New Untitled Books
The December issue of Untitled Books is now available online. Among the offerings: Man Asian Literary Prize chair David Parker writes about Prizing Asian Literature, while the great Dag...
View ArticleMohammed Hanif's five favourite Indian novels
At BBC India 'Pakistani novelist' Mohammed Hanif lists My five favourite Indian novels -- and seems to have at least put some thought into this exercise.
View ArticleAdiós Muchachos review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Memoir of the Sandinista Revolution by the fine novelist (and one-time Nicaraguan vice-president) Sergio Ramírez, Adiós...
View ArticleIBNA interview
The Iran Book News Agency has a long interview with me, if you're interested (in Persian, too, if you prefer). (Note that some things clearly got a bit distorted in translation or...
View ArticleNot so poor poets: Tanikawa Shuntarō
In China Daily Mei Jia profiles Japanese poet Tanikawa Shuntarō (谷川 俊太郎), in Prosing the question. The piece begins: Japanese poet Tanikawa Shuntaro has been high on the list as a Nobel...
View ArticleWriting in ... Uganda
In the Saturday Monitor Jim Oboth argues that Ugandan literature still cannot capture ideology. Many presumably don't really find this a problem -- and I certainly take issue with claims...
View ArticleWorst books of the year
After a while all those 'best of the year' lists can get pretty tiresome, so it's good to see that at least some are also offering lists of what they consider the worst of the year -- see, for...
View ArticleThe Saga of Dharmapuri review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of O.V.Vijayan's The Saga of Dharmapuri -- which David Selbourne called: "one of the great works of modern Indian literature" in his...
View ArticleSorry review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Zoran Drvenkar's thriller Sorry -- a rare work of fiction in translation (by a living author ! who hasn't won the Nobel Prize !)...
View ArticleJulian Barnes on the European Book prize
Julian Barnes was president of the jury for this year's Prix du Livre Européen -- the European Book prize -- and in The Guardian he writes about Judging the European Book prize for 2011....
View ArticlePrize: Prix Carbet
They'll be handing out the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe on Sunday, and as Haiti Libre reports, Haitian authors are very much in the running -- as: Among the eighteen candidates for this 22nd...
View ArticleQ and A: Georgi Gospodinov
Focus News Agency has a Q & A with Georgi Gospodinov: I envisage art having a life-saving role as a machine for sense and solace, discussing his new novel, Физика на тъгата ('Physics of...
View Article(Business) books success in India
Read for success ? India's business books take off AFP reports (here in the Hindustan Times) -- though noting that while sales have been increasing rapidly: Volume, however, is small: Walter...
View ArticleProud Beggars review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Albert Cossery's 1955 classic Proud Beggars, just re-issued by New York Review Books.
View ArticleMan Booker Prize judging panel
Yes, 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction: Full judging panel announced: chaired by Peter Stothard, it consists of Dinah Birch, Amanda Foreman, Dan Stevens, and Bharat Tandon. Most of the...
View ArticleLiterature in translation in ... Iran
IBNA report that Statistics show a %14 growth in translated books. Yes, 2,723 of the 7,676 literary titles published in 2010 were translations -- 35 per cent of the total. However, there...
View ArticleReading in ... Lebanon
In the Daily Star Wassim Mroueh reports that Slow sales overshadow Beirut book fair, as: The culture of reading is deteriorating in Lebanon and the Arab world, according to several publishers...
View ArticleThe past 100 reviews ...
There are now 2800 reviews at the complete review -- and, just as every time I hit a new century mark, I offer a statistical breakdown of the past 100 reviews. - The last 100 reviews...
View ArticleIndependent bookstore success in ... Berlin
Farhad Manjoo's article at Slate, Don't Support Your Local Bookseller -- claiming: 'Buying books on Amazon is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you' -- got a lot of...
View ArticleLeg over Leg in English
In Arabic literature found in translation in The National Jessica Holland reports that: The award-winning translator Humphrey T Davies [...] is currently hard at work on a translation of...
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