opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 January 2026

1 January: Coming in ... 2026 | Reading in ... the US | Bestselling in 2025 in ... Switzerland | 2026
2 January: Bestselling in ... Ireland, 2025 | Indian language books translated into English, 2025 | Banned in Belarus
3 January: More year-in-review posts | The Cabala review
4 January: Coming in 2026 in ... Singapore | 'Cocaine in books' | Clyde Moneyhun Q & A
5 January: Nobel nominees in 1975 | Braille publishing in France | Nora Ikstena (1969-2026) | the folded clock review
6 January: Bestselling in 2025 in ... France | The Empyrean Series | Most Popular Reviews - 2025
7 January: Latin American literature in translation | 2025: the year in review copies | Self-Worth review
8 January: جایزه ادبی جلال آل احمد | Banipal Translation Prize | Best German comics of 2025 ?
9 January: Würth Prize | (Albanian) National Literature Awards finalists | 'Dostoevsky's Influence on Modern Japan' | The Image of Her review
10 January: Astrid Roemer (1947-2026) | de Boon shortlists | US book sales in 2025

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       Astrid Roemer (1947-2026)

       Dutch-writing author Astrid Roemer has passed away; see, for example, the report at Trouw.
       She finally came to a little prominence in the US/UK in recent years, with her 1982 novel On a Woman's Madness named a finalist for the 2023 (US) National Book Award for Translated Literature and longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

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

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       de Boon shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for the de Boon Literatuurprijs, a leading Dutch/Flemish-language book prize (paying out €50,000 each to the winners), in the two categories -- prose (fiction and non) and children's.
       The winners will be announced 24 March.

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

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       US book sales in 2025

       At Publishers Weekly Jim Milliot reports that in the US Print Book Sales Rose Slightly in 2025 -- with numbers !
       Unit sales were 762.4 million in 2025 -- down from the peak of 839.7 million in 2021.
       They list the top twenty sellers, with sales numbers, with The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbin leading the way, with 2,812,799 copies sold. One more title sold (just) over two million copies, and (only) one more sold over a million copies.

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

       Würth Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Würth Prize for European Literature, a biennial €25,000 author prize with a solid list of previous winners (e.g. Herta Müller (2006), Nádas Péter (2014), Peter Handke (2016), Annie Ernaux (2022)), and it is The Name on the Wall-author Hervé Le Tellier.

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

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       (Albanian) National Literature Awards finalists

       They've announced the finalists for the 2024 (Albanian) National Literature Awards; see, for example, the Express report (also in Albanian).
       Finalists in the translation category include works by Yu Hua, Hilda Hilst, and Aristotle, as well as Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange and Andrej Kurkov's Death and the Penguin.

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       'Dostoevsky's Influence on Modern Japan'

       At Japan Nakama Santiago Campodonico looks at Dostoevsky's Influence on Modern Japan: From Meiji to Today

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

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       The Image of Her review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a new translation of Simone de Beauvoir's 1966 novel, The Image of Her.

       This came out in the UK last year, and is coming out (next week) in the US.
       Interestingly, it was published in the UK by one of the 'majors' -- a Vintage Classics edition, from Penguin -- while in the US it is being published by a university press, Yale University Press, in their Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

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

       جایزه ادبی جلال آل احمد

       They've announced the winners of this year's Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards, one of the leading Iranian literary prizes, with لمس by Mohammad Reza Kateb winning the prize for best novel; see also the publisher's publicity page. (See here for al the finalists in all the categories.) .
       They didn't award a prize for best first novel -- and they didn't even think any of the 76 works submitted was worthy to be considered for the literary criticism category.

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

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       Banipal Translation Prize

       They've announced the winner of the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and it is Marilyn Booth for her translation of Honey Hunger by Zahran Alqasmi; see also the Hoopoe publicity page.

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

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       Best German comics of 2025 ?

       Thirty journalists voted for the best German comics of 2025, and at Tagesspiegel they run down the top ten.

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

       Latin American literature in translation

       At Monocle Rory Jones reports that South American literature is having a moment -- and women are at the forefront -- profiling Charco Press founder Carolina Orloff.

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

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       2025: the year in review copies

       Not much change from 2024 in terms of numbers: 240 books were acquired (2024: 234), of which 196 were review copies sent to me by publishers (2024: 199) -- the fewest in twenty years ...; see the full Index of Books Received and Acquired 2025.

       The publishers providing the most review copies to the complete review in 2025 were:

• New York Review Books: 31 (2024: 21)
• Harvard University Press: 17 (9)
• McNally Editions 16 (5)
• Dedalus 12 (8)
• Europa Editions 9 (6)
• Yale University Press: 9 (7)
• Honford Star 8 (1)
• Columbia University Press: 6 (8)
• And Other Stories 4 (3)
• Open Letter: 4 (8)
• Twisted Spoon Press 4 (4)

       Yes, (small) independents and university presses dominated -- and the number of titles I got from the American 'big five' was ... minimal. I did request several of the 'big' books of the year published by the majors but struck out completely.
       As of 31 December 2025 I had reviewed 71 of the 196 review copies I received -- 36.22%, considerably above the historic average. (Of course, old review copies do continue to get reviewed -- two 2025 review copy arrivals have already been reviewed in 2026 --, often long after I receive them; in 2025 the longest-delayed review was of a title received in 2003, appearing 7940 days after the review copy was received .....)

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

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       Self-Worth review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Emma Tholozan's Self-Worth, coming in English in April (UK)/May (US).

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

       Bestselling in 2025 in ... France

       The Livres Hebdo pages Les 50 livres les plus vendus en 2025 and Les 20 romans les plus vendus en 2025 are unfortunately paywalled, but at Elle they have a top ten list with numbers, Voici le livre le plus vendu en 2025.
       An Astérix-volume tops the list, with 1.65 million copies sold (despite only coming out at the end of October); three works by Freida McFadden follow (with two more in the top ten, at seventh and tenth ...), while Laurent Mauvignier's prix Goncourt-winner La maison vide came in fifth, with 442,714 copies sold.

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

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       The Empyrean Series

       At his website, Empyrean Series-series editor Jacob Siefring has a Statement on the future of The Empyrean Series, announcing that: "The forty-ninth and the fiftieth titles, which I am currently editing and designing, are slated to be the last in the series".
       It's been a very good run (see a list of all fifty titles at the end of the post); several of the volumes are under review at the complete review, with more to follow.

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

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       Most Popular Reviews - 2025

       The most-viewed reviews at the complete review in 2025 were:

1. Voice of a Dream, Glaydah Namukasa
2. Strange Pictures, Uketsu
3. The Director, Daniel Kehlmann
4. Perfection, Vincenzo Latronico
5. Ballerina, Patrick Modiano
6. The Remembered Soldier, Anjet Daanje
7. Your Steps on the Stairs, Antonio Muñoz Molina
8. The Empusium, Olga Tokarczuk
9. We Computers, Hamid Ismailov
10. The Fortress, Mesa Selimovic
11. The Aesthetics of Resistance, Peter Weiss
12. The Sleepwalkers, Scarlett Thomas
13. The Proof of My Innocence, Jonathan Coe
14. Perspective(s), Laurent Binet
15. 2666, Roberto Bolaño

       The shift to newer reviews attracting the most attention continues: in 2023 only two titles reviewed in that year made the top 50; in 2024 it was 14; and in 2025 32 (!) made the top 50, including three of the top five Obviously also, few titles from the 2024 list made the 2025 top fifty -- only 14.

       See also all the top 50 reviews of 2025.

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

       Nobel nominees in 1975

       The Swedish Academy opens up the archives regarding Nobel nominations and deliberations fifty years after the fact, and so they've now opened up the archives for the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded to Eugenio Montale.
       Kaj Schueler has published his annual look at the prize-selection in Svenska Dagbladet but it is, alas, paywalled; still, we can glean that apparently the others in the running were: Graham Greene, Saul Bellow, Doris Lessing, and Nadine Gordimer, with Montale a sort of back-up pick.
       The Swedish Academy has also published the full list of the 1975 nominees (warning ! dreaded pdf format !). There were 116 (1974: 102), and among the first-time nominees were: Fernand Braudel, L.A. Trip-author Mohammed Dib, 1982 laureate Gabriel García Márquez (Living to Tell the Tale, etc.), Wilson Harris, Ibuse Masuji, Tove Jansson (The True Deceiver, etc.), Wolfgang Koeppen, 1988 laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Kamala Markandaya, Vasko Popa, Chaim Potok, Mary Renault, and Meša Selimović (Death and the Dervish, etc.).

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

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       Braille publishing in France

       At RFI Alison Hird reports on how France's last paper Braille publisher fights to survive in the digital age. (The publisher is Cteb.)
       An interesting overview.

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

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       Nora Ikstena (1969-2026)

       Latvian author Nora Ikstena has passed away; see, for example, the LSM.lv report.

       Several of her works have been translated into English, notably Soviet Milk; see, for example, the Peirene publicity page.

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

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       the folded clock review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the collection of 100 number poems by 100 number poems, the folded clock, recently out in English, from Twisted Spoon Press.

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

       Coming in 2026 in ... Singapore

       In the Straits Times Clement Yong reports on some of what to expect in SingLit in 2026: A video game anthology, new book by Teo You Yenn, Epigram's all-women shortlist.

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

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       'Cocaine in books'

       At El País Nadal Suau looks at Literature that crosses the line: Cocaine in books.
       Lots of examples, including Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho -- but he fails to mention Pitigrilli's excellent Cocaine.

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

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       Clyde Moneyhun Q & A

       Boise State News has Ten questions: Meet professor and literary translator Clyde Moneyhun.
       Among his responses:

What is one hope you have for the next generation in your field ?

CM: That translators get paid better. It's really hard to make a living as a literary translator.

       Francis Boutle has published two of his translations from Catalan; see their publicity pages for Maria-Mercè Marçal's Witch in Mourning and Ponç Pons' Salt.

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

       More year-in-review posts

       A few more weblogs have posted 2025-at-the-site posts; see:

• Novel Readings 2025 by Rohan Maitzen at her Novel Readings
• 2025 Wrap Up: Reading and other stuff by Joseph Schreiber at his roughghosts
• My 2025 in Review (Best Science Fiction Novels and Short Fiction, Reading Initiatives, and Bonus Categories) by Joachim Boaz at his Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations
• The 2025 Tony's Reading List Awards, Your Favourite Posts of 2025, and The 2025 State of the Blog Address by Tony Malone at his Tony's Reading List

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

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       The Cabala review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Thornton Wilder's first novel, the 1926 The Cabala.

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

       Bestselling in ... Ireland, 2025

       In the Irish Times Martin Doyle reports on the bestselling books in Ireland in 2025, in The Let Them Theory is Ireland's bestselling book of 2025.
       That top-selling book -- see, for example, the Hay House publicity page -- sold ... 38,885 copies.

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

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       Indian language books translated into English, 2025

       Scroll.in again offers Chittajit Mitra's list of Indian language books translated into English published in the last year -- 108 books
       A great resource -- but how frustrating that so many of these are not readily available/distributed in the US/UK.

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

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       Banned in Belarus

       Via I'm pointed to the Reformation report that Sorokin's and Burroughs' Books Added to the List of Banned Publications in Belarus as Belarus has added 52 more books to their banned-list; they're all listed there; see also the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Belarus announcement; you can also download the whole list of all the banned titles here.
       Newly banned books include Steve Aylett's Shamanspace, several books by Vladimir Sorokin, including Day of the Oprichnik, William Burroughs' Junkie, Alex Garland's The Beach, and Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly.

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

       Coming in ... 2026

       New year, new books: quite a few publications have published 'coming-in-2026' lists; see, for example:

• 12 books you need to read in 2026 at the BBC
• Books to look out for in 2026 – fiction at The Guardian
• The 31 Most Anticipated Books of 2026 at Oprah Daily
• PEOPLE Picks Our Most-Anticipated Books of 2026
• The 36 Most Anticipated Books of 2026 at Time
• The 58 books to look out for in 2026 at The Times
• Most anticipated books of 2026 at USA Today
• 23 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2026 at Vulture

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

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       Reading in ... the US

       You.gov has a new survey of 2,203 U.S. adult citizens asking them about their 2025 Reading and Books (warning ! dreaded pdf format !); see also David H. Montgomery's YouGov's The Surveyor-post summing things up, Most Americans didn't read many books in 2025..
       Yes, the findings are ... not terribly encouraging. Forty per cent of respondents reported having mot read or listened to any books whatsoever in 2025 ..... (Hey, the survey was conducted 15 to 19 December, so maybe a few more managed to read one in the remaining two weeks .....)
       Other findings:

• More people reported reading a play (Drama; 12 per cent) than Literary fiction (11 per cent)
• Only 51 per cent of respondents reported having a library card
• 2 per cent of respondents report owning more than 1000 physical books -- while 32 per cent have fewer than ten at home (but only 19 per cent reported having fewer than 10 in the home they grew up in)
• As many people organize their books by color as do by "Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress or other formal system" -- one per cent (i.e. probably statistically insignificant)

       The survey has lots of detailed information, breaking down the responses; so, for example, 15 per cent of those identifying as Democrats had read some literary fiction, but only 8 per cent of Republicans; the poetry divide is 8/2 (and the only category Republicans read more of than Democrats was 'Religion and spirituality' -- 16 per cent vs. 8. Also: they only looked at three income categories, but the differences were pretty stark: 47 per cent of those with a family income below US$50,000 had not read a book in the last year; while only 31 per cent with a family income above US$100,000 hadn't read a single book.
       As Montgomery's post points out, a mere four per cent of readers read nearly half of all books (46 per cent). Yes, reading looks evermore like a niche activity .....

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

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       Bestselling in 2025 in ... Switzerland

       The Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association report (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) -- unfortunately without actual sales-numbers -- on the bestselling German-language titles in Switzerland in 2025
       Translations -- of works by Dan Brown and Joël Dicker -- come in at third and fourth, with German and Swiss Book Prize-winning Die Holländerinnen by Dorothee Elmiger rounding out the top five. The runner-up was the latest by Martin Suter, while the surprise number one -- which was only released in September -- was Lázár by youngster Nelio Biedermann; see also the swissinfo report, Biedermann und Elmiger schreiben ungewöhnliche Bestseller or an English translation.
       Lázár is actually coming out in English fairly soon: Summit is publishing it in April; see their publicity page.

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

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       2026

       Another year down -- and one that was strikingly similar to the previous one: in 2024 121 books were reviewed at the complete review, in 2025 it was ... 120. (Also: in 2024 I received 199 review copies, in 2025 I got 196). So, if nothing else, things remain consistent hereabout.

       For reasons largely beyond my control, things are still too unsettled for me to properly devote myself to the site, but I hope things will eventually pick up again -- though it now looks like they certainly won't before the second half of 2026 at the earliest, sigh. Still, I and everything putter on more or less as always, and should continue to do so.
       AI scraping has rendered site-statistics much less useful -- though since the bots scrape everything (i.e that traffic is evenly distributed) it still seems possible to discern which are the most popular pages. Overall, *real* traffic also seems to have increased slightly after years of decline, but any and all discoverability of pages is increasingly enfeebled -- search engine (especially dominant Google) quality continues to get poorer, with AI-summarizing and the like on search pages also leading to fewer searchers digging deeper into the results-pages; a trickle of traffic from various AI platforms -- ChatGPT pointing users to review-pages in response to queries, and the like -- doesn't amount to much.

       I have no particular expectations for 2026, but there should be a fairly steady if somewhat slow stream of reviews, as always, along with the daily postings here at the Literary Saloon. As to the world at large -- well, I can just wish good luck to us all .....

       I am glad, as always, to see you're here for (at least the start of) a new year as well -- and I wish all my readers a great new year, filled with an abundance of good books and much good reading !

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

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