Emmanuel Carrère profile
In The Observer Robert McCrum profiles Emmanuel Carrère: the most important French writer you've never heard of. [Aside: that sort of claim should really be reserved for the truly obscure, not...
View ArticleConfessions review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Minato Kanae's Japanese bestseller (and basis for a popular film), Confessions, now out in English. This was translated by...
View ArticlePrix littéraire de la Mamounia
The Prix littéraire de la Mamounia, awarded for francophone Moroccan writing, has announced its fifth winner, and, as reported at, for example, Aujourd'hui, Prix Littéraire de la Mamounia: Le...
View ArticleExplaining Piketty's success
Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century continues to be one of this year's unlikely publishing success-stories -- a university press-publication, a work in translation (indeed, I...
View ArticleFantomas versus the Multinational Vampires review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of An Attainable Utopia by Julio Cortázar, his 1975 novel(la), Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires, now finally available in...
View ArticleAndrés Neuman Q & A
At Tweed's Randy Rosenthal and Laura Mae Isaacman have a Q & A with Andrés Neuman -- author of the novels Talking to Ourselves and Traveler of the Century. He argues: A narrative is...
View ArticleFT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award shortlist
They've announced (or 'unveiled', as they put it) the shortlist for the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award -- and you really have to wonder why they even bothered: if Thomas...
View ArticleDayton Literary Peace Prize
They've announced the fiction (and non) winner (and runners-up) for the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The fiction winner is Bob Shacochis' The Woman Who Lost Her Soul; so far, as Ron...
View ArticleBlaise Cendrars profile
In the TLS Richard Sieburth reviews the two-volume Pléiade edition of Blaise Cendrars' Œuvres autobiographiques complètes (see the Gallimard publicity page for, for example, volume one), in...
View ArticleTranslating women
At the 'Free Word' weblog Sophie Mayer wonders Where are the women in translation ? -- meaning: why do so many more books by male, rather than female authors get (historically, as well as...
View ArticleFrankfurt Book Fair 'Guest of honour' 2017
There's a national 'Guest of Honour' at each Frankfurt Book Fair -- this year it's Finland -- and, over the past years and months, they've built up a roster of upcoming GoHs: 2015: Indonesia;...
View ArticleAntoine Volodine, in his own words
Essential reading by and about Writers-writer Antoine Volodine: The Fringe of Reality, at The White Review. Your basic (or not so basic) Volodine (and 'post-exoticism') starter's-kit.
View ArticleDebating re-translation
Copying a page from The New York Times Book Review -- their 'Bookends'-feature -- the weblog at Asymptote now offers ... 'The Tiff' (which seems wrong on so many levels that I don't even know...
View ArticleSwiss Book Prize finalists
They've announced the six finalists for this year's Schweizer Buchpreis -- limited to German-language books (though Guy Krneta's Unger üs stretches that limitation some; see the Der gesunde...
View ArticleJavier Marías profile
In The New York Times Stephen Heyman profiles Javier Marías: Spain's Elegant Master Novelist, who apparently: "remains something of a niche author among English-speaking readers" (hey,...
View ArticleDSC Prize for South Asian Literature jury
They've apparently announced the jury for the 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature -- though, sigh, not yet at the official site, last I checked; see instead, for example, the dna report....
View ArticleAlbertine opens in NYC
Albertine, 'A project of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy' and a "reading room and bookshop devoted to works in French and in translation", opens for business in New York today....
View ArticleArno Camenisch Q & A
At English PEN's PEN Atlas Tasja Dorkofikis has a Q & A with Swiss author Arno Camenish, whose The Alp -- written in both German and Romansch -- was recently published by Dalkey Archive...
View ArticleVictus review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Albert Sánchez Piñol's historical novel of The Fall of Barcelona (in 1714, during the War of the Succession), Victus -- a book...
View ArticleJapanese literary journals (in English)
In The Japan Times Kris Kosaka takes a look at several English-language Japanese literary magazines, in Read up on books about books about Japan. They have limited material accessible online,...
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