Writing in ... Uganda and Kenya
In the Saturday Nation Evan Mwangi takes a longer look at How Ugandan women stole the literary torch from Kenyan writers -- arguing that: Kenyan writers need to position themselves globally,...
View ArticleDSC Prize for South Asian Literature
They've announced that Narcopolis, by Jeet Thayil, has won this year's DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. It's not under review at the complete review (and I don't really see myself...
View ArticleBook cafes ... in South Korea
In The Korea Herald Claire Lee reports that 'While bookstores are disappearing, book-themed cafes emerge as cultural spots' in Seoul, in Book cafes are evolving
View ArticleWriting in ... Romania
At presseurop Ovidiu Pecican's Local literature on its last legs (Romanian original at România libera) paints a pretty dire picture of the situation in Romania -- starting with the fact that:...
View ArticleThe Dinner review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Herman Koch's international bestseller, The Dinner -- finally also coming to the US.
View ArticleHistorical figures in foreign fiction: Revived Hitler
It's not really surprising that Timur Vermes' Er ist wieder da ('He's Back') has gotten some traction, even before the translation appears: the basic idea -- Hitler wakes up in 2011 Germany,...
View ArticleHistorical figures in foreign fiction: Beekeeping Beckett
I'm a sucker for the (creative) use of real figures in fiction (see also the index of Real People in Works of Fiction under review at the complete review), and so something like Martin Page's...
View ArticleSpilt Milk review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Chico Buarque's Spilt Milk.
View ArticleQ & A with Marc Lowenthal
Publishing the World has 5 Questions with Marc Lowenthal, of the admirable Wakefield Press. See also, for example, the complete review review of Jean-Pierre Martinet's The High Life .
View ArticleProfile: Mario Vargas Llosa
In The Dream of the Peruvian in City Journal Adam Kirsch profiles Mario Vargas Llosa -- with an emphasis on his most recent book.
View ArticleProfile: Jacques Barzun
In Columbia John Simon profiles The Unedited Man, Jacques Barzun.
View ArticleEuropese Literatuurprijs longlist
They've announced the longlist for the (Dutch) European Literary Prize, to be awarded for 'the best European novel to appear in Dutch translation' in 2012 (Julian Barnes' Alsof het voorbij is...
View ArticleSnow White must Die review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nele Neuhaus' Snow White must Die -- the fourth in her Oliver von Bodenstein and Pia Kirchhoff series, but (sigh) the first (and,...
View ArticleDavid Mitchell
The film version of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is apparently only reaching UK screens next month (it came out in the US a while back), and so there's increased David Mitchell coverage in the...
View ArticleCosta Book Award
They announced the winner of this year's Whitbread Costa Book Award, and, yes, Hilary Mantel has racked up another win, with the Man Booker-winning Bring up the Bodies. I'm a longtime...
View ArticleSamskara review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Rite for a Dead Man by U.R.Ananthamurthy, Samskara. Ananthamurthy is one of the ten just-announced finalists for the Man...
View ArticleGérard de Villiers profile
In The New York Times Magazine this weekend Robert F. Worth profiles prolific French author Gérard de Villiers, The Spy Novelist Who Knows Too Much [via]. He's one of these authors who...
View ArticleJohn Calder Q & A
At Totally Dublin Publishing Icon John Calder Interviewed by Kevin Breathnach [via]. Calder thinks Robbe-Grillet is the most underappreciated of the writers that he's published -- and...
View ArticleYasuoka Shōtarō (1920-2013)
Japanese author Yasuoka Shōtarō (安岡章太郎) has passed away; see, for example, the Asahi Shimbun report, Postwar literary giant Yasuoka dies at 92 -- where they note: Donald Keene, the famed...
View ArticleEscape review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Perihen Magden's Escape -- yet another book in translation from AmazonCrossing.
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