• T.M.Aluko: 50 Years After One Man One Wife by Reuben Abati in The Guardian
• Drumbeat for Aluko .. as writers celebrate his 50 years of writing by Uduma Kalu and Benjamin Njoku in Vanguard
• T.M Aluko: Salute to an irrepressible spirit in the Daily Sun

But the production of the book to be fair is atrocious. The collapse of standards is the bane of the publishing industry in Nigeria. Careless editing and poor production pose a serious threat to the development of Nigerian literature. Heinemann Nigeria, the publishers of T.M. Aluko's Our Born Again President do much disservice to the writer's eminent stature by releasing in his name a book that is full of so many spelling errors. The name of the hero, Tanbata is mis-spelt in at least one instance, same with Riviera, the country. All through, the word cacophony is spelt as cocophony, gimmick as gymic and so on. The cure for this should be an immediate reprint.

• Chief the Honourable Minister
• Conduct Unbecoming
• One Man, One Matchet

"Su has surpassed himself again. His novel announces the end of the 'avant-garde literature' era."

His favorite Chinese writer is the relatively obscure two-book-old Li Yiyun.

• Manituana, just out in English
• 54

Krakauer doesn't blame The Post's book editors. They're stretched and can't be experts in all subjects. But I think they bear some responsibility. A routine database search before offering Exum the assignment would have revealed his advisory role, which might have prompted questions about his neutrality.

But I also think Exum deserves blame. The contract language is explicit. Despite media coverage of his role in Afghanistan, the contract puts the onus on the reviewer to notify The Post if there is an "appearance of a conflict of interest."

Established a year ago at the University of Illinois, the Center for Translation is already working to build a name for itself in the community.

three internationally renowned writers from Brazil will speak and read at the Illini Union Bookstore, as part of a "Brazilian Writers and their Translators" program that will also have the authors and translators reading Tuesday in Chicago.

Does an author of fiction owe a duty to the reader to present history accurately, or does the fact that he claims this is fiction absolve him from that moral responsibility?

Galloway uses events in history that are still untested by evidence and then goes on a fishing trip in order to give his characters a moral position when he does not know who is moral and who is immoral. Galloway can cook his fiction the way he wants, but this is his ethical stand, and I am allowed my moral outrage because of the evidence that I have, and for the fact that he provides us with no evidence to believe his historical backdrop.

"As for demanding, artistic literary work as a whole, there is not much of that left. It is often translations -- we read translations and translate a lot. I have the impression sometimes that we often translate overrated best sellers. I sometimes have the feeling we feed ourselves with the waste of US culture. Unfortunately that is how it is.

Maybe it is not a popular thing to say but whatever is regarded as an interesting title in the US is translated here within a year and backed up with massive marketing. That is the best sellers. The overall choice is enormous but it is also a bit false. Ninety percent of the offer is low level literary rubbish, factual works or second rate historical novels and such like."

Privatisation became a cultural disaster. In the words of Andrew Nurnberg, a seasoned European literary go-between: "Readers became like children let loose in a sweet shop."

In Russia particularly, there was a surge in pornography, novels of sex, drugs and violence and a mass exodus from serious reading. According to some estimates, as many as three million readers simply turned their backs on Russian literature. Simultaneously, without state subsidy and state control, and under the relentless, westernising pressure of the market, the Soviet distribution system for new books collapsed, burying what was left of the culture in commercial anarchy.

In Britain, a philistine, provincial and chauvinistic culture, there was a dramatic falling-off in the sales of European literature in translation. At times, only Christopher MacLehose of Harvill Press seemed to sustain any long-term commitment to serious new writing.

The six-day conference next January envisages 300 foreign translators, publishers and others interested in Vietnamese literature, from 38 countries as well as an exhibition at the National Library in Hanoi showcasing Vietnamese works that have been translated into foreign languages and vice versa.

"I estimate only 50 foreign guests will actually attend, but that would be good enough for a start," said Hoang Thuy Toan, a veteran translator in charge of the exhibition.

It is not that local literature has been languishing in obscurity.

In its heyday, the Soviet Union did a systematic job of introducing Vietnamese writers.

The problem with literary works in Nigeria is low patronage.

• In The Telegraph Brian MacArthur looks at what 'books, for better or worse, have summed up the noughties', in 100 books that defined the noughties
  
  
• In The Times they offer what they think are The 100 Best Books of the Decade