Timur Vermes profile
In The Age Jason Steger profiles Timur Vermes, author of Look Who's Back, the comic novel that has Hitler return to contemporary Germany which is now coming out in English; see the MacLehose...
View ArticleThe Ballad of Peckham Rye review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Muriel Spark's 1960 novel, The Ballad of Peckham Rye. New Directions is re-issuing quite a few Spark-works, including this...
View ArticleZIBF Bulawayo report
In The Herald Stanely Mushava reports on the recent 'regional edition' of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, in Bulawayo, in ZIBF @ 31 -- Promises and perils. He suggests: Despite its...
View Article'African' literature
In The Standard the Bookworm-column wonders: is the Caine Prize stifling African literature ? -- that being the Caine Prize for African Writing, the leading African story-prize. Some...
View ArticleClassics in ... Indonesia
In the Jakarta Post Gindho Rizano has an opinion piece arguing: Wanted in the bookstores: Literary canon, pointing out: Now browse through our regular local bookstores; you will find...
View ArticleBirgit Vanderbeke Q & A
In the Irish Times they have a Q & A with Birgit Vanderbeke, whose The Mussel Feast has been longlisted for this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (see also the Peirene Press...
View ArticleSheikh Zayed Book Awards
They've announced the winners of the well-endowed (each category-winner receives the equivalent of ca. US$200,000) Sheikh Zayed Book Awards, and the literature (i.e. fiction) prize went to بعد...
View ArticleReason in a Dark Time review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Dale Jamieson explaining Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed - and What It Means for Our Future, in Reason in a Dark...
View ArticleGerman Book Prize, preliminary figures
They've announced that there are 167 novels in the running for this year's German Book Prize, the biggest German book- (as opposed to author-)prize; in unaccountable Man Booker fashion,...
View ArticleApril online issues
Among the April issues of online periodicals now available is Words without Borders', with Writing from South Korea (plus some 'Poets of Protest'), and the April issue of Open Letters Monthly....
View ArticleTalking to Ourselves review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Andrés Neuman's Talking to Ourselves, published by Pushkin Press in the UK and due out shortly from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in...
View ArticleTed Hughes estate
As, for example, reported by Richard Lea in The Guardian, Ted Hughes estate withdraws biographer's access, as they've decided Jonathan Bate can't quote from the copyrighted estate-papers; as a...
View ArticleUrs Widmer (1938-2014)
Swiss author Urs Widmer has passed away; see for example the mention in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. For more about Widmer, see Deviation from the Norm, or the Realistic Fantast: A look at...
View ArticleOCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature finalists
They've selected the three category-winners for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, which now compete for the big prize, to be announced 26 April. The fiction winner is As...
View ArticleMiles Franklin longlist
They've announced the longlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award. Lots of familiar names -- but, of course, also the questions about who was left off. E.g. Why was Christos...
View ArticleJunot Díaz Q & A
At the Columbia Daily Spectator's 'the eye' they have a Q & A with Junot Díaz. Among his responses: Honestly short stories are too much work. Short stories require constant omission;...
View ArticleKarl Ove Knausgård 'on creating literature'
At Eurozine they have an English version of a long piece by Karl Ove Knausgård, Out to where storytelling does not reach, on writing, editing, and publishing -- well worthwhile. (Reviews...
View ArticleFifteen years of the Complete Review
The first reviews -- a batch of forty-five -- were posted at the complete review fifteen years ago today, on 5 April 1999. Which is pretty much all I have to say -- I don't really know...
View ArticleF review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Daniel Kehlmann's F -- due out in English in late August.
View ArticleArchipelago Books profile
At Publishing Perspectives Alex Estes has a nice, in-depth profile of Jill Schoolman and Archipelago Books: 10 Years, 100 Titles, 26 Languages. Only about a quarter of Archipelago's...
View Article