opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 30 September 2025

21 September: Kiran Desai profile | 'Calvino and the machines'
22 September: Ian Monk (1960-2025) | South Korean 'healing essays' | Pak Kyongni Prize
23 September: Q & As: Alain Mabanckou - Aziz Muhamed | Saudi literature | On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) review
24 September: Booker Prize shortlist | Prix des Deux Magots finalists | Kamel Daoud profile
25 September: Business Book of the Year shortlist | BRICS Literature Award longlist | Harold Bloom's book collection
26 September: Book sales in ... Ireland | Publishing in ... the UK | Invisible Helix review
27 September: Contemporary publishing | Vargas Llosa's habit vert | Prix du meilleur livre étranger longlists
28 September: Tony Harrison (1937-2025) | Lee Child Q & A
29 September: Berenberg Verlag closes shop | Stella Maris review
30 September: Prime Minister's Literary Awards | John Searle (1932-2025)

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       Prime Minister's Literary Awards

       Writing Australia has announced the winners of this year's Prime Minister's Literary Awards -- "the richest literary prize in the nation" -- in its six categories.
       Michelle de Kretser's Theory & Practice took the fiction prize.

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

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       John Searle (1932-2025)

       Philosopher John Searle -- best-known for the Chinese Room Argument (see) -- has passed away; see, for example, the report at Daily Nous.
       See also, for example, Q & As at Philosophy Now (2000) and the Library of Congress (2015).

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

       Berenberg Verlag closes shop

       German publisher Berenberg Verlag has a book on the shortlist for this year's German Book Prize -- Christine Wunnicke's Wachs -- but, after twenty-two years in operation, they've decided to call it quits (as of 31 March next year, they expect); see the official press release.
       They have a solid, impressive list of titles; definitely a loss.

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

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       Stella Maris review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Cormac McCarthy's last published novel, Stella Maris.

       I've never really gotten into McCarthy, but as longtime readers know, I'm a sucker for novels (and most anything else) in dialogue (indeed, my Arno Schmidt-book is a dialogue (well, colloquy ...), and while my Salome in Graz has a few more frills, it mostly boils down to a two-hander). That, and it being philosophical-talk heavy led me to give Stella Maris a try when I finally came across a (library) copy; still, I couldn't bring myself to pick up the companion volume, The Passenger, as well -- though surely they should really be read and reviewed together, or at least side by side. And while I thoroughly enjoyed Stella Maris, I'm still not that tempted to pick that -- or other McCarthy works -- up. I should have a look at some point, but not soon, I fear.

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

       Tony Harrison (1937-2025)

       British poet Tony Harrison has passed away; see, for example, Alison Flood's obituary in The Guardian.

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

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       Lee Child Q & A

       At The Observer Stephen Armstrong has a Q & A with the Killing Floor (etc.)-author, in Lee Child: ‘Jack Reacher really is me age nine’.
       Among his responses:

The reader returns to Reacher because they want comfort and familiarity, so I go against the undergraduate theory that the hero must go on a journey. But, of course, I change year on year. The book shows what’s on my mind.

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

       Contemporary publishing

       Tajja Isen's article finding that: 'Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it' is now up at The Walrus -- The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem.
       She notes that:

Sales track -- or simply track, in industry parlance -- is an invisible force shaping contemporary literature. Much depends on that number.

       Yes:

(O)ne moment in particular, around 2001, marked a shift, when Nielsen BookScan (now Circana BookScan) first came on the market and began tracking sales. The current, pervasive sense of conservatism, [writer and researcher Laura] McGrath says, has been exacerbated by the increased reliance on data to justify decisions. If you can put a number on the risk, maybe you think twice before taking it.

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       Vargas Llosa's habit vert

       In 2021 Mario Vargas Llosa was elected to be an immortel, a member of the Académie française -- meaning he also got the traditional hideous costume that goes with it, l'habit vert (plus épée), and the Cátedra Vargas Llosa has now unloaded it, donating it to the Nobel Prize Museum; see the official press release.
       (It's unclear whether the museum also got the épée.)

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

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       Prix du meilleur livre étranger longlists

       The French prix du meilleur livre étranger -- for best works in translation -- has announced its longlists; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The fiction category is disappointingly dominated by translations from English; the non-fiction category disappointingly only has four titles.

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

       Book sales in ... Ireland

       At The Bookseller Alex Call looks at Ireland's bestselling books of 2025 so far: Mel and Sawyer Robbins top the charts, with a non-fiction title, The Let Them Theory beating out Suzanne Collins' Sunrise on the Reaping as the bestselling title for the first half of the year.
       Interesting that the average selling price of the top 1,000 titles in the Irish Consumer Market, at €12.45, "even when converted to sterling, is significantly higher than the UK Top 1,000’s ASP of £7.08".
       Volume is down (slightly), but value -- presumably thanks to those high prices ... -- is up 1.9%.

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

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       Publishing in ... the UK

       At the Galley Beggar - Pressing issues Substack Sam Jordison explains What does it cost to produce a book ? in the UK.
       Among his observations: "Profit margins haven’t just halved -- they've plummeted", which is ... problematic.

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

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       Invisible Helix review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Detective Galileo Novel by Higashino Keigo, Invisible Helix.

       This is the fifth in the series to appear in English -- though apparently the tenth in the original series .....

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

       Business Book of the Year shortlist

       They've announced the six-title shortlist for this year's Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year.
       Coldly: "The judges welcomed the inclusion of fiction but did not select Drayton and Mackenzie, by Alexander Starritt, for the shortlist".
       The winner will be announced 3 December.

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

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       BRICS Literature Award longlist

       They've announced the inaugural longlist for the new BRICS Literature Award, supporting: "authors whose works reflect the traditions and cultural diversity of the participating countries".
       Twenty-seven authors have been nominated -- only one from Ethiopia, and two from China, but three from the other BRICS countries. A few of the authors are quite well-known, and have had works translated into English -- including Patricia Melo (e.g. In Praise of Lies), Andrey Gelasimov (The Lying Year), A Yi (A Perfect Crime), Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, and Salwa Bakr.

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

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       Harold Bloom's book collection

       In the Yale News Gillian Feng reports that Pauli Murray College receives Harold Bloom book collection -- with far too few details.
       Apparently, the collection is of some 10,000 books -- though for now: "most of the books are stored in a room on the fifth floor of Bass Tower that students not assigned to work with this collection are not allowed to enter", which seems pretty rude.

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

       Booker Prize shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Booker Prize, the best-known English-language novel prize, and the six titles are:

• Audition by Katie Kitamura
• Flashlight by Susan Choi
• Flesh by David Szalay
• The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
• The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

       I haven't seen any of these. (I had requested one of these titles, but I haven't been having any luck getting any of the bigger fall-releases .....)
       The winner will be announced 10 November.

       (Updated - 25 September): See now also David Sanderson reporting that Booker prize chairman laments poor quality of entries (possibly paywalled ?) in The Times, as:

Roddy Doyle, the first former Booker prizewinner to subsequently chair the jury, said he and the other four jurors had discarded all but 31 books from the original 153 to discuss before deciding which should be on their longlist.

       Unfortunately, neither the 153 submitted titles nor the 31 that were readable are revealed .....

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

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       Prix des Deux Magots finalists

       The prix des Deux Magots has been around for ages -- since 1933, when Raymond Queneau won the first one -- as a sort of counter-Goncourt (which they judged to be 'too academic'), and they've now announced their four finalists for this year's prize; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The winner will be announced 6 October.

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

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       Kamel Daoud profile

       With Kamel Daoud's Houris coming out in German, Aya Bach has a profile of the author at Deutsche Welle, in Kamel Daoud: Algerian author breaks his silence.

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

       Alain Mabanckou Q & A

       At PEN America their latest 'PEN Ten Interview' is with Alain Mabanckou, in A Novel Takes on the Threat of Political Violence, focused on his latest novel, Dealing with the Dead.
       Among his comments:

I am deeply satisfied with the work I do with my translator, Helen Stevenson. Even though she is European, from the UK—even though she is white and I am Black -- what matters is the strength of literature. She has always understood me and has always accompanied me in transmitting thought from one language to another. Our collaboration proves that translation is not a matter of color. Whether you are Black, white, yellow, or red, what matters is the color of literature, and that color may be able to speak to everyone.

       And:

I don’t believe I have any restraints or taboos in what I write. I write what comes to me, regardless of how governments may receive it, regardless of how people may judge my prose. In Africa, writers are always considered dangerous people. That, too, is part of the joy of being a writer: risking one’s life for art, and perhaps saving the lives of others in the process.

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

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       Aziz Muhamed Q & A

       In the Tirana Times Jerina Zaloshnja has a Q & A with A modern writer of Saudi Arabian literature -- Aziz Muhamed, author of The Critical Case of a Man Called K.
       Among his responses:

I don’t think we can fit traditional Arabic literature into a single mold, especially since even my own novel is not entirely detached from its preceding heritage. Again, I should stress that we need to distinguish between the narrator’s perspective and the work itself. The alienation felt by the narrator suggests a break from all tradition, but perhaps we shouldn’t always believe his word. There are many new voices in the Saudi literary scene with fascinating relationships to traditional literature. The novels and stories of Ahmed Al-Huqail, for instance, are deeply rooted in traditional arabic literature, some might even trace back their style of Al-Jahiz and the Arabic prose writers of the 4th century AH. At the same time, I am not sure his writing would be the same without the influence of W. G. Sebald.

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

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       Saudi literature

       In The National Saeed Saeed and Razmig Bedirian suggest eight works that can be considered The novels that reflect a century of change in Saudi Arabia.

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

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       On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the latest in the planned seven-volume series, Solvej Balle's Nordic Council Literature Prize-winning On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) -- coming out, appropriately enough on 18 November in the US, from New Directions (and, sigh, on 20 November in the UK, as Faber is apparently sticking to the local industry Thursday-and-no-other-day-is-publication-day standard).

       This has been longlisted for this year's (American) National Book Award for Translated Literature -- as was volume I last year (e.g.) -- but interestingly, they've changed translators: after Barbara J. Haveland did the first two Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell have taken over (they're also slated to do -- or presumably have already finished -- volume four). I wonder what happened there .....

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

       Ian Monk (1960-2025)

       As fellow Oulipo-author Hervé Le Tellier writes (paywalled) in Le Monde, Ian Monk has passed away.

       Two of his works are under review at the complete review -- Family Archaeology and Writings for the Oulipo -- as are several of his translations (works by Georges Perec and Daniel Pennac), but what I'd really love to see is his unpublished translation of Perec's infamously e-less La disparition (published in English in another translation, by Gilbert Adair, as A Void (see the publicity pages from Vintage Classics and Godine))

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

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       South Korean 'healing essays'

       In The Korea Herald Moon Joon-hyun explains Why Koreans keep buying books they admit are shallow -- explaining the success of so-called 'healing essay'-books, the kind of books which, as a: "a senior editor at a major local publishing house, speaking on condition of anonymity" sums up:

You don’t need characters, research or story. What matters is whether a sentence looks good underlined with a highlighter. Marketing teams literally ask, ‘Can this be photographed for Instagram?’ That is the bar now.

       As long as it sells ....:

“It is the easiest genre to scale,” the anonymous editor added. “One influencer with 200,000 Instagram followers can be turned into an author in months. The book itself doesn’t need depth. Their audience supplies the market.”

       Of course, this sort of thing is hardly unique to South Korea:

“They’re like fast food for the mind,” said Yoon, a 26-year-old graduate student in European literature at Kyung Hee University. “Easy to swallow, instantly gratifying, marketed as nourishing even when they’re mostly empty calories. I don’t blame people for reaching for them, but I wonder what it means if this becomes our main diet.”

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

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       Pak Kyongni Prize

       They've announced that The Glass Palace-author Amitav Ghosh will receive this year's Pak Kyongni Literary Prize, the leading South Korean international author prize, which they've been awarding since 2011 and which pays out 100,000,000 won (roughly US$70,000); see also Seo Miteum's report at The Asian Business Daily.
       Ghosh beat out two other finalists -- Salwa Bakr and John Banville -- and gets to pick up the prize on 23 October.

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

       Kiran Desai profile

       In The Guardian Sophie McBain profiles the The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny-author Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’.

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

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       'Calvino and the machines'

       At Engelsberg Ideas Alexander Lee suggests that 'Italo Calvino's 'literature machine' is a prescient vision of the perils and promise of artificial intelligence', in Calvino and the machines.
       Interesting the observation:

Given enough time, any ‘electronic brain’ will combine and recombine words until it too happens upon something that stirs something unexpected in the reader, something which evokes feelings of discomfort and dread. But the key figure here is the reader -- not the machine.

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

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