opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 August 2025

11 August: No more AP book reviews | 25 best (UK/Irish) novels of the 21st century ? | Twenty-three years of the Literary Saloon
12 August: The 1984 manuscript | The Final Girl Support Group review
13 August: Shortlists: Prime Minister's Literary Awards - Royal Society Science Prize | Marc Estrin (1939-2025)
14 August: Sonallah Ibrahim (1937-2025) | Robert Ludlum estate
15 August: First Novelist Award | Paul-Celan-Preis
16 August: NIF Book Prize longlist | Krasznahorkai exhibit | The Emotions review
17 August: Alphabetical Madame Bovary | Goodreads enthusiasm
18 August: Manga history | We Computers review
19 August: Business Book of the Year Award longlist | Qudan Rie profile | Publishing Chinese fiction in the US
20 August: Deutscher Buchpreis longlist | We Computers Q & A

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       Deutscher Buchpreis longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's German Book Prize, the leading German novel prize -- twenty titles, selected from 229 (unfortunately not revealed) titles.
       Some familiar names here, with quite a few authors that have had previous work translated into English -- but none that have really made a bigger mark in the US/UK yet.
       The shortlist will be announced 16 September.

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

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       We Computers Q & A

       At the Yale University Press site they have We Computers: A Conversation with Hamid Ismailov and Shelley Fairweather-Vega, a Q & A with the author and translator of We Computers, which came out in English yesterday.
       Among Ismailov's responses:

Sometimes, I revisit early examples of my prose and am amazed at how complex -- how ‘Faulknerian’ -- they were. Lately, in search of balance, I’ve begun mixing up my earlier texts with my current ones in the same piece.

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

       Business Book of the Year Award longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award -- sixteen titles, selected from: "more than 500 entries" (which are unfortunately not revealed).
       For the first time since 2010 and for only the third time in the history of the prize a work of fiction has been longlisted -- Drayton and Mackenzie, by Alexander Starritt ; see also the Swift Press publicity page.
       The shortlist will be announced 24 September.

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

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       Qudan Rie profile

       At The Guardian John Self profiles the Akutagawa Prize-winning Sympathy Tower Tokyo author, in Author Rie Qudan: Why I used ChatGPT to write my prize-winning novel.

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

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       Publishing Chinese fiction in the US

       At npr Andrew Limbong reports on how Chinese literature is tough to find in English. One editor hopes to change that, reporting how Women, Seated by Zhang Yueran -- see the Riverhead Books publicity page -- "is the first in a new effort from Riverhead Books, led by editor Han Zhang, to publish more translated Chinese language literature".

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

       Manga history

       At nippon.com Nakano Haruyuki considers Why Do Adults Read Comics in Japan ? How Pioneering Weekly Magazines Transformed the Image of Manga.

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

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       We Computers review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Ghazal Novel by Hamid Ismailov, We Computers, out tomorrow from Yale University Press in their The Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

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

       Alphabetical Madame Bovary

       Ambroise Perrin's Madame Bovary dans l'Ordre came out back in 2013 -- see the Éditions Bourg Blanc publicity page -- but at ActuaLitté Louella Boulland writes about it again, in Et si Madame Bovary se lisait ... selon l'ordre alphabétique ? a reminder of this interesting exercise (as Perrin's book simply takes all the words of Flaubert's novel and lists them alphabetically).
       Julian Barnes actually mentioned the book in a London Review of Books piece in 2021, Flaubert at Two Hundred -- summing up that: "It is all vaguely witty, yet mind-numbingly useless".
       As Barnes describes:

Perrin is a member of Oulipo, and his project is very Oulipian: it lists, in alphabetical order, every single word, number and punctuation mark that occurs in the 1873 Charpentier edition of the novel. And by ‘list’, I mean list: the book has six vertical columns to a page, and prints out the word each time it occurs. So the word et, which features 2812 times in the novel, is printed out 2812 times, occupying almost nine full pages. La occurs 3585 times, le 2366 and les 2276, elle 2129 and lui a meagre 806 -- from which you might perhaps deduce the sexual slant of the novel. Or not.

       Among the titbits from Boulland's article: Perrin has a collection of more than 500 editions of Madame Bovary.

       Madame Bovary dans l'Ordre sounds ... fun -- but I think I'll stick to Flaubert's version (under review here).

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

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       Goodreads enthusiasm

       At Slate Angelina Mazza makes the case that Actually, Goodreads Is Good.
       I'm not sure that her arguments -- e.g.: "that very jankyness makes the Goodreads experience feel more deliberate, and in turn, more meaningful" -- will win anyone over, but hey .....

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

       NIF Book Prize longlist

       The New India Foundation has announced the longlist for this year's NIF Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize, awarded: "for the best non-fiction book on modern/contemporary India".

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

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       Krasznahorkai exhibit

       There's an exhibit about the Satantango-author, Minduntalan. Krasznahorkai László prózavilága running through 26 October, and at Patterns of Translation Andras Kisery and Péter Király offer their impressions, in A whale on the Danube: the Krasznahorkai show in Szentendre.

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

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       The Emotions review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jean-Philippe Toussaint's The Emotions, forthcoming in English in December, from Other Press.

       This is the thirteenth Toussaint title under review here.

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

       First Novelist Award

       Virginia Commonwealth University has announced the winner of this year's VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and it is It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over, by Anne de Marcken; see also the New Directions publicity page.

       This is the twenty-fourth year they awarded this American first-novel prize, and I'm embarrassed to note that not only have I not read any of the winning titles, I've never read anything by any of the award winners. I like to think that I read fairly widely, but still ... so many gaps.

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

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       Paul-Celan-Preis

       The Deutsche Literaturfonds has announced the winner of this year's Paul Celan Prize, a €25,000 prize for a translator into German, and it is translator-from-Norwegian Bernhard Strobel, translator of works by Bjarte Breiteig, Jan Kjærstad, Arve Moen, and Tor Ulven.

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

       Sonallah Ibrahim (1937-2025)

       Egyptian author Sonallah Ibrahim has passed away; see, for example, the report at Daily New Egypt.

       Only two of his novels are under review at the complete review: Zaat and The Committee.

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

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       Robert Ludlum estate

       As, for example, Katcy Stephens reports at Variety, NBCUniversal Acquires Robert Ludlum’s ‘Bourne’ and ‘Treadstone’ Book Series in Massive Deal.
       Yes, despite Ludlum himself only writing three Bourne-novels (and no Treadstone novels), they've been churning out new volumes in the series since his death in 2001 -- and the estate is now cashing in in what is apparently a nine-figure deal. Impressive.

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

       Shortlists: Prime Minister's Literary Awards

       Creative Australia has announced the shortlists for this year's Prime Minister's Literary Awards -- "the richest literary prize" in Australia.
       There are six categories, with the shortlists selected from 645 (unfortunately not revealed) entries. Among the fiction finalists are books by Tim Winton and Michelle de Kretser.
       The winners will be announced 29 September.

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

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       Shortlist: Royal Society Science Prize

       The Royal Society has announced the shortlist for this year's Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize -- six titles selected from 254 (unfortunately not revealed) submissions.
       I haven't seen any of these.
       The winner will be announced 1 October.

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

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       Marc Estrin (1939-2025)

       American author Marc Estrin has passed away; see, for example, Mary Ann Lickteig's report at Seven Days.
       The only one of his works under review at the complete review is Insect Dreams.

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

       The 1984 manuscript

       I didn't know the manuscript -- at least what's left of it, some 44 per cent of it -- is in the John Hay Library at Brown, but as they now remind us, Original manuscript of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is a highlight of Brown’s literary archives.

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

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       The Final Girl Support Group review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Grady Hendrix's 2021 thriller, The Final Girl Support Group.

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

       No more AP book reviews

       As, for example, Dan Kennedy reports at his Media Nation, The Associated Press tells its book critics that it's ending weekly reviews.
       The AP note to their book reviewers is printed here -- finding:

Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, coordinate, write and edit reviews. AP will continue covering books as stories, but at the moment those will handled exclusively by staffers.

       AP reviews were widely re-published -- but, yes, I can certainly attest to the fact that: "the audience for book reviews is relatively low".
       But, hey: "AP will continue covering books as stories" .....

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

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       25 best (UK/Irish) novels of the 21st century ?

       The Sunday Times has made up a list of The 25 best novels of the 21st century -- from Kazuo Ishiguro to Hilary Mantel (possibly paywalled ?) -- limiting themselves to British and Irish fiction.
       Only the top five are ranked -- with two of them under review at the complete review: fifth-ranked Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and fourth-ranked Atonement by Ian McEwan. Two other titles are also under review: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman and Any Human Heart by William Boyd.

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

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       Twenty-three years of the Literary Saloon

       The site itself, the complete review, came online way back in the spring of 1999, twenty-six years ago, but it took a few years before I jumped on the 'literary blogging'-bandwagon (well, it took a few years before there was a 'literary blogging'-bandwagon/scene ...) with this Literary Saloon weblog -- but, yes, the first post was posted here twenty-three years ago today.
       Not sure I can say it's still going strong, but there still seems to be a small, dedicated readership out there; I hope you continue to find it of some interest and use.

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

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