opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 28 February 2026

21 February: Sankar (1933-2026) | Romania Guest of Honour at 2028 FBF | Behind the scenes at the LARB | Hunger review
22 February: The books of my life: Georgi Gospodinov | Kafka in China | Publishing in Japan
23 February: Teen reading in ... the UK | The 2025 book market in ... Russia | Shafi Shauq Q & A | A Parish Chronicle review
24 February: বাংলা একাডেমি সাহিত্য পুরস্কার
25 February: International Booker Prize longlist | Shortlists: Lionel Gelber Prize - Republic of Consciousness Prize - US/Canada | Tarantula review
26 February: Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse | Neil Griffiths Q & A | AI books in ... South Korea
27 February: Nordic Council Literature Prize finalists | Victorian Premier's Literary Awards | Alfred-Kerr-Preis
28 February: New World Literature Today | Dan Simmons (1948-2026) | The Nigerian literary canon

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       New World Literature Today

       The March/April issue of World Literature Today, featuring Catalina Infante Beovic is now available; lots to keep you busy with over the weekend -- including, of course, the extensive book review section.

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

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       Dan Simmons (1948-2026)

       American author Dan Simmons has passed away; see, for example, the Locus obituary.

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

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       The Nigerian literary canon

       In The Sun Damiete Braide considers Reimagining the Nigerian literary canon: Power, memory, and struggle for inclusion.

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

       Nordic Council Literature Prize finalists

       The Nordic Council has announced the finalists for its Literature Prize, the leading Scandinavian book prize; see also the previous winners under review at the complete review. .
       Among the authors with nominated books are Jón Kalman Stefánsson and Pirkko Saisio.
       The winner will be announced 20 October.

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

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       Victorian Premier's Literary Awards

       They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the winners of this year's Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, "Australia's richest state-based literary prize", with The Rot by Evelyn Araluen winning the A$100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, as well as the Prize for Indigenous Writing.
       Fierceland, by Omar Musa, won the Fiction prize.

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

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       Alfred-Kerr-Preis

       Börsenblatt has announced the winner of this year's Alfred Kerr Prize for Literary Criticism, and it is Dietmar Dath.
       He's probably better-known for his fiction, but is certainly an aways interesting author; I still hope to get my hands on his most recent novel, Skyrmions oder: A Fucking Army; see also the ‎ Matthes & Seitz Berlin foreign rights page.

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

       Preise der Leipziger Buchmesse

       They've announced the finalists for this year's Leipzig Book Fair Prize in its three categories (fiction, non, translation) -- five titles each, selected from a total of 485 submissions.
       Noteworthy: none of the five finalists in the translation category are translations of a work originally written in English -- very unusual for a European translation-prize.
       The winners will be announced 19 March.

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

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       Neil Griffiths Q & A

       At The Observer Anthony Cummins has a Q & A with 'The writer and publisher on the prize he created to champion risk-taking independent imprints, and why we should be paying more for books', in Neil Griffiths: ‘Mainstream presses are not taking risks’.
       Griffiths: "launched the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses, now rebranded as the Queen Mary small press fiction prize"
       He suggests:

At least six books on this year’s longlist would never find a mainstream publisher. It isn’t just on-trend modernist stuff or regional literature in translation. Mainstream presses are often not taking risks on things that hitherto weren’t risky: quiet midlist writing that would once have been part of their publishing schedule but didn’t sell huge amounts.

       Also: "And finally, customers must pay £14.99 for a paperback. Not £12.99" .....

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

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       AI books in ... South Korea

       In The Korea Times Kim Se-jeong reports on 1 year, 1 publisher, 9,000 books: AI-generated titles flood Korean shelves.
       Among the observations:

In brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, readers are running into titles that feature tables of contents that look plausible at first glance, but open to pages with unnatural phrasing and uncanny images that bear little relation to the text.

       I have to say: surely that's on the bookstore owners and librarians, who surely have to do a better at gatekeeping.
       Regardless, this is obviously going to be a significant issue in all aspects of the industry moving forward.

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

       International Booker Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's International Booker Prize -- thirteen titles selected from 128 books submitted:

• The Deserters by Mathias Énard (tr. Charlotte Mandell)
• The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (tr. Ross Benjamin)
• The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre (tr. Antonella Lettieri)
• The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar (tr. Ruth Martin)
• On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia (tr. Padma Viswanathan)
• The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje (tr. David McKay)
• She Who Remains by Rene Karabash (tr. Izidora Angel)
• Small Comfort by Ia Genberg (tr. Kira Josefsson)
• Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (tr. Lin King)
• The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (tr. Martin Aitken)
• We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (tr. Robin Myers)
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye (tr. Jordan Stump)
• Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur (tr. Faridoun Farrokh)

       I'm pleased to see the inclusion of Women Without Men -- though somewhat surprised by it, as Feminist Press appears to have brought this translation out (presumably only in the US) in 2012 (copyright date 2011). (A previous translation -- the one I reviewed --, by Kamran Talattof and Jocelyn Sharlet, came out from Syracuse University Press in 1998, and was re-issued by Feminist Press in 2004.)

       Other than those I've reviewed, I haven't seen any of these titles.

       The shortlist will be announced 31 March, and the winner on 19 May.

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

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       Shortlist: Lionel Gelber Prize

       They've announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the shortlist for this year's Lionel Gelber Prize, honoring: "the world's best book on international affairs published in English"
       The winner will be announced on 30 March.

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

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       Shortlist: Republic of Consciousness Prize - US/Canada

       The Republic of Consciousness Prize - US/Canada -- which surely can now just call itself the 'Republic of Consciousness Prize', since the original UK/Ireland one has re-branded itself as the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize -- has announced its shortlist.
       Five titles -- including The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje. I actually have two more of these titles .....
       The winner will be announced 10 March.

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

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       Tarantula review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Eduardo Halfon's Tarantula -- coming out in English in the UK at the beginning of next month and in the US in May.

       This got a lot of very positive attention in the Spanish-reading world and France; I'm curious how it will fare in English. (Not a great deal of buzz around it yet (though there has been an early TLS review (paywalled) by Damon Galgut) -- and, for example, it didn't make the just-announced longlist for this year's International Booker Prize -- so we'll see .....)

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

       বাংলা একাডেমি সাহিত্য পুরস্কার

       The Bangla Academy has announced the winners of its annual Literary Awards; see also The Daily Star's report.
       Nasima Anis won the fiction category.
       Newly elected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will hand over the awards 26 February.

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

       Teen reading in ... the UK

       The (British) National Literacy Trust has released a report on Teenage reading: (Re)framing the challenge (warning ! dreaded pdf format !); see also their summary-overview.
       Unsurprisingly, lots of ... not so great findings, including: "Daily reading becomes uncommon by mid-adolescence. In 2025, 31.1% of children aged 8 to 11 read daily, compared with 17.1% of those aged 11 to 14 and 14.0% of those aged 14 to 16" and: "Between 2005 and 2025, reading enjoyment fell by around 21 percentage points among children aged 8 to 11 and by nearly 15 points among those aged 11 to 14"
       Sigh.

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

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       The 2025 book market in ... Russia

       At Realnoe Vremya Yekaterina Petrova reports about The book market in 2025: rising prices, marketplace expansion, and weak appeal to job seekers.
       Unit sales were down slightly for physical copies -- 231 million books, down from 233 in 2024 -- but up significantly for e-versions: "222 million digital book copies were sold in 2025, compared to 153 million in 2024".

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

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       Shafi Shauq Q & A

       At Frontline Majid Maqbool has a Q & A with Shafi Shauq about Kashmiri literature and language.
       Among his comments: "The most challenging task in translating Kashmiri literature is placing it in its proper context, with close attention to cultural content".

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

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       A Parish Chronicle review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness' 1970 novel, A Parish Chronicle, now out in English (in the US), from Archipelago (the UK edition is coming out in July).

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

       The books of my life: Georgi Gospodinov

       This week's 'The books of my life'-column at The Guardian features The Physics of Sorrow-author Georgi Gospodinov.
       Among his responses:

The author that changed me as a teenager

All novels that contained erotic scenes -- because of the acute shortage of eroticism in the late socialist Bulgaria of the 1980s.

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

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       Kafka in China

       At Engelsberg Ideas Jeffrey Wasserstrom writes about how: 'The journey of Franz Kafka's works from Europe to Mao-era China shaped generations of writers', in Kafka goes to China.

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

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       Publishing in Japan

       At Publishers Weekly they have a 'publishing in Japan feature' -- ten pieces, including An Introduction to Japan's Publishing Scene by Ed Nawotka, a Q & A with Murakami Haruki, and Kaja Murawska reporting how Bestselling Women Writers in Japan Defy Cliché.
       Among the quotes from Breasts and Eggs-author Kawakami Mieko:

Editors gambling on another dozen feminine and quirky titles will lead to disaster. For Japanese literature to continue to attract readers beyond this current boom, the editors have to look beyond the tyranny of cute and cozy

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

       Sankar (1933-2026)

       Indian author Sankar (Mani Sankar Mukherjee) has passed away; see, for example, an obituary in The Telegraph and a longer excerpt from his 'writer's memoir', Dear Reader (HarperCollins India).

       The only one of his books under review at the complete review is Chowringhee, though I'd love to see more .....

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

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       Romania Guest of Honour at 2028 FBF

       The Frankfurt Book Fair has announced that Romania will be the 'Guest of Honour' at the 2028 fair.

       This year the guest of honour will be the Czech Republic, and in 2027 it will be Chile.

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

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       Behind the scenes at the LARB

       I occasionally link to articles and reviews of interest at the Los Angeles Review of Books, and No Bad Days now offers a peek behind the scenes there, where apparently things are rather messy -- as the title of the piece, How the LA Review of Books destroyed itself, suggests .....

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

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       Hunger review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Choi Jin-young's 2015 novella, Hunger.

       This came out in the UK last summer, to what seems like very little review-attention; the US edition is coming out in May, and I am curious to see how it takes.

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

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