opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 November 2025

11 November: Booker Prize | Österreichischer Buchpreis | Eye of the Monkey review
12 November: Warwick Prize shortlist | Taiwanese literature abroad | Edward Lipsett Q & A
13 November: Time's 2025 'must-reads' | Grand prix de littérature américain | Businessmen as Lovers review
14 November: Boekenbon Literatuurprijs | New Nádas Péter book | Marina Lewycka (1946-2025)
15 November: Michèle Audin (1954-2025) | David Bellos | Montevideo review
16 November: Emmanuel Carrère Q & A
17 November: Schweizer Buchpreis
18 November: Jeyamohan Q & A | NIF Book Prize | Прэмія імя Ежы Гедройця | Paul Griffiths reviews
19 November: Giller Prize | Solvej Balle Q & A
20 November: (US) National Book Awards | Dublin Literary Award nominations | HWA Crown Awards

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       (US) National Book Awards

       The National Book Foundation has announced the winners of its National Book Awards.
       Robin Myers tranlsation of Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's We Are Green and Trembling won the Translated Literature category, while The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine won the Fiction prize.

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

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       Dublin Literary Award nominations

       They've announced the 69 titles nominated (by 80 libraries from 36 countries) for this year's Dublin Literary Award; see the full list here (warning ! dreaded pdf format !). They falsely claim that this is: "the most valuable prize in the world for a single work of fiction" -- not even close, folks; the Premio Planeta de Novela is just one of the Spanish pirzes paying out a whole lot more (ten times as much, in fact), for example -- but, at €100,000 to the winner (and a €75,000/€25,000 split between author and translator if the winning work is a translation) it certainly pays out a nice amount.
       Admirably, the prize does consider works in translation, and 30 of the nominated titles are translations, from 17 languages.
       Only six of the nominated titles are under review at the complete review -- all of them translations:

• The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Murakami Haruki
• The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
• Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet
• Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Kawakami Hiromi
• Vanishing World by Murata Sayaka

       (I haven't seen any of the other nominated titles.)

       The judges now take over, and will name "a longlist of up to 20 titles" on 17 February, with a shortlist (of six titles) to follow on 7 April; the winner will be announced 21 May.

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

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       HWA Crown Awards

       The Historical Writers' Association has announced the winners of this year's HWA Crown Awards, "celebrating the best in recent historical writing, fiction and non-fiction", with Gold Crown Award going to The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry.

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

       Giller Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Giller Prize -- "Canada's leading and most influential literary prize for fiction" -- and it is Pick a Colour, by Souvankham Thammavongsa; see also the publicity pages from Knopf Canada, Little, Brown and Company, and Bloomsbury.

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

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       Solvej Balle Q & A

       With the third volume of her On the Calculation of Volume-septology out in English -- appropriately enough -- yesterday, Sophie Monaghan-Coombs has a Q & A with the author at Monocle, How Solvej Balle turned 18 November into one of literature's most arresting time loops.
       Fun to hear:

Originally, the date was 17 October. I thought that for a very long time, even after I began writing the story 25 years ago. Yesterday, I was sitting near the sea and looking up at a cloudless October sky. I have had this feeling many times: October is too crisp, too sharp and too clear. I needed something more blurred. There was too much machinery in October and when I landed on 18 November, I realised that it worked much better. November gives more than it promises.

       See also my reviews of volumes one and two.

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

       Jeyamohan Q & A

       At The Indian Express Aishwarya Khosla has a Q & A with the author, in ‘Indian English writing is very inferior…’: Author Jeyamohan on language, Salman Rushdie.
       Among Jeyamohan's comments:

I won’t call Indian English writing as mainstream writing. It is a very, very inferior kind of writing we have in English. Because they are very stylised and they belong to the urban upper class, it has a lot of limitations. Personally, I don’t have any respect for Indian English writing.

I wrote a very severe article against the recent book of Salman Rushdie, Victory City. It has a stylised English. Apart from that style, it is a very shallow, very pretentious, very alien text.

I started writing in English 40 years ago. Then I suddenly stopped because I came to know that my linear language was actually changing. I was losing the rhythm of my natural language. So I stopped writing in English and started talking only in Tamil. After 40 years, I have begun to talk in English again, which is why I am not very comfortable with my words.

       Khosla mentions Jeyamohan's Vennmurasu -- "a modern retelling of the Mahabharata, over 22,000 pages, 26 volumes, taking seven years to write"; see the official site -- while Jeyamohan admits:

But the most tormenting is a novel I started around 2008. I wrote 2,500 pages over three years and then stopped. I have never been able to start it again. The manuscript is still with me. I look at it every day with pain, but I cannot continue.

       Jeyamohan's fat collection of Stories of the True was recently published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux -- see their publicity page -- and the novel The Abyss is coming out from Transit next spring; see their publicity page.

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

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       NIF Book Prize

       The New India Foundation has announced the winner of this year's Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, a leading Indian non-fiction prize, and it is Engineering a Nation, by Aparajith Ramnath; see also the India Viking publicity page.

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

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       Прэмія імя Ежы Гедройця

       They've announced the winners of this year's Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award, "the most important independent award for the best Belarusian-language prose", with first prize going to Занзібар: сталеньне маладой душы by Siarhei Dubavets; see also the BelSat report by Raman Shavel, Giedroyc Belarusian Literary Award presented in Gdańsk (as: "Due to political repression, it is presented in Poland").

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       Paul Griffiths reviews

       The most recent additions to the complete review are Paul Griffiths' quasi-Oulipian takes on Shakespeare's Ophelia:

• let me tell you
• let me go on

       These are published together in one volume in the US (by New York Review Books), and in separate volumes in the UK (by Henningham Family Press).

       Dipping back into Shakespeare for review-purposes, I was also reminded and struck by just how incredible his work is -- truly on another level; I really should revisit it much more often.

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

       Schweizer Buchpreis

       They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winner of this year's (German-language) Swiss Book Prize -- and it is Die Holländerinnen, by Dorothee Elmiger; see also the swissinfo report.
       With this, Die Holländerinnen manages the rare trifecta, having already won the German Book Prize and the Bavarian Book Prize.
       I imagine we'll see this in English fairly soon; see also the RCW Literary Agency information page.

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

       Emmanuel Carrère Q & A

       At The Observer Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with the author, mainly about his recent V13: Chronicle of a Trial, in Emmanuel Carrère on 10 years since the Paris attacks.
       Among Carrère's observations:

I write journalism as if I’m writing fiction; for me, there’s no difference [in style]. I try to watch and listen and be aware of the complexity of a situation and relate it as honestly as I can.

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

       Michèle Audin (1954-2025)

       Mathematician and Oulipo-author Michèle Audin has passed away; see, for example, Aurélien Soucheyre's report at l'Humanité

       The only one of her books under review at the complete review: One Hundred Twenty-One Days.

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

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       David Bellos

       There's finally something up at the Princeton site, more than two weeks after the death of the translator and scholar: Jamie Saxon writes that David Bellos, renowned scholar of French fiction and ‘totally brilliant translator,’ dies at age 80.
       Good to hear:

His translation of Victor Hugo’s last novel, Quatre-Vingt Treize (Ninety-Three), completed several months before his death, will be published June 5, 2026, by Penguin Classics.

       See also the Penguin Classics publicity page.

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

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       Montevideo review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Enrique Vila-Matas' Montevideo, now in English, in Yale University Press' Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

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

       Boekenbon Literatuurprijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's Boekenbon Literatuurprijs, a leading Dutch-language book prize, paying out €50,000, and it is Een vlam Tasmaanse tijgers, by Charlotte Van den Broeck; see also the De Arbeiderspers publicity page.

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

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       New Nádas Péter book

       At hlo they report on New Péter Nádas Book in Hungarian: My Dead Friends -- Halott barátaim, that is; see also the Sárközy és Társai publicity page
       Sounds promising:

In My Dead Friends, Péter Nádas recounts, based on his own memories, the peculiar order by which he, Alaine Polcz, Miklós Mészöly, and Péter Esterházy became intertwined in each other's lives. Even before their births and after their deaths.

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

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       Marina Lewycka (1946-2025)

       The A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian-author has passed away; see, for example, Emma Loffhagen on Marina Lewycka, British-Ukrainian author, dies aged 79, in The Guardian.

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

       Time's 2025 'must-reads'

       Time has published its list of The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025.

       As always, I am baffled and astounded by how out of the literary loop I am: I haven't seen a single one of these. A hundred books, and I haven't seen a one. (I did request some of these -- including books by authors some of whose other books are under review at the complete review --, but publishers did not send me any.)
       Sure, the list is big/commercial books/publishers-dominated, and that's not what I mostly do, but still.

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

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       Grand prix de littérature américain

       Yes, the French have a prize for the best American novel (that's been translated into French), and they've now announced the winner of this year's Grand prix de littérature américain: Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner; see, for example, the Livres Hebdo report.

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

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       Businessmen as Lovers review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Rosemary Tonks' 1969 novel, Businessmen as Lovers, recently re-issued in the UK by Vintage Classics, and coming in the US from New Directions March, 2026.

       (The first US edition was titled Love Among the Operators, but New Directions is re-issuing it under the original UK title.)

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

       Warwick Prize shortlist

       They've announced the six-title shortlist for this year's Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
       I haven't seen any of these.
       The winner will be announced on 27 November.

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

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       Taiwanese literature abroad

       In the Taipei Times they report on the recent Taiwan Literature Translation and Publishing International Forum, in Taiwanese literature gains ground overseas, faces challenges: Translators.
       Among the observations:

Uozumi also highlighted the hurdles facing literature in Japan, particularly limited funding and a decline in translators, which she said have made it increasingly difficult to sustain the momentum of translated works in the country.

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

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       Edward Lipsett Q & A

       At Speculative Fiction in Translation Rachel Cordasco has an Interview with Edward Lipsett, of much-missed Kurodahan Press.
       Among his responses:

SFT: In the 23 years that Kurodahan Press brought Japanese SFT to the Anglophone world, what did you learn about the niche market that is sf in translation ?

EL: That it rarely makes much difference how good the story is, TBH. One widely-read review in the right place can kill the best title, or crown the worst. Sure, distribution is necessary so people who want the book can actually find it, but Amazon has taken the lion’s share of the English-language market and handles that very well. Getting your title noticed is the most important element.

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

       Booker Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Booker Prize, and it is Flesh, by David Szalay.

       I haven't seen this one, but see the publicity pages from Scribner and Jonathan Cape, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Österreichischer Buchpreis

       They've announced the winners of this year's Austrian Book Prize, and the main category winner is the mammoth (1152 pp) Zeit der Mutigen by Dimitré Dinev; see also the Kein & Aber publicity page.

       I actually have an e-copy of this, but I don't think I can bear to read/review something that big in that format.

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

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       Eye of the Monkey review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Tóth Krisztina's Eye of the Monkey, recently out from Seven Stories Press (and Seven Stories Press UK).

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

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