opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 November 2025

1 November: David Bellos (1945-2025) | Cundill History Prize | Niko Pfund Q & A | Little Amélie
2 November: Salman Rushdie profile | The last 100 reviews
3 November: Prêmio Jabuti
4 November: Premio Cervantes | Prix Femina | French-Vietnamese literature
5 November: Prix Goncourt | Baillie Gifford Prize | David Cohen Prize
6 November: Goldsmiths Prize | Prix Médicis | Georgi Gospodinov Q & A | Your Name Here review
7 November: (US) National Translation Awards | Governor General's Literary Awards | Prix du meilleur livre étranger | Amazon does AI translation
8 November: New Swedish Book Review | Chinese Literature
9 November: New immortels | Booker inspirations | William Boyd Q & A
10 November: Salman Rushdie Q & A

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       Salman Rushdie Q & A

       In the excellent new issue of Granta -- Granta 173: India -- they have a Q & A with Salman Rushdie, Reclaiming the Territory.

       Among the titbits: the time Rushdie got sued by Indira Gandhi:

Editor:
How did that shake out ?

Rushdie:
She got assassinated. You can’t libel the dead. In the end, it was a very non-aggressive lawsuit. All she wanted was for us to remove the sentence. Not even to withdraw books already in print. I had said, ‘Well, look, if we really have to do it, it’s not even a very important sentence, so we’ll take it out, but the book needs reprinting.’ But then she got killed. So.

       And writers can take heart learning:

Rushdie:
Guess how many times I’ve been published in the New York Review of Books ?

Editor:
Zero ? Really ?

Rushdie:
Bob Silvers had his ‘Indian’.

In my younger days, there was a moment when we would send something I’d written to the New York Review and it would come back so quickly that it was clear the envelope hadn’t been opened. After that, we just stopped sending.

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

       New immortels

       They've filled two of the vacant fauteuils at the Académie française: The Fascination of Evil-author Florian Zeller was elected to fauteuil 14 -- succeeding Hélène Carrère d’Encausse --, running unopposed and taking 23 of the 25 votes submitted and Éric Neuhoff was elected to fauteuil 11, succeeding Gabriel de Broglie, beating out Julien Kilanga and Arnaud-Aaron Upinsky, who each only received one vote, with twelve votes in the first and only round of voting.
       Thirty-five of the forty fauteuils are now filled -- with a pretty disappointing ratio of only four women to thirty-one men .....

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

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       Booker inspirations

       At The Guardian the authors shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize -- whose winner is to be announced tomorrow -- explain: ‘I had a year to write it from scratch’: the 2025 Booker finalists on the stories behind their novels.

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

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       William Boyd Q & A

       At npr Scott Simon has Writer William Boyd talks about his latest book, 'The Predicament'.
       The novel is the second to feature Boyd's Gabriel Dax; the first was Gabriel's Moon.

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

       New Swedish Book Review

       The 2025:2 issue of the Swedish Book Review is now online -- lots of material, including excerpts and reviews.
       Among the excerpts: a bit from Hjalmar Söderberg's Astray.

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

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       Chinese Literature

       Via I'm pointed to the useful resource of Tables of Contents of Chinese Literature -- as well as the pdfs of many of the issues, at the very impressive Bannedthought.net.

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

       (US) National Translation Awards

       The American Literary Translators Association has announced the winners of its National Translation Awards, including the Prose winner, Barbara Romaine's translation of Omar Khalifah's Sand-Catcher, and the First Translation Prize, Lin King's translation of Yáng Shuāng-zǐ's Taiwan Travelogue,

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

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       Governor General's Literary Awards

       The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the winners of this year's Governor General's Literary Awards, awarded in seven categories each in English and French.
       Kyle Edwards' Small Ceremonies won the English fiction prize, while Katia Belkhodja's Les déterrées won the French fiction prize.

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

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       Prix du meilleur livre étranger

       They've announced the winners of this year's prix du meilleur livre étranger, a French translated-book award, in the categories of fiction and non, as well a the 'special' prize; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       The French translation of Clear, by Carys Davies, took the fiction prize.

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

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       Amazon does AI translation

       I guess the only surprise is that it took so long: Amazon has announced that: Amazon introduces Kindle Translate, an AI-powered translation service for authors to reach global readers,
       Sigh, sigh, sigh.

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

       Goldsmiths Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Goldsmiths Prize, rewarding: " fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form", and it is We Live Here Now by C.D. Rose; see also the Melville House publicity page.

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

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       Prix Médicis

       More French prize-announcements, including now the prix Médicis - awarded to Kolkhoze by Emmanuel Carrère; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       And, again: the French literary prize juries have big names -- this one included Marie Darrieussecq, Anne Garréta, Patrick Grainville, and Andreï Makine.

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

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       Georgi Gospodinov Q & A

       At the Literary Hub translator Angela Rodel has a Q & A with the Death and the Gardener-author, in Georgi Gospodinov on the Loss of His Father and Writing About Death.

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

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       Your Name Here review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff's long-anticipated Your Name Here, finally available in print, from Dalkey Archive Press.

       More high profile author-profile/story-behind-the-novel reports so far -- A Work of Genius or a Complete Mess ? Even Its Author Can't Decide (presumably paywalled) by Alexandra Alter in The New York Times; ‘Your Name Here’ has tortured its co-authors for 20 years (presumably paywalled) by Sophia Nguyen in The Washington Post -- yawn/sigh --, but at least it's getting attention. (It did also make Publishers Weekly's Top 10 list of the best books of the year.)

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

       Prix Goncourt

       They've announced the winner of this year's prix Goncourt, the biggest French book prize, and it is La maison vide, by Laurent Mauvignier, which got six votes in the first and only round of voting, beating out Le Bel Obscur by Caroline Lamarche, which got four votes; La nuit au cœur by Nathacha Appanah -- announced as the prix Femina winner on Monday -- and Kolkhoze by Emmanuel Carrère, the two other finalists, didn't get any votes.
       See also the Les Éditions de Minuit publicity page for La maison vide.
       Mauvignier's The Birthday Party got decent attention when it was published in the US and UK, and we can probably expect to see this one -- despite its length -- in English fairly soon.

       They also announced the winner of the number two prize, the prix Renaudot -- Je voulais vivre, by Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre; see also the Livres Hebdo report and the Grasset publicity page for the book.
       (As I've noted before, these French prizes have some pretty impressive juries: among those judging the Renaudot this year were Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, Patrick Besson, and Frédéric Beigbeder.)

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

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       Baillie Gifford Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and it is How to End a Story, by Helen Garner; see also the publicity pages from Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Pantheon, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       David Cohen Prize

       New Writing North has announced the winner of this year's David Cohen Prize for Literature, a UK/Ireland author prize, and it is Alan Hollinghurst.

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

       Premio Cervantes

       They've announced the winner of the 2025 Premio Cervantes, the leading Spanish-language author prize, and it is Mexican author Gonzalo Celorio.
       Not much of his work has been translated into English, but the University of Texas Press did publish his novel And Let the Earth Tremble at Its Centers; see their publicity page. See also the Tusquets author page for Spanish information about many of his other works.

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

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       Prix Femina

       The week of big French book prize announcements has begun, with the prix Femina first up: La nuit au cœur by Nathacha Appanah takes the prize; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.
       See also the Gallimard publicity page for La nuit au cœur.

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

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       French-Vietnamese literature

       At Việt Nam News Lương Thu Hương reports on a new book, Nguyễn Giáng Hương's Văn Học Việt Nam Pháp Ngữ 1913-1986, about Vietnamese Literature in French from 1913 to 1986, in The overlooked legacy of French literature
       Sounds interesting; see also the Hồ Chí Minh General Publishing House publicity page for the book.

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

       Prêmio Jabuti

       They've announced the winners of this year's Prêmio Jabuti, the leading Brazilian literary awards.
       This has tons of categories, from best books in various genres to best cover (won by this).
       A fat volume (640 pp) of Byron won the translation category -- see the Editora Perspectiva publicity page -- and O ouvidor do Brasil: 99 vezes Tom Jobim, a volume of crônicas by Ruy Castro, won book of the year: see also the Companhia das Letras publicity page.

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

       Salman Rushdie profile

       In the Sunday Times Johanna Thomas-Corr has a profile of Salman Rushdie: ‘I had no pulse. That’s how close it was’ (possibly paywalled ?).
       Among Rushdie's comments:

He feels fiction has lost some of this openness and scope. “People on writing courses are endlessly told to write what you know. And I say to them, only write what you know if what you know is interesting. Quite often it isn’t. A lot of these people come from bourgeois, middle-class families and their experiences are quite similar. I say go out and find something interesting.” He wishes more fiction writers would have the ambition of Charles Dickens, to range across society.

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

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       The last 100 reviews

       Another 100 reviews down, so it's time for the next overview of the most recent batch of 100 reviews -- 5301 through 5400.

       - The last 100 reviews were posted over 307 days, about the same rate as the previous 100 (302); as I've mentioned, things will continue to be a bit slower going for a bit, but should pick up again by the spring.
       The average reviewed book was 266.47 pages long, slightly more than the previous 100 (256.5).
       One title clocked in 1046 pages, and a total of eight were over 500 pages, one more than in the previous 100. Only three books were shorter than 100 pages (eight in the previous hundred), with the shortest having 62 pages.

       - The last 100 reviews were 125,962 words long, up considerably from the mere 100,471 of the previous 100. While 1260 seems a good average review length, the figures are a bit skewed because there were more very long reviews than usual: the longest review was 3859 words, and four more were also over 3000 words long (compared to only one in the previous 100). The shortest came in at 390 words.

       - Reviewed books were originally written in 29 different languages (including English), with English again the most popular language, with 26 titles. French was again the next most-popular, with 15, followed again by Japanese (14).
       Three new languages were added -- Akkadian, Pali, and Swahili --; the total number of languages represented is now 88. (See also the updated full breakdown of all the languages books under review were originally written in.)
       (I think 100 languages might be within reach; it'll probably take another thousand reviews or so, but I think I can reach it.)

       - Male-written books continued to be in the (super-)majority, but 31 books were written by women -- the biggest proportion ever. (Actually, 29 were written by women; four were co-written by male and female authors, and I split the difference.) The historic sexist average of written-by-women titles under review has now crept up to ... 17.71.

       - No book rated an 'A', much less an 'A+', but there were four graded 'A-' (way down from the nine rated 'A-' or higher in the previous hundred). Forty-five books were rated 'B+', and thirty-eight 'B'; none were rated lower than 'B-'.

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

       David Bellos (1945-2025)

       Academic and translator David Bellos has passed away; there have been Bluesky mentions (e.g. and here) but the first media mention I've seen is only out now -- Denis Cosnard on how David Bellos, traducteur et grand spécialiste de Georges Perec, est mort (presumably paywalled) at Le Monde.

       I was honored when he volunteered to write a piece for the (now dormant) crQuarterly on The Englishing of Ismail Kadare: Notes of a retranslator (as Bellos translated many of Kadare's works -- but from the French translations); Google Scholar has it cited in 21 publications.
       Quite a few of his translations are under review at the complete review, as are two of his books: his superb biography of Georges Perec and the fun Is That a Fish in Your Ear ?

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

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       Cundill History Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Cundill History Prize, and it is Summer of Fire and Blood, by Lyndal Roper; see also the publicity pages from John Murray Press and Basic Books.

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

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       Niko Pfund Q & A

       Yale News has Pressing matters: A Q&A with new Yale University Press director Niko Pfund

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

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       Little Amélie

       An animated film based on Amélie Nothomb's The Character of Rain, Little Amélie, opened in the US yesterday; see, for example, the IMDb page or some of the (very positive) reviews:

• AV Club
• The Hollywood Reporter
• The New York Times (presumably paywalled)
• RogerEbert.com
• Slant
• Variety

       Jordan Mintzer suggests: "the film feels at times like Terrence Malick meets Hayao Miyazaki for tykes" in The Hollywood Reporter.

       Disappointingly, the film is apparently not 'big' enough to warrant a re-issue of the novel, which appears to be out of print in English; a shame: Nothomb's early-childhood novels are very good (with Loving Sabotage still my favorite).

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

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