overwhelmingly preferred what the AIs produced (and also didn't recognize the output as AI-generated).
       Yes, AI is very good at imitation. Very good.
       (Yes, there is a slight caveat here, that they were tested against ... 'MFA-trained expert writers' -- and you might, like me, not be able to suppress a guffaw at the idea that an MFA makes anyone anything even remotely resembling an 'expert' writer, but still .....)
       The key takeaway here is their terrifying 'Economic analysis;, summing up the numbers:

With fine-tuning costs ranging from $22.25 to $272.50 (median $77.88) plus $3 for inference to generate 100,000 words, the total AI cost represents approximately 0.3% of the $25,000 a professional writer would charge. This ∼99.7% cost reduction, combined with reader preference for fine-tuned outputs, quantifies the potential economic disruption to creative writing markets.

       You may not like it -- I don't like -- but, yes, sorry, AI is going to take over vast swathes of what is now 'creative' writing. Soon, too. The cost advantage is crushingly overwhelming .....

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       Aruni Kashyap Q & A

       At Frontline Majid Maqbool has a Q & A with: 'The Assamese writer on how translated classics shaped him, living through the Secret Killings, and reversing literary hierarchies', in I saw the world through the lens of literature from Assam: Aruni Kashyap.

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       Effingers review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gabriele Tergit's sweeping 1951 novel Effingers, now coming out in English, from New York Review Books in the US and (as The Effingers: A Berlin Saga) from Pushkin Press in the UK.

       Given my interest in and extended consideration of the Salome-story and, in particular, Oscar Wilde's play in my novel, Salome in Graz, I was amused to note that Tergit has that be the breakout-role for one of her characters who takes to the stage, and that the play is relatively extensively discussed.
       The character plays Salomé as: "a young, playful society lady" -- not an interpretation the protagonists of my novel would have endorsed. But then Tergit also has one of her characters eventually tell the actress:

I hope you've gotten over your expressionist Salomé at last. She was very charming, but she went against Wilde and Salomé herself.

       And later there's also this exchange:

     “Well, that’s how I began my career too, by playing Salomé as a suffering, kind woman. But the time for experiments is over.”
     “For expressionism, you mean ?”
     “Oh God, not that word again. It was so important then. We’ve become humbler now. We want to put the words of the poet in the spotlight, rather than ourselves.”

       Tergit effectively uses a variety of literary and other cultural references in the novel, but Salomé is a particularly good fit; as my novel suggests, the changing interpretations and readings of the Salome-story in general across the ages are often revealing of the various times, and this is a good example.

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       Profile: Hoda Barakat

       At The National Saeed Saeed profiles Sheikh Zayed Book Award winner Hoda Barakat says new generation is reviving Arab literature.

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       Profile: Amitav Ghosh

       At The Korea Herald Hwang Dong-hee profiles The Glass Palace-author Amitav Ghosh, in 'Literature must give voice to the nonhuman'.
       Ghosh was in South Korea to pick up the Park Kyongni Award, named in honor of Pak Kyong-ni -- "renowned for her epic saga 'Toji (The Land)'" -- with Ghosh noting: "he was unable to find an English translation of Toji". It has apparently been translated -- see the Global Oriental publicity page -- but is out of print (and expensive) .....

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       Warwick Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, 14 titles originally written in 10 different languages, selected from 145 entries (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) (yes, they admirably reveal what titles are actually being considered -- just as every literary prize should).
       Only one of the longlisted titles is under review at the complete review -- Antonia Lloyd-Jones' translation of Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium -- and I've only seen two more of these .....
       The winner will be announced 27 November.

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       Hongbin Li Q & A

       At China Books Review Evan Peng has a Q & A with the The Highest Exam co-author, in Hongbin Li: How the Gaokao Shapes China (previously, paywalled, at The Wire China).

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       John Dos Passos Prize shortlist

       Longwood University has announced the shortlist for its John Dos Passos Prize, an author prize awarded: "to a writer whose work offers incisive, original commentary on American themes".
       The winner will be announced "by the end of the year".

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       New Asymptote

       The October issue of Asymptote is now out -- lots of great material for your weekend reading.

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       PEN Heaney Prize shortlist

       English PEN has announced the shortlist for its Heaney Prize, "which recognises a single-author collection of poetry of outstanding literary merit that engages with the impact of cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships".
       The winner will be announced 1 December.

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       British Academy Book Prize

       The British Academy has announced the winner of this year's Book Prize, and it is The Burning Earth, by Sunil Amrith; see, for example, the publicity pages from W.W.Norton and Penguin.

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       Prix Femina finalists

       The prix Femina finalists have been announced, in its three categories -- French novel, foreign novel, and non-fiction --; see, for example, the ActuaLitté report.
       The prix Femina -- first awarded in 1904 -- is notable for having always had an all-female jury.
       Five of the six foreign-fiction finalists are translations from English. That doesn't seem like it's a good thing.

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       Nordic Council Literature Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Nordic Council Literature Prize, the leading Scandinavian book prize, and it is a volume of Faroese poetry by Vónbjørt Vang, Svørt Orkidé (published by Forlagið Eksil). It apparently includes collages, including this one.
       I like how the author-bio in the English version of the prize-announcement emphasizes that her work has not yet been translated into English ...:

Her first poetry collection, Millumlendingar was published in 2011, followed by Djúpini in 2017, neither of which have been translated into English. Her writing explores deep human relationships and how these are anchored in time and place. Together with Svørt Orkidé, she published Úr loggbókunum (2023) neither of which have been translated into English.

       [Underscore added.]

       The Nordic Council Literature Prize has an impressive list of winners -- ten of which are already under review at the complete review.

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       Neustadt International Prize for Literature

       World Literature Today has announced the winner of the 2026 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, recognizing: "outstanding literary merit in literature worldwide", and it is Ibrahim Nasrallah; see also, for example, his books published by American University in Cairo Press.

       With the translations of several of his works coming out in Iran Samaneh Aboutalebi has a profile in the Tehran Times, Expressing the unseen: Ibrahim Nasrallah's insights on Palestinian stories, culture.

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       Governor General's Literary Awards shortlists

       The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards -- now apparently nicknamed 'GGBooks' (as opposed to the previous 'GGs').
       There are seven categories -- twice over, once in English and once in French.
       The winners will be announced 6 November.

       Admirably, they also reveal all the titles that were submitted -- a rare major literary prize that does that (though they all should).

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       Jina Khayyer's Im Herzen der Katze

       Jina Khayyer's Im Herzen der Katze was longlisted for this year's German Book Prize -- see also the Suhrkamp foreign rights page -- but at Qantara.de Omid Rezaee argues that all it offers is: The Iran that Germany wants to see, and that:

In the Heart of the Cat is not only a weak, cliché-laden novel. It is also a mirror: reflecting the expectations of a Western audience and the negligence of a literary establishment that not only accepts such projections but promotes them.

       Translate more contemporary Iranian fiction, I say !
       (See also the Persian literature under review at the complete review.)

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

       Patrick White Literary Award

       They've announced the winner of this year's Patrick White Literary Award, an A$20,000 author prize, and it is David Brooks (no, not, dear god, The New York Times guy); see the official press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) or the report at Books + Publishing.
       See also his official site or a 2011 Q & A at Poetry International.

       The Patrick White Literary Award was established by the great Nobel laureate; it has a solid list of previouys winners that includes Christina Stead (1974), Thea Astley (1989), Elizabeth Harrower (1996), Gerald Murnane (1999), and Janette Turner Hospital (2003).

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

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       QSSI Translation Prize shortlist

       The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute has announced the shortlist of its Translation Prize, "a $10,000 award for the best English translation of a work originally written in Spanish".
       Only one of the five shortlisted titles is under review at the complete review -- Megan McDowell's translation of Alejandro Zambra's Childish Literature.
       The winner will be announced 20 November.

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

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       Michael Reynolds Q & A

       At Publishers Weekly John Maher has a Q & A with Europa Editions' executive publisher Michael Reynolds, in Frankfurt Book Fair 2025: Europa Editions Turns 20.

       Interesting to hear some of the numbers:

What are some other quiet achievements ?

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé, the Christelle Dabos books, and Valérie Perrin -- these are all 200,000-, 300,000-, 400,000-copy-selling books, and Hedgehog is up near a million. That doesn't happen very often with translation in this market.

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

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