Zibaldone unleashed !
As I noted at the start of the year, likely the biggest title of 2013 -- at least in terms of sheer heft -- is the first complete English edition of Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone (a...
View ArticleArabic anthology
In Al-Ahram Weekly David Tresilian reviews the promising-sounding anthology, Classical Arabic Literature, that kicks of the even more promising-sounding Library of Arabic Literature (from NYU...
View ArticleHenri Alleg (1921-2013)
Henri Alleg -- best known for his account, The Question -- has passed away; see, for example, the (French) report in L'Express.
View ArticleBodor Ádám Q & A
At hlo Elek Tibor offers Sinistra is within us. Interview with Ádám Bodor, an abbreviated Q & A (read the full Hungarian original here) with author Bodor, whose The Sinistra Zone is...
View ArticleGlobal Market Forum at next BookExpo America
BookExpo America has announced a 'Global Market Forum: Books in Translation' for next year's BEA. With "prestigious partners" such as Literary Translation at Columbia, the PEN World...
View ArticleAkutagawa and Naoki prizes
Winners of two of the prestigious Japanese literary awards, the Akutagawa and the Naoki, have been announced; see, for example, The Japan Times report, Fujino wins Akutagawa award; Sakuragi...
View ArticleA Crack in the Wall review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Claudia Piñeiro's A Crack in the Wall.
View ArticleProfile: Frédéric Beigbeder
In The Independent Boyd Tonkin profiles A celebrity in search of lost time: How Frédéric Beigbeder recovered his past after a drugs bust. Best known in the US/UK for his Window on the...
View ArticleProfile: Martin Amis
In The Telegraph Matthew Stadlen profiles Martin Amis at some length. All sorts of stuff, of course, as usual -- though amusing to hear that he'd like to win the Man Booker because: "It...
View ArticleWriting in ... Egypt
At Qantara.de Susanne Schanda has an Egyptian Literature-in(-mainly-German)-translation)-overview, New Departures, New Visions. Too much space, yet again, for The Yacoubian Building --...
View ArticleLiterature from ... China
At BloombergBusinessweek Christina Larson writes how Book Publishers Try to Sell Chinese Fiction in Translation. Unfortunately, she claims, near the beginning: In 2012, American...
View ArticlePhilip Gabriel profile
In The talking cats are just the start in The Australian Rick Wallace profiles (one of the) Murakami-translators, Philip Gabriel -- who is working on the latest Murakami novel 'Colourless...
View ArticleSzentkuthy-issue of Hyperion
Szentkuthy Miklós' Marginalia on Casanova certainly ranked among the translations-of-the-year last year, and I (and many others, surely) eagerly await the next Szentkuthy-volume from Contra...
View ArticleAnnual Report, 2012
I've been remiss in not posting the State of the Site - Annual Report for the complete review - 2012 sooner, but it's now up. Good numbers as far as the number of books reviewed (and...
View ArticleThe Sculptors of Mapungubwe review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Zakes Mda's The Sculptors of Mapungubwe. This is coming out from Seagull Books -- showing they are not just a player in...
View ArticleTrap for Cinderella film
Sébastien Japrisot's Trap for Cinderella was made into a film almost half a century ago -- with a screenplay co-written by Jean Anouilh -- and now Iain Softley has had another go at it, his...
View ArticleInternet/site issues
Frustratingly, our Internet is down (and there's surprisingly little (stable) local WiFi from the neighbors to hack into ...), so posting will be iffy, limited, and delayed for a day or or two...
View ArticleAfrican literary prizes and languages
I've often expressed my disappointment at the lack of inclusiveness of international literary prizes in their focus on works written or at least translated into English (such as the Man Booker...
View ArticlePEN/Heim Translation Fund recipients
They've announced the 2013 PEN/Heim Translation Fund recipients -- grants of US$3,300 each -- and there are some great-sounding projects here, from familiar authors -- a new Tabucchi that...
View ArticleMan Booker longlist announced
One of the advantages of being thrown off-schedule by localized Internet-outages (see below) is that it leaves my posting for a different point in the news cycle -- so I can already report...
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