opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 January 2026

11 January: Coming in 2026 | 2025 in review at the complete review
12 January: Coming in 2026 in ... South Korea | Domesticity review
13 January: On Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o | Poetry in ... South Korea | Vónbjørt Vang profile
14 January: Max Frisch-Preis | 'Independent Press Top 40'
15 January: 'Borges and “Borges”' | Knausgaard Q & A | Blind Corner review
16 January: John Dos Passos Prize | Wortmeldungen shortlist | Julian Barnes profiles | Runciman Award longlist
17 January: Japanese literary prizes | Story Prize finalists | Stolen Flower review
18 January: 'Reissue presses' | The Austrian book market, 2025
19 January: 'Hyphenated Worlds'
20 January: T.S.Eliot Prize | Allan Massie profile | Sidetracked review

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       T.S.Eliot Prize

       They've announced the winner of the 2025 T.S.Eliot Prize, "the most valuable in British poetry", selected from 177 submitted poetry collections, and it is Wellwater, by Karen Solie; see also the publicity pages from Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Picador.

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

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       Allan Massie profile

       At The Scotsman David Robinson reports on The end of an era: Allan Massie reflects on 50 years as literary critic for The Scotsman.
       Among the observations:

I ask him which decade he looks back on with the greatest fondness and at first he says the 1980s, because life got a bit easier for the hard-pressed book reviewer then, when commissioning editors stopped asking critics to round up a number of books in the same review.

       (Though note: "Then he changes his mind. 'No, maybe it was the Nineties'" .....)

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

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       Sidetracked review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Alexander Voloshin 1953 mock-epic of Exile in Hollywood (and more), Sidetracked, coming in April, from Paul Dry Books.

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

       'Hyphenated Worlds'

       At the Indian Express Aishwarya Khosla reports on the recent panel at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Hyphenated Worlds, in ‘Good translation ? For whom’: Vivek Shanbhag on India’s loudest literary story.
       Among the points made:

For Vivek Shanbhag, the problem lies in incoherence. “There is an enormous amount of effort being put into bringing Indian-language literature into English,” he said. “But what is lacking is a narrative around which one can hang these translations.” Without such a narrative, translations arrive as isolated achievements rather than a shared literary field.

       And:

Translators hear this calculus all the time, he said. For instance, ‘your last book sold seven hundred copies. We are not publishing this writer again.’ The result is a redundancy. The same author appears in translation from multiple publishers, while vast literary terrains remain untouched.

“Each publisher feels there are readers out there,” [Arunava] Sinha said, “and I should be the one whose translation it is.” No one, however, commits to building a writer, or a language, over time.

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

       'Reissue presses'

       At Cultured Emmeline Clein has 6 Small Press Editors Explain Why the Hottest New Thing in Lit Is Out-of-Print Books, including Jeremy M. Davies and Lucy Scholes from McNally Editions and Edwin Frank from New York Review Books
       Somewhat disappointing to hear that Davies will let himself be talked down from some acquisitions:

If a press has a never-before-translated Lithuanian Dadaist novel from 1931, I’m the guy who will buy that. So it’s good to be able to talk to a bookseller who will say, actually, Jeremy, pull the brakes.

       No ! No ! Buy it ! Publish it ! We need that !

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

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       The Austrian book market, 2025

       The Main Association of the Austrian Book Trade has presented its summary report of the 2025 numbers for the Austrian book market.
       While revenue was up ever so slightly -- 0.1 per cent --, turnover (i.e. the number of actual copies sold) was down 2.3 per cent (and down 3.9 per cent in physical bookstores). 'Belletristik' -- basically, fiction -- did do relatively well.
       The average price of a book increased to €16.67 (US$19.34 at current exchange rates).

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

       Japanese literary prizes

       They've announced the winners of the most recent Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes, the leading Japanese book prizes; see, for example, reports at The Japan Times and The Mainichi.
       The Akutagawa was shared by Toriyama Makoto's 時の家 and Hatakeyama Ushio's 叫び, while the Naoki went to Shimazu Teru's カフェーの帰り道.
       Given how regularly Akutagawa-winners get translated into English we may well see one or both of those in translation soon.

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

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       Story Prize finalists

       They've announced the three finalists -- selected from 114 submissions -- for the 2025/26 Story Prize, a US$20,000 book prize: "awarded to the author of the year's best short story collection".
       The winner will be announced 31 March.

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

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       Stolen Flower review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a collection of poems by Irma Pineda, Stolen Flower | Guie’ ni zinebe | La flor que se llevó, recently out from Yale University Press, in their Margellos World Republic of Letters-series.

       This is a trilingual edition -- Didxazá, Spanish, and English. Not the first under review at the site -- see the index of bilingual (and trilingual ...) books under review -- but it's not something I come across often.

       (I"m also a bit astonished/embarrassed that this is the first work by an author from Latin America reviewed at the site in over a year -- more than 130 books ago. Surprising, given how much is being translated from there, but I guess I just haven't seen many of them, and haven't gotten to those I have.)

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

       John Dos Passos Prize

       Longwood University has announced the winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature -- which: "honors a writer whose work offers incisive and original insights into American themes while encompassing a wide range of human experience" and is being awarded for the forty-fourth time --, and it is Eugene Lim.

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

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       Wortmeldungen shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Wortmeldungen Ulrike Crespo Literaturpreis für kritische Kurztexte a German prize for 'critical short texts' that pays out an impressive €35,000 to the winner, making it one of the richest literary prizes going, on a per word basis, five texts selected from over 160 entries
       Among the authors with a shortlisted text is Marcel Beyer; you can read all the texts via links on the annuncement-page.

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

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       Julian Barnes profiles

       At the BBC Katie Razzall profiles Julian Barnes on his last novel: 'I hope it's a good one to go out on', while at NPR Terry Gross talks with him, at Julian Barnes says he's enjoying himself, but that 'Departure(s)' is his last book.
       I hope to see and get to the novel soon; see also the publisity pages from Knopf and Jonathan Cape. In the BBC piece he says: "it's a slightly enigmatic, possibly annoying title, but I like it".

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

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       Runciman Award longlist

       The Anglo-Hellenic League has announced the twenty-title-strong longlist for this year's Runciman Award, "given annually for the best book in English about Greece or inspired by a Hellenic theme".
       The winner receives £10,000 and will be annouced 9 June.

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

       'Borges and “Borges”'

       At Nimrod Esther Allen writes on Borges and “Borges” -- on Jorge Luis Borges, Bioy Casares' Borges, and both authors' literary estates.
       Hopefully, we will finally see that translation of Borges in English -- even if it is a pared-down version of the mammoth original .....

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

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       Knausgaard Q & A

       At Interview they have a Q & A with the author, in “My Life Is Filled With Guilt and Shame”: Karl Ove Knausgård, by Jeremy Strong -- mainly about his newly translated The School of Night.
       I've been hoping to see The School of Night but haven't yet; meanwhile, see the Penguin Press publicity page.

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

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       Blind Corner review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Dornford Yates' 1927 novel, Blind Corner.

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

       Max Frisch-Preis

       The city of Zurich has announced the winner of this year's Max Frisch Prize, a quadrennial author prize that pays out CHF40,000, and it is Michael Köhlmeier.
       They've been awarding this since 1998; it's the rare literary prize that is only awarded every four years; you don't see that often.
       Haus has published English translations of two of his novels.

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

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       'Independent Press Top 40'

       As Ed Nawotka reports at Publishers Weekly, Independent Publishers Caucus Launches Bestseller List with ABA, as the Independent Publishers Caucus -- "a collective of 117 small and independent publishers" -- and the American Booksellers Association have launched a new bestseller list, the Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers.
       This isn't exactly a bestseller list:

Unlike BookScan-based lists that track unit sales, the Top 40 uses rankings supplied by ABA member stores. Each participating bookstore submits its top 40 fiction and nonfiction titles ranked by sales volume, regardless of whether the top seller moved 10 copies or 1,000. This methodology, Simon said, creates "an equalizing force" that allows both high-volume titles and books selling smaller quantities across many stores to appear.

       I can see that this serves some purpose. Still ... why not simple, hard numbers ?
       Of some interest; see, for example, the most recent fiction list (warning ! dreaded pdf format !).

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

       On Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

       At Current Affairs Abdirashid Diriye Kalmoy looks at how: 'Kenya's greatest novelist was never shy about confronting the politics of empire and capitalism', in The Decolonial Mind of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
       Several of his works are under review at the complete review.

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

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       Poetry in ... South Korea

       At the Korea JoongAng Daily Lee Jian reports that Korea experiences a poetry boom as younger readers rediscover the literary form, as: "Once dismissed by younger generations as cringey or overly sentimental, poetry is finding new life among Gen Z readers, who are drawn to its honesty, brevity and ability to be easily digitized".

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

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       Vónbjørt Vang profile

       As I mentioned last fall, the 2025 Nordic Council Literature Prize was awarded to Svørt Orkidé by Vónbjørt Vang, and at Reykavík Grapevine Grayson Del Faro profiles the author, in Black Orchids And White Spaces: Vónbjørt Vang On Winning The Nordic Council Prize For Literature.

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

       Coming in 2026 in ... South Korea

       In The Chosun Daily Hwang Ji-yoon reports: "This year, Korean literature readers will have more opportunities than ever to encounter long-awaited full-length novels", in Cheon, Eun's Novels After 10, 7 Years.
       Presumably we'll see some of these in English, though it'll likely be a couple of years for most of them (but re. Kim Hye-soon's "collection of poetic theories" its: "publication in the U.S. next year has already been confirmed").

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

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       Domesticity review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Joris-Karl Huysmans' 1881 novel, Domesticity, recently out from Wakefield Press..

       I'm surprised this is the first Huysmans I've covered -- of course, I read À Rebours and Là-bas before I started the site, but I have many of the other works brought out by Dedalus in recent years and really should have gotten to some of these by now.

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

       Coming in 2026

       The Literary Hub has published its extensive list of their Most Anticipated Books of 2026 -- 314 books !.

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

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       2025 in review at the complete review

       Here is the annual overview of the year that was at the site in numbers:

       In 2025, 120 books were reviewed at the complete review, down ever so slightly from the 121 in 2024. The total number of pages of the reviewed books was up a bit -- 32,409, compared to 31,901 in 2024 -- with the average length of reviewed books up to 270.08 pages (2024: 263.64).
       The longest book reviewed was 1046 pages long; three more were over 800 pages, and a total of eleven were 500 or more pages in length. Five books were under 100 pages in length (and one was exactly 100 pages long).

       The total number of review-words written was up considerably, to 150,548 (2024: 121,676), with the average review-length back up to the more-or-less site standard, at 1255 (2024: 1006).
       The longest review was 3859 words long -- and five more reviews were over 3000 words long (compared to just a single one in 2024); beyond that, another nine reviews were over 2000 words. The shortest review was 390 words, with only two reviews under 500 words.

       You can find the 50 most popular reviews, 2025 here.

       The Patrick White author page was again the most popular of these, though barely ahead of the Amélie Nothomb-page; Geoff Nicholson's death early in the year propelled his author-page into the top five:

1. Patrick White
2. Amélie Nothomb
3. Geoff Nicholson
4. Cynthia Ozick
5. Jonathan Coe

       The ten most popular index-pages were those for:

1. Far East Asian literature
2. Books from selected Imprints and Publishers
3. Books Written Before 1900
4. Erotic, Pornographic, and Sex-related books
5. German literature
6. Mysteries and Thrillers
7. French literature
8. Eastern European literature
9. Latin and South American literature
10. Spanish literature

       Books originally written in 31 languages (including English) were reviewed in 2025 (2024: 25); disappointingly, only in eleven of them were two or more titles covered (2024: 16).
       The top eleven languages were:

• 1. English 32 (26.67 % of all books) (2024: 34)
• 2. French 19 (19)
• 3. Japanese 15 (16)
• 4. German 9 (4)
• 5. Korean 7 (0)
• 6. Spanish 5 (10)
• 7. Chinese 4 (3)
• 8. Danish 2 (3)
• -. Italian 2 (4)
• -. Ukrainian 2 (2)
• -. Yiddish 2 (0)

       The count of which countries books/authors are from is, as always, less precise (and less interesting), but the leading countries-of-origin appear to have been:

• 1. Japan 15 (2024: 16)
• 2. France 14 (16)
• -. US 14 (15)
• 4. UK 13 (15)
• 5. Austria 8 (5)

       The ratio of male-to-female authors is still very skewed, with reviews of 38.5 titles by women writers; still, that's 32.08%, almost a third, the highest it's ever been over a year (and a sign of how much more work by women writers is appearing in translation).

       No books were rated "A+" or "A", with books rated over the range:

• A 0 (2024: 1)
• A- 9 (10)
• B+ 55 (41)
• B 46 (62)
• B- 6 (3)
• C 0 (1)
• -- 4 (3)

       After continuing to decline for much of the the year, site-traffic surged in the fall -- but practically all of that seems to have been AI-bot-driven, so muddying overall visitor-statistics that there's only limited information to be gleaned from them.
       There were visitors from 208 countries and territories to the complete review in 2025 (2024: 214).
       The countries from which the most traffic came were:

1. United States (31.66%; 2024: 38.81%)
2. China (24.14%)
3. United Kingdom (8.28%)
4. Singapore (6.97%)
5. India (3.67%)
6. Canada
7. Australia
8. Germany
9. Netherlands
10. France

       The traffic from China and Singapore is particularly suspect/worthless -- though China was, more plausibly, the fifth-ranked country in 2024 --; in both cases, the average 'visit' to the site was suspiciously short: 3 seconds (!) per visitor for China, 13 seconds for Singapore. (By comparison, other top-ten sources ranged from 1m 15s (the Netherlands) to 2m 35s (France) per visit.)

       All in all, a pretty unremarkable year, with less coverage of *big* new books -- I just didn't see many. Still, on the whole, I think the site covered a reasonably satisfying (at least to me ...) wide range of titles, and the Literary Saloon still seems to collect and offer literary news that's of some interest.

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

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