opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       Booker and German Book Prize announcements

       Last week the big author-prize -- the Nobel -- was announced; today they'll announce the winners of the leading German-language novel prize, the German Book Prize, and the leading English-language novel prize, the Booker Prize.

       Booker preview pieces include Alex Preston's suggestions in The Observer: Man Booker prize shortlist 2019: who to put your money on (though note there's no longer any Man in the Booker ...), the BBC's overview, Booker Prize 2019: Margaret Atwood leads six authors in the frame to win, and judge Afua Hirsch explains What I learned from my year of reading outside the box in The Guardian.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Translation in ... Kazakhstan

       In The Astana Times they report that the Second International Writers Forum focuses on translation problems, reporting on the recent forum; see also the programme.
       Not surprisingly, the locals noted: "Currently, state support of literature translation is wanting" (and so much depends on state support (i.e. cash) ...).

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       'Why hasn't an Indian got a Nobel Prize for literature in 106 years ?'

       At ThePrint they explore the question: Why hasn't an Indian got a Nobel Prize for literature in 106 years since Tagore ?
       Several contributors offer answers, making some good points (not just about the Nobel) -- though I'd feel better if the arguments did not include the likes of:

For one, the Nobel prize isn’t about literature alone. It’s also about the politics of it. Remember Nazi sympathiser Ezra Pound got it

       Actually, I don't remember that -- for a pretty good reason. (Yes, the obvious one -- though he was nominated disturbingly/surprisingly often (and the records are just available through 1966 !)).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Murakami and sex

       In Metropolis Eric Margolis wonders at some length What's Up With Bad Sex in Murakami ? -- as in Haruki (fellow (if unrelated) Murakami Ryu, who also gets a mention here, is also known for his (rather different) sex scenes; see, for example, Piercing).
       There's also considerable focus on translation here -- including the observation that:

“Murakami is born in translation,” Snyder said. “He is constantly translating his own works back and forth and his works seek out translations in various ways.” Snyder is referring to a variety of translatable features in Murakami’s work, from Murakami’s self-stated preference for English, to the overt influences of American authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver, to the many familiar Western cultural touchstones in his work, like jazz and classical music.

       I'm not sure about this, however:

“To do a translation properly and enter a sex scene, you have to become aroused,” [Ted] Goossen said. “Some translators might feel that you should stay detached, but I believe that you really have to participate in the scene in order to make it work in English.”

       Just in case it wasn't clear, Murakami-translator Goossen also notes that Murakami is: "not an amoral flesh-peddler".

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       Arturo Pérez-Reverte Q & A

       At Publishers Weekly Ed Nawotka has a Q & A with Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
       I have a pile of his novels but haven't gotten around to reviewing any; I should get around to that at some point .....

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       Till Day You Do Part review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of newly minted Nobel laureate Peter Handke's 2007/2008 monologue Till Day You Do Part or A Question of Light.
       The English-language edition is a trilingual (!) one from Seagull Books that also includes the original French draft and the finished German version.
       It's sort of a response to yet another Nobel laureate's work, Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape.

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       Penguin's 75 Maigrets

       In The Bookseller Katherine Cowdrey reports that Penguin Press celebrates 75th Maigret novel translation and reveals cover -- their new translations of the classic series; see also the Penguin publicity page.
       Impressively:

In total, according to PRH UK, global sales of the new translations reached a landmark one million copies. Through Nielsen BookScan, Simenon sold 433,157 books for £3.13m. The first in the Maigret collection, Pietr the Latvian, released in November 2013, shifted a respectable 19,041 copies.

       Five of these are under review at the complete review, and I have about twenty more -- and do expect to slowly get to them. But, of course, I'm particularly interested in Simenon's impressive other work -- and so it's good to hear:

"Simenon was famously prolific so there is plenty more for us to delve into," said Greywoode. "We would like to really establish this series now we've reached the end to ensure it has a long life. But, yes, then we will be publishing more of the novels Simenon wrote outside of the series of which there are around 200. We'll be looking to curate a selection of those to bring to readers hungry for more !"

       As someone who is, indeed, very hungry, I hope they don't limit themselves to a mere "selection".

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       Translation into ... te reo Māori

       Neat to hear that in New Zealand they've launched an initiative to publish 100 books in te reo Māori; see, for example the Auckland University Press press release, Very special project brings te reo to the world and Alice Webb-Liddall's report in The Spinoff, Harry Potter among 100 books set to be translated into te reo Māori.
       I look forward to hearing more about what books they select -- and, of course, I also hope there will be more translations from te reo Māori.

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       Automatic Eve review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Inui Rokuro's Automatic Eve, recently out from Haikasoru -- though unfortunately apparently their last title, for now, as they've gone on a hiatus of as yet undetermined length.

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       Nobel fall-out

       Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke were named the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature laureates yesterday; see yesterday's post for all the news and commentary links.

       Certainly in the US/UK press Tokarczuk's anointing was generally very positively received, the only disappointment being that she is yet another European laureate (and that both laureates were European this year). The decision to give the prize to Handke, on the other hand, was heavily criticized, and not just because he's an old European white male writing in a dominant language -- reactions going so far as PEN America issuing an official statement, PEN America expresses "deep regret" over Peter Handke's Nobel Prize.
       The issue with Handke is almost entirely extra-literary: Carolyn Kellogg, for example, judged in the Chicago Tribune that Today's Nobel Prizes in literature ? A home run and a strikeout. -- while acknowledging: "I have never read Handke, and I don't plan to start now". Peter Maass at The Intercept offers a slightly more nuanced if no less harsh indictment in Congratulations, Nobel Committee, You Just Gave the Literature Prize to a Genocide Apologist, writing:

I am not saying that we should not read Peter Handke’s literary work. My objection is not a version of the age-old question of whether we should listen to Richard Wagner. Go ahead and listen to Wagner. Go ahead and read Handke. My point is this: It is one thing to read him, it is quite another to bestow upon him a prize that delivers a great amount of legitimacy to his entire body of work, not just the novels and plays that are most impeccable and nonpolitical.

       At issue is the support Handke has expressed and shown to, most notably, Slobodan Milošević and Serbian war crimes during the Yugoslavian conflicts. Even those otherwise sympathetic to the author and his work are generally baffled by his position and actions in this sphere; these are: "wohl nicht wirklich erklärbar" ('probably not really explicable'), Paul Jandl flails, for example. (While he has been very active in -- and generally lauded for -- supporting Slovene language- and political-rights in his native Carinthia, Handke's nostalgia for the Yugoslavian confederation seems to trump even these; Slovenia broke off from Yugoslavia early and rather easily, but Handke was not supportive of this.)
       Handke made his first mark as a provocateur, way back in the 1960s, but this is something rather different, and one can see how people are disturbed by it. It also shows how the Nobel is seen as a validation that goes beyond the purely literary, for better and worse. Hence, for example, the disappointment (even from me ...) that the Academy did not select an author from outside the so familiar European-North American literary world.
       From a purely literary perspective, the selection of Handke is hard to criticize. Indeed, I would argue that he is a considerably stronger winner -- again, in purely literary terms -- than Tokarczuk. She is good -- good enough to be a worthy laureate -- but Handke belongs in the literary pantheon; his output is surely among the strongest among all laureates of recent decades. (Overlooked in US/UK coverage is also the sheer range of his work: like Jelinek (and fellow Austrian Thomas Bernhard), he is also one of Europe's leading dramatists of the past half century.)
       I'm not sure how much my opinion/tolerance of Handke is colored by the fact that I pretty much grew up with his work, and read much of it before these Yugoslavian issues reared their very ugly heads (and before I started this site, which is why so few of his books are under review here). The Yugoslavian fiasco came as sort of an afterthought to an already enormous body of work -- unforgiveable, perhaps, but also very late in the day.
       I am a bit bewildered by the widespread sweeping condemnation -- the throwing out of the literary baby with the bathwater, as it were. True, even I can't bring myself to read his Yugoslvian apologias -- but most of his work is far removed from that, much of it in what surely can be considered an entirely different sphere. (Recently I got the latest Mishima Yukio translation, Life for Sale -- already out in the UK, but only coming to the US next April --, and I certainly won't be able to resist it, just like I couldn't recent translations The Frolic of the Beasts and Star -- but surely Mishima's ultra-militant nationalism (put into action, no less) is an altogether different order of noxious; if you draw the line at Handke, then Mishima surely must be way, way over it.)
       One wonders to what extent the Academy selecting Handke was an intentional affront -- a way of proving their independence, public opinion be damned (many people long believed Handke could not possibly be considered for the prize). On the one hand, it's admirable that they appear not to have cared -- and, with Handke, they did choose a literarily worthy winner -- but their arguably tin ear probably doesn't help enhance (or restore) their reputation, at least in the US/UK.
       But maybe we should try to see it as just about the writing ? Tokarczuk generously (and unsurprisingly) was enthusiastic about her fellow laureate (as was Jelinek -- a full-fledged Communist for a time ! -- who has long said Handke deserved the prize before her) .....
       The Nobel ceremony -- on 10 December -- should be ... interesting. As should Handke and Tokarczuk's Nobel lectures, delivered a few days earlier.

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       NYRB Classics at 20

       NYRB Classics is now twenty years old, and at Publishers Weekly editor Edwin Frank 'reflects on its origins and its objectives' in 20 Years of NYRB Classics.

       Obviously, I love this series -- and quite a few NYRB Classics titles are under review at the complete review. And the one book at the site that has sold the most -- by far -- via the Amazon-link on the review page is the great volume, The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton; it's the only title that has sold hundreds of copies. (A few other titles have sold over a 100 copies over the years, and I shifted a couple of dozen copies of Uwe Johnson's Anniversaries over the last year, but nothing has proven anywhere near as popular as the Burton.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       The Nobel Prizes in Literature go to ... Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke

[Last updated: 14 October]

       The winners of the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prizes in Literature have now been announced, and they are: Olga Tokarczuk (2018) and Peter Handke (2019).
       Tokarczuk receives the prize:

for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life

       Handke receives the prize for

for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience

       Handke had long been thought an unlikely choice because of his unpopular attitude during and after the Yugoslavian conflicts -- and this is going to come up a lot in the Nobel Prize-commentary --, but is certainly one of the grand old men of European literature and it's hard to disagree with this selection from a literary point of view. Tokarczuk has been quickly gaining international (well, European and US) recognition for an impressive body of work -- including winning the 2018 Man International Booker Prize for Flights -- and is a choice that will no doubt be widely seen as a solid one.
       Considering solely their work, these are certainly very strong choices, though with two Central Europeans this is very much in the old mold of the Academy, for better and worse, and it's a bit disappointing that they did not reach beyond that very narrow area.

       Decent initial overview-articles now up include:

• Nobel Prizes in Literature Awarded to Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke by Alex Marshall in The New York Times
• Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke win Nobel prizes in literature by Alison Flood in The Guardian
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke win awards by Martin Doyle in the Irish Times
• Austrian Handke and Poland's Tokarczuk win Nobel literature prizes by Simon Johnson and Niklas Pollard at Reuters

       General commentary about this year's prizes:

• The Nobel Prize in Literature Is Just Trolling Now argues Alex Shephard in The New Republic
• The Swedish Academy took a year off to fix the Nobel Prize in literature. It’s still broken. finds Ron Charles in The Washington Post
• The 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature Proves the Academy Hasn’t Changed finds Carrie V. Mullins at Electric Literature
• The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature Was Postponed Over Scandal, but This Year's Choice Just Created More Controversy Marissa Martinelli reports at Slate
• Why this year's doubleheader Nobel Prize for literature is so controversial by Constance Grady at Vox. (Apparently: "Handke's win is complicated")
• Nobel Literature Prize's new 'global vision' picks out two white European writers by John Self in the Irish Times
• Today's Nobel Prizes in literature ? A home run and a strikeout. judges Carolyn Kellogg in the Chicago Tribune (admitting: "I have never read Handke, and I don't plan to start now", making that strikeout call one pulled out of rather thin and purely political/image-conscious air)
• We were promised a less Eurocentric Nobel. We got two laureates from Europe complains Maya Jaggi in The Guardian. (I don't think it was an actual promise ...)
• The light and the darkness of this year's literature Nobel argues Rafia Zakaria at CNN
• Is the Nobel Prize for Literature's compass well and truly 'broken' ? wonders Sana Goyal at Livemint

       Commentary/coverage about Tokarczuk:

• Olga Tokarczuk: the dreadlocked feminist winner the Nobel needed by Claire Armitstead in The Guardian
• Olga Tokarczuk: 'Literature is meant to provoke thought': Q & A with Michal Gostkiewicz at Deutsche Welle
• A Q & A with John Freeman at the Literary Hub
• For Poland, Nobel Prize in Literature Is Cause for Conflict as Much as Congratulation by Marc Santora and Joanna Berendt in The New York Times
• Playful and profound: Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk demands to be read Malcolm Forbes thinks, in The National
• The Nobel Prize Was Made for Olga Tokarczuk her translator Jennifer Croft maintains at The Paris Review's Daily weblog
• The Nobel Prize in Literature: Be More Olga by Helen Vassallo at the Translating Women weblog

       Commentary/coverage about Handke:

• PEN America expresses "deep regret" over Peter Handke's Nobel Prize: official statement from PEN America
• Choice to award Peter Handke Nobel Prize is regrettable and distressing to victims opines PEN International
• Congratulations, Nobel Committee, You Just Gave the Literature Prize to a Genocide Apologist reports Peter Maass at The Intercept
• 'A troubling choice': authors criticise Peter Handke's controversial Nobel win in The Guardian
• Theodora Danek wonders Was Peter Handke's revisionism lost in translation ? ((my)short answer: no)
• Handke translator Scott Abbott tries to make the case for the Nobel Prize for Peter Handke at his The Goalie's Anxiety weblog
• Peter Handke: an adversarial talent and controversial Nobel laureate: Hugo Hamilton in The Guardian
• Pierre Assouline considers Le problème avec ceux qui ont un problème avec Peter Handke at his La République des livres weblog
• A Nobel prize that dishonours the victims of genocide opines Ed Vulliamy in The Guardian
• Immerhin kein Friedensnobelpreis: Michael Martens' overview of the critical reactions in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

       German-language coverage is, of course extensive; see, for example:

• Reaktionen auf Handkes Nobelpreis: Für Jelinek "höchste Zeit" -- an extensive collection reactions, mainly Austrian and German, in the Kurier
• Gerald Heidegger considers Warum Peter Handke ? at some length at the ORF
• Popstar, Prophet, Provokateur by Hubert Spiegel in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

       Publisher mentions:

• Fitzcarraldo Editions proudly announce that Olga Tokarczuk wins the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature
• Literaturnobelpreis 2019 für Peter Handke at Suhrkamp
• Celebrating Olga Tokarczuk's Nobel Prize at Penguin Random House

       Usually some major newspapers and literary magazines collect and open up for view articles about and reviews of Nobel Prize-winning authors, but they've been slow to do that this year. So far it's only:

• Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke awarded Nobel Prizes in Literature - A selection of articles from the TLS, covering the work of both winners

       For previous general information about Olga Tokarczuk, see, for example:

• Olga Tokarczuk at Culture.pl, a good overview
• Olga Tokarczuk at Granta, where you can find several longer samples of her work
• Olga Tokarczuk's Novels Against Nationalism, Ruth Franklin profile of Tokarczuk in The New Yorker earlier this year

       There is a great deal more about Peter Handke online -- he's been publishing for over fifty years. His first notable appearance was at the (in)famous Princeton meeting of the Gruppe 47; a recording of his contribution is available at the Princeton German site, while The Goalie's Anxiety offers a translation of Peter Handke’s 1966 Speech at the Princeton Meeting of the Gruppe 47.
       The Austrian National Library's Handke online site is a valuable (German) resource -- and includes Handke's much commented-on but little reproduced (in full) words at the funeral of Slobodan Milošević in 2006.
       Handke's stance in the Yugoslavian conflicts have come to dominate commentary on the author in recent years -- beginning with the awarding of the Heinrich Heine Prize to him in 2006, which he then turned down; see the useful overview at signandsight.com of The Peter Handke affair.
       Recent pieces that discuss Handke at some length do tend to bog down some in the Yugoslavian-question, but some in-depth pieces may be of interest; see, for example:

• Taking Refuge in the Loo by Leland de la Durantaye in the London Review of Books
• The Apologist by Michael McDonald in The American Scholar
• Ben Hutchinson considers Peter Handke's wilful controversies in the Times Literary Supplement -- and now, post-Nobel, he looks at Peter Handke: entering the curious canon
• Der Literaturnobelpreisträger Peter Handke: Ein literarischer Seher unter Blinden by Paul Jandl in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung

       Meanwhile, Handke was more recently awarded the International Ibsen Award -- and see also Karl Ove Knausgaard's speech on Handke and Singularity.
       Beyond that, it's certainly worth going back to his fiction (and drama) beyond the narrow political context in which so much of it is now considered. And curious Nobel titbit: Handke has translated two works by another Nobel laureate, Patrick Modiano -- I'm not sure when the last time was this occurred (if ever). (It's great to see an author who has also been such an active translator be Nobel-honored.)

       No works by Tokarczuk are under review at the complete review, but several Handke works are:

• [Crossing the Sierra de Gredos]
• Don Juan: His Own Version
• Kali
• On a Dark Night I Left my Silent House
• Till Day You Do Part

       See also all the Nobel laureates under review at the complete review.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Latvian recommendations

       I recently reviewed Alberts Bels' The Cage -- surprisingly, the first Latvian title under review at the complete review -- but what better source for recommendations for other Latvian fiction than local authors ? So it's great to see 10 Latvian Writers Name Their Favorite Latvian Books at Latvian Literature -- even if far too many of these works are not (yet) available in translation (including the one Bels titles that gets a mention).

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       Nobel Prize countdown

       Here we go: the Nobel Prizes in Literature -- two this year, for both 2018 and 2019 -- will be announced tomorrow at 13:00 Stockholm time (CET). You will be able to see the announcement live -- at the Nobel site or on YouTube, here.

       (Updated): One new piece of actual news: dpa reports that 194 nominations were considered by the Swedish Academy for the 2018 prize, and 189 for the 2019 prize. As we have heard, however, there was only one eight-person list of finalists considered, from which both wnners will be (and by now have been) selected; it's unclear how much overlap there was with the nominations for 2018 and 2019, and/or whether they did divide up the picks from both lists. (Those deliberation reports, when they open them up to public view in 2070, are going to be fascinating reading .....)

       There's been more pre-prize coverage, of course, though not too much of great interest or information value -- but at least some entertainment value:

• Can the Nobel Prize in Literature overcome its scandalous year ? by Michael Redhil in the Toronto Star
  
  
• Your favorite author isn't going to win the Nobel Prize promises Jeva Lange at The Week
  
  
• Alexandra Guzeva makes the case for Why Russian writer Ludmila Ulitskaya should win this year's Nobel Prize at Russia Beyond the Headlines
  
  
• A more creative and entertaining take on the prize-deliberations: Andreas Platthaus offers a dramolett in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gewinnerkombination verzweifelt gesucht
  
  
• Nobelpreis für Literatur: Über Stockholm hängen noch immer Schatten des Skandals by Manuel Müller in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  
  
• A few more guesses as to who might/should take the prize(s), at Blekinge Läns Tidning, in Tio författare som kan få Nobelpriset

       (Updated): See now also:

• Aftonbladet offers their annual feature, asking their critics who they would like to see win the prizes, and who they actually think will get them, in Äntligen! Här är (kanske) årets pristagareÄntligen! Här är (kanske) årets pristagare
  
  
• Alex Shephard goes through a lot of the names and numbers at The New Republic, in Who Will Win the 2019 (or the 2018!) Nobel Prize in Literature ?
  
  
• At the quint Nidhi Mahajan collects Here's Who the Internet Thinks Will Win the Nobel for Literature
  
  
• Svenska Dagbladet has excellent and extensive Nobel coverage -- including winner-guesses (that includes some of my two cents) -- but, alas, it's all paywalled
  
  
• Andreas Platthaus weighs in some more in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, wondering if this will be Ein politisch korrekter Nobelpreis ?

       This year's most annoying mistake: journalists referring to: the odds at "U.K. bookies Nicer Odds", or "British website Nicer Odds [...] taking bets on the 2019 winner". Nicer Odds is not a betting site; as it says relatively prominently on the site, they're: "The free odds research tool", i.e. an odds aggregator, listing what actual betting sites are offering for odds. On top of that, they're not doing a great job this year, currently only listing the Unibet odds ..... The actual sites taking bets, and the ones setting odds, are Unibet and Betsson.

       I'll have extensive coverage of the winners tomorrow, starting shortly after the official announcement.

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       (American) National Book Award finalists

       They've announced the finalists for this year's (American) National Book Awards in all five categories.
       The only title under review at the complete review is in the Translated Literature category -- Stephen Snyder's translation of Ogawa Yoko's The Memory Police -- though I should be getting to the Krasznahorkai soon as well.
       Interesting also to see that there were the fewest submissions in the Translated Literature category -- only 145, when even Poetry had 245 submissions. Disappointingly, however, the names of the submitted titles are not revealed .....
       The winners will be announced 20 November.

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       Warwick Prize longlist

       They've announced the thirteen-title longlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, selected from 92 eligible entries (which are, however, disappointingly left unrevealed ... which are admirably (if in pdf format ...) revealed here).
       Several of the titles are under review at the complete review:

• Ginny Tapley Takemori's translation of Murata Sayaka's Convenience Store Woman
• Tina Kover's translation of Négar Djavadi's Disoriental
• Charlotte Whittle's translation of Norah Lange's People in the Room
• Asa Yoneda's translation of Motoya Yukiko's Picnic in the Storm
• Alison L. Strayer's translation of Annie Ernaux's The Years

       A shortlist will be announced in November, and the winner will be announced 20 November.

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       Austrian Book Prize finalists

       They've announced the five finalists for this year's Austrian Book Prize, with the winner to be announced 4 November.
       I've actually read the Raphaela Edelbauer but wasn't completely won over by it; I also have the Karl-Markus Gauß and hope to get to that soon.

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       French prize (semi-)shortlists

       More French prize 'deuxièmes sélections' -- the shorter longlists (with shortlists and winners to follow --, for the prix Renaudot and the prix Femina; the latter also has a translation-category, with ten works left in the running.
       The winners of the Renaudot will be announced 4 November, the winners of the Femina one day later.

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       Cuckold review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kiran Nagarkar's 1997 novel, Cuckold.

       Nagarkar died just last month. Several of his books have been published in the US/UK, but, somewhat surprisingly, not this one.

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       Dayton Literary Peace Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prizes, awarded for books that: "address the theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or between nations, religions, or ethnic groups". The fiction prize goes to What We Owe, by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde, and the non-fiction prize to Rising Out of Hatred, by Eli Saslow.
       They get to pick up the prize at the gala ceremony on 3 November.

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       Vikram Seth Q & A

       The Hindustan Times has David Davidar's Q & A with Vikram Seth -- best-known for his A Suitable Boy, with a sequel, A Suitable Girl, long in the works and eagerly anticipated .....
       The only Seth under review at the complete review is his lesser effort, An Equal Music -- but I am much looking forward to A Suitable Girl.

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       'New Dutch Writing'

       They've now launched New Dutch Writing, with quite a few events starting up in the UK -- definitely looks worthwhile if you're in the neighborhood.

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       Nobel week

       This is the week they announced the Nobel Prizes -- including, on Thursday, the double-announcement of the Nobel Prize in Literature, as there will be both a 2018 laureate and a 2019 one.

       Not much new to report since my previous mention -- including no real change at the two places offering odds on the prize, Unibet and Betsson.

       There have been a few general (and a few specific) articles, including:

• Mark Lewis' AP report, Controversy stalks Nobel Peace, Literature prizes
  
  
• Alison Flood at The Guardian , writing that: Nobel prize in literature sets sights on diversity after year of scandal , which includes some Nobel-guesses, from Fiammetta Rocco, Alexandra Pascalidou, Maureen Freely, and Jacques Testard
  
  
• Kawamura Minato at nippon.com on Champions and Candidates: Japan and the Nobel Prize in Literature
  
  
• Lola Galán in El País on El Premio Nobel de Literatura, un año después de la tormenta
  
  
• Bertrand Fitoussi in L'Express, explaining Pourquoi Milan Kundera n’a pas eu le Nobel mais pourquoi il l’aura (peut-être) jeudi prochain

       (Updated): See now also

• Marit Lindqvist gets the 'litteraturproffs' ('literary professionals' (sic !)) opinions at Svenska Yle, throwing out lots of names in Dags för Nobelpris x 2 i litteratur -- åtta litteraturproffs berättar vem de tippar på: Alla tror på Atwood, men vem blir den andra pristagaren ?
  
  
• Slightly peripherally, at Sydsvenskan they note that booksellers are excited about the fact that there will be two winners, translating (possibly) into many more sales, especially after last year's prize-less disappointment ..., as reported in Bokbranschen hoppfull inför dubbla pris
  
  
• The always useful The Modern Novel (and blog) helpfully points me to the Corriere della sera coverage: a fairly ridiculous slideshow of Twitter-suggestions, Chi vincerà i due Nobel ? I candidati dei lettori (beginning inauspiciously with an ... ineligible because dead suggestion (Les Murray)) and the slightly more useful reader poll Vota il tuo Nobel per la Letteratura

       More to come, no doubt.

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       Oswald Wiener Q & A

       In the Falter Klaus Nüchtern has a lengthy (German) Q & A with Oswald Wiener -- best-known for his classic 1969 novel, die verbesserung von mitteleuropa; it was reïssued a few years ago by Jung und Jung; see their publicity page.
       At Traumawien they write about die verbesserung von mitteleuropa:

The result of Wieners infamous examination is an anarchic text-fortress. An anti-novel, a universal book.

       Certainly a landmark text in modern German literature, it doesn't appear to have been translated into any foreign languages. It would certainly be a challenge .....
       See also an English-language Q & A with Wiener at Spike.

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       The Voice review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gabriel Okara's 1964 novel, The Voice -- originally published by André Deutsch but then reïssued in the classic African Writers Series.
       Okara died earlier this year; better known as a poet, The Voice was his only novel. The University of Nebraska Press brought out his Collected Poems in their impressive African Poetry Book-series a few years ago; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Waiting for the Nobel ...

       Not much to add to my previous mention, as there hasn't been much news or discussion of note.
       What's new:

        - The Nobel site has now posted a video in which Anders Olsson, 'chair of the Nobel Committee in the Swedish Academy', explains How is the Nobel Prize in Literature decided ? Olsson notes that there are usually about 200 nominations to consider (although the Academy website says "There are usually about 350 proposals each year" ...); it's unclear why he won't even say exactly how many there were this year. At least there is some clarification about this year's selection-process, as he reveals that there is an eight-author-strong list of finalists -- just one list, for both the 2018 and 2019 prizes -- from which the two laureates will be selected.
       He suggests the Academy won't be as Europe- and male-focused as previously, but they've said that before; it'll be interesting to see how/if that manifests itself ....

        - The official press invitation is out -- and describes what will happen on Thursday:

The announcement, made by Permanent Secretary Mats Malm, will begin the press briefing. The chair of the Nobel Committee, Academy member Anders Olsson, and other members of the Committee will then present the Nobel Laureates and their works, as well as expounding on the Committee's work.

       The announcement will be streamed live -- and I presume this post-announcement stuff will be as well, so we'll be able to follow this from home.

        - The odds at Unibet do not appear to have shifted any (suggesting that basically no one is placing bets), but there are now also odds listed at Betsson -- mostly the same names, with a few more (J.K.Rowling ...), and similar odds.

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       JCB Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's JCB Prize For Literature; for a more convenient overview, see, for example, the report at The Wire.
       Two of the finalists -- three books, in fact, since Perumal Murugan's two works are treated as a single entry -- are works in translation, from Bengali and Tamil.
       The winning title will be announced 2 November.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Our Europe review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Laurent Gaudé's Our Europe: Banquet of Nations -- a verse epic about ... the European Union. Just out in English from Europa Editions, appropriately enough.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Banipal Prize entries

       They've announced the books that are in the running for the 2019 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation -- fifteen novels and one poetry collection.
       Two of the titles are under review at the complete review: Paula Haydar's translation of Jabbour Douaihy's Printed in Beirut and William M. Hutchins' translation of Ibrahim al-Koni's The Fetishists.

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       Milan Kundera (Not Lost) in Translation

       The Museum of Czech Literature is currently showing the exhibit Milan Kundera (neztracen) v překladech -- "Milan Kundera (Not Lost) in Translation'.
       See also the Ian Willoughby and Václav Richter report at Radio Prague International, Prague exhibition highlights Kundera's relationship to translations.

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       Taiwan Literature Awards shortlists

       As Lyla Liu reports in the Taiwan News that Taiwan Literature Awards announces shortlist of nominated works; see also the offical announcement, or the list of titles -- complete with covers !

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       EU Prize For Literature

       They had the ceremony at which the EU Prizes For Literature were awarded -- 14 prizes this year, the winners determined by the national juries of each country.
       Only one of the authors has (another) title reviewed at the complete review -- Beqa Adamashvili, whose Bestseller is forthcoming from Dedalus in English next October.

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       Translator Q & A

       At the Harvard University Press Blog Editorial Director, Sharmila Sen devised a 'Proust questionnaire' for translators and here are the responses from an impressive number of them: Hamid Dabashi, Charles Hallisey, Johanna Hanink, Ranjit Hoskote, Anthony Kaldellis, Aviad Kleinberg, Daisy Rockwell, Carlos Rojas, David Shulman, Maria Tatar, Karel van der Toorn, and Vanamala Vishwanatha.

       To the question: "What is the most overrated virtue of a translation ?" eight (!) of them answer: Fidelity (well, seven; Maria Tatar puts it: "Faithfulness -- I prefer a little infidelity though not so far as betrayal").
       (Am I wrong to be just a little bit concerned by the near-consensus here ? I do also like some of the other responses to that question: Anthony Kaldellis answered: "Winning awards for translation", and Aviad Kleinberg answered: "Professional pride".)

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       Goldsmiths Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Goldsmiths Prize -- honoring: "Fiction at its most novel".
       The only one of these I've seen is Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, which I am slowly making my way through.
       The winner will be announced 13 November.

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       The Untranslated retires

       The Untranslated -- the blog that hoped: "to bring to a wider attention significant literary works not yet translated into English" -- has decided it's Time to Say Good-Bye.
       A shame, because it was certainly a helpful and interesting exercise -- but I look forward to the next literary venture he undertakes.

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       Governor General's Literary Awards finalists

       The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards -- seventy of them, in fourteen categories (seven each English and French).
       The only title under review at the complete review is Rhonda Mullins' translation of Anne-Renée Caillé's The Embalmer.
       The winners will be announced 29 October.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Prix du Meilleur livre étranger longlists

       They've announced the longlists for the prix du Meilleur livre étranger -- a French prize for best translated works; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The sixteen-title longlist in the fiction category is English-dominated (nine titles); the three-title non-fiction longlist, however, does not include any translations from the English.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       New World Literature Today

       The Autumn issue of World Literature Today is now available online, with the usual great range of material -- including, of course, the WLT Book Reviews (lots of titles -- and only one that is already under review at the complete review).

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       Prix Goncourt shortlist

       They've announced the deuxièmes sélection of the prix Goncourt -- though not yet at that official site, last I checked, so see the Livres Hebdo report.
       The leading French literary prize, the Goncourt is now down to nine contenders, with Amélie Nothomb's Soif -- the bestselling book in France this week -- still in the running, along with titles by Nathacha Appanah, Jean-Paul Dubois, Léonora Miano, Hubert Mingarelli, and Olivier Rolin, among others.
       The four finalists will be announced 27 October, and the winning title on 4 November.

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       The Cage review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Alberts Bels' Soviet-era classic, The Cage.

       Peter Owen brought this out in English in 1990, but it's been a while since any Bels has been translated and so it's great to see his Insomnia coming out shortly from Parthian Books; see their publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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