Mario Vargas Llosa in conversation
At Eurozine Mario Vargas Llosa "discusses the relative merits of 'high' and 'mass' culture in the contemporary world and defends the ideas explored in his recent book La civilización del...
View ArticleThe Spies review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Luis Fernando Verissimo's The Spies.
View ArticleHoward Goldblatt Q & A
The New Yorker prints a long extract from Mo Yan's POW ! this week, and they also have Deborah Treisman's Q & A with translator Howard Goldblatt.
View ArticleBoris Strugatsky (1933-2012)
AS RIA Novosti reports, Soviet Sci-Fi Legend Strugatsky Dies at 79. He outlived his brother by quite a bit, but is now also dead. The only Strugatsky-brother title under review at the...
View ArticleSpreading the word about Indonesian literature
The Jakarta Globe reports on Using Technology to Preserve Indonesia's Literary History, looking into some of the efforts of the admirable Lontar Foundation in spreading the word about...
View ArticleTranslation into ... Sanskrit
The headline, Translation is challenging work, say writers, from The Hindu, is hardly a startling one, but the example discussed is a rather unusual one, as: Translating literature is...
View ArticlePrize shortlist: Costa Book Awards
They've announced the shortlists for the Whitbread Costa Book Awards -- though annoyingly only in a pdf press release. While they do reveal that, for example, there were 159 entries in...
View ArticlePrize shortlist: DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
They've announced the shortlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013, selected from 81 entries; none of the titles are under review at the complete review, though I do hope to get...
View ArticlePrize shortlist: 'Bad Sex' award
The Literary Review has announced the shortlist for its annual 'Bad Sex' award, awarded: "for the most embarrassing passage of sexual description in a novel". No surprise that the...
View ArticleLatvian literature abroad
euronews profiles recent Latvian winner of a European Union Prize for Literature, Inga Zolude, in Unchain my language ! She argues: "I think there should be an interest in Latvian...
View ArticlePromoting ... Maltese literature
The Times (Malta) reports on a Bid to get Maltese literature appreciated in other languages, as the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts has announced a new scheme, Spreading Words to help...
View ArticleThe Eyes of Lira Kazan review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Eva Joly and Judith Perrignon's The Eyes of Lira Kazan. Joly, you might recall, was a candidate in the French presidential...
View ArticleExpensive books ?
Publishers Weekly lists what they headline The 10 Most Expensive Books of 2012 -- though it doesn't look like an entirely comprehensive list: missing, for example, are the Robert Crumb....
View ArticleTree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jurji Zaydan's Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt.
View ArticleFrench prize sales boost
They're relieved in France to find the natural order of things (well, literature) has been restored, as a couple of recently announced prize-winners have finally pushed the bestselling horror...
View ArticlePrizes: Svenska Deckarakademin awards
The Svenska Deckarakademin -- the Swedish Crime Academy -- is awarding their prizes tomorrow. In the Swedish-language category the only non-household name in the US/UK is Tove Alsterdal,...
View ArticlePrizes: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards
They've announced the winners of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards -- not at that official site, last I checked (no comment ...), but Rosita Boland has the full run-down in the Irish Times...
View ArticlePrize: Jan Michalski Prize
They've announced the winner of the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature 2012 -- "awarded for a work of world literature in the fiction and non fiction categories, except poetry", and worth CHF...
View ArticleBanville on
In the Financial Times John Banville writes on a new "sumptuous -- it is the only word for it " edition of The Book of Kells just out from Thames & Hudson; see their publicity page, or get...
View ArticleAmitav Ghosh in Burma
In The Irrawaddy Kyaw Phyo Tha has a Q & A with writer Amitav Ghosh, who was recently in Burma for the first time in some fifteen years. See also Douglas Long's report in The Myanmar Times,...
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