opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 March 2026

1 March: Profiles: Yuzuki Asako - Vincenzo Latronico
2 March: Rob Grant (1955-2026) | Esther Allen on Borges
3 March: OCM Bocas Lit Prize shortlists | Revolver Christi review
4 March: Premio Formentor | Ockham Awards shortlists | Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists | Newly discovered Ōe works
5 March: Women's Prize for Fiction longlist | Nero Gold Prize | Peter Schneider (1940-2026)
6 March: António Lobo Antunes (1942-2026) | Will Self Q & A | Perspective-shifting reads ?
7 March: Can Xue Q & A | Gordon Burn Prize | English writing in Nepal
8 March: Shahrnush Parsipur Q & A | 1970s/80s Japanese fiction
9 March: Jennifer Crewe Q & A | Musashi review
10 March: Libris Literatuur Prijs shortlist

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       Libris Literatuur Prijs shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for this year's Libris Literatuur Prijs, one of the leading Dutch novel prizes.
       The winner will be announced 11 May.

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

       Jennifer Crewe Q & A

       At the Columbia University Press blog Maritza Herrera-Diaz has a Q & A with the director of the press, in Jennifer Crewe: A Legacy of Leadership at Columbia University Press.
       Interesting the fairly recent change:

Herrera-Diaz: The Press became formally integrated into the university during your leadership. In what ways did this integration strengthen the Press’s role within the university, and why did you see that as a strategic priority?

Crewe: I had clear goals when I became director, and I was lucky in that the provost had similar goals. From the start, it was important to me that we become formally integrated into the university as a unit. The Press had been created in 1893 as an affiliate of the university and was a separate 501(c)(3) organization. As a result, many at the university didn’t know what we did, or even that we existed. I felt strongly that we should be clearly aligned with the university’s academic mission and priorities, and more visible to faculty and administrators. So I set about making that change.

       [Note that my The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction was published by Columbia University Press.]

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

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       Musashi review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the new (unabridged, three-volume) translation of Yoshikawa Eiji's 1939 epic, Musashi, just out, from Tuttle.

       This is the longest book I've reviewed so far this year -- 1692 pages -- and also the longest review so far this year (and, indeed, in quite a while), at over 4600 words ..... I'm fine with not reaching either level again for the rest of the year; I imagine you are fine with that, too.

       The previous -- apparently abridged -- translation came out in 1981, on the heels of the 1980 Richard Chamberlain-Toshiro Mifune Shōgun miniseries-adaptation (of the 1975 James Clavell novel), and The New York Times reported that it: "has sold more than 40,000 copies in the United States" in the first year -- that: "Despite its heft" (and despite the The New York Times Book Review's very unimpressed review ...) --; it was also then published in five volume in mass-market paperback. I'm curious how this (heftier) edition will do.

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

       Shahrnush Parsipur Q & A

       At The Los Angeles Times Marc Weingarten has a (disappointingly brief) Q & A with Touba and the Meaning of Night and (International Boker Prize longlisted) Women without Men-author Shahrnush Parsipur, in This author was imprisoned by the shah and the ayatollahs. Her book could win the Booker Prize.

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

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       1970s/80s Japanese fiction

       The latest in the series on: "Japanese literature in the Shōwa era (1926–89) looks at books written from 1973 to 1989" at nippon.com, in Takino Yūsaku's The Rise of Popular Fiction: Japanese Books in the 1970s and 1980s.

       (An interesting selection, but I'd suggest that Yoshimoto Banana's 1988 Kitchen is a pretty big omission here.)

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

       Can Xue Q & A

       Can Xue has a new novel out in English, The Enchanting Lives of Others -- see the Yale University Press publicity page -- and they now have a Q & A with her, The Enchanting Lives of Others: A Conversation with Can Xue.

       I have a copy and look forward to getting to it.

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

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       Gordon Burn Prize

       New Writing North has announced the winner of this year's Gordon Burn Prize, recognizing: "exceptional writing which has an unconventional perspective, style or subject matter and often defies easy categorisation", and it is Endling, by Maria Reva; see also the publicity pages from Virago and Doubleday.

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

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       English writing in Nepal

       In The Kathmandu Post Jony Nepal considers The rise of English writing in Nepal.

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

       António Lobo Antunes (1942-2026)

       Portuguese author António Lobo Antunes has passed way; see, for example, The New York Times obituary (presumably paywalled).

       Quite a few of his works have been published in English translation by Grove and Dalkey Archive Press.
       I've read several of his works, but none are under review at the complete review at this time.

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

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       Will Self Q & A

       At The London Magazine Alex Dommett has a Q & A with Will Self on the End of Satire, the Rise of Fascism and Writing His Own Death.
       Self's new novel is The Quantity Theory of Morality -- see the Grove publicity page -- leaving The Times' reviewer Houman Barekat wondering Why is Will Self so obsessed with penises ?

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

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       Perspective-shifting reads ?

       At The Conversation they: "asked ten academic experts to share a work of fiction that has challenged their assumptions and changed their thinking in a lasting way", in The novel that changed my mind – ten experts share a perspective‑shifting read.
       Several of these titles are under review at the complete review: The Years by Annie Ernaux, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Middlemarch by George Eliot, and Convenience Store Woman by Murata Sayaka.

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

       Women's Prize for Fiction longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction -- sixteen titles.
       The shortlist will be announced 22 April, and the winner will be announced 11 June.

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

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       Nero Gold Prize

       They've announced the winner of the Nero Gold Prize -- the successor-prize to the Costa Book Awards (which, in turn, succeeded the Whitbread Book Awards) -- and it is A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, the Debut Fiction category winner beating out the other category (Fiction, Non, and Children's Fiction) winners.

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

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       Peter Schneider (1940-2026)

       German author Peter Schneider, best-known for The Wall Jumper -- see the publicity pages from Penguin Modern Classics and Phoenix Fiction --, has passed away; see, for example the obituary at Der Spiegel.

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

       Premio Formentor

       The Fundación Formentor has announced the winner of the revived-in-2011 Premio Formentor de las Letras, and it is Gonçalo M. Tavares.
       Several of his works are under review at the complete review:

• Jerusalem
• Joseph Walser's Machine
• Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique
• A Man: Klaus Klump
• The Neighborhood
• Reading is Walking
• A Voyage to India

       While a bit Romance-language-author-heavy, the Premio Formentor has (re)established itself as a leading international author prize; a pretty impressive record of winners includes would-go-on-to-win-the Nobel authors Annie Ernaux (2019) and Krasznahorkai László (2024), as well as the recently deceased Cees Nooteboom (2020).

       I am a great admirer of Tavares' work and disappointed there isn't more available in translation -- not least his recent nine-hundred-page O Fim dos Estados Unidos da América -- "uma epopeia, satírica e distópica"; see the Relógio D’Água Editores publicity page.
       Alberto Manguel -- 2017 winner of the Premio Formentor ! -- recently reviewed (paywalled) this in the TLS -- noting that: "This is not the stuff bestsellers are made of, yet the first run of this 900-page novel sold out overnight in Portugal". (The Literarische Agentur MertinWitt information page on Tavares -- showing also just how much of his work hasn't been translated into English yet ... -- notes that so far rights have (only) been sold to publishers in ... Egypt and Poland; come on, you US/UK publishers, what are you waiting for ?)

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

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       Ockham Awards shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in its four categories.
       The winners will be announced 13 May.

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

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       Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists

       They've announced the eleven finalists for this year's Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which: "recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of race and human diversity"
       The winners will be announced on 15 April.

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

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       Newly discovered Ōe works

       As the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters has announced, two early manuscripts by Nobel laureate Ōe Kenzaburō have been discovered; see, for example, Kensuke Nonami's Asahi Shimbun report, Earliest Oe novels, penned as Todai student, unearthed.
       They are to be published in the April issue of the literary magazine Gunzo, due out on Friday.

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

       OCM Bocas Lit Prize shortlists

       They've announced the shortlists for the OCM Bocas Lit Prize -- the: "Caribbean's biggest literary prize" -- in its three categories, fiction, non, and poetry.
       The category winners will be announced 25 March, and the overall winner -- selected from the three category winners -- will be announced 2 May.

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

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       Revolver Christi review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Anna Albinus' Revolver Christi, now in English, from Dedalus.

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

       Rob Grant (1955-2026)

       Rob Grant, co-creator of the Red Dwarf TV series, has passed away; see, for example, the obituary at Ganymede & Titan.
       With co-creator Doug Naylor he published several 'Red Dwarf'-novels and scripts, and I've read and enjoyed most of them; a Red Dwarf-prequel, Red Dwarf: Titan, co-writtten with Andrew Marshall, is due out this summer; see the Orion publicity page.

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

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       Esther Allen on Borges

       If you're in Princeton tomorrow you can hear Esther Allen speak on Borges & Borges at high noon, as she makes the case that:

The relationship of Bioy's book to the writer whose name it takes as title problematizes and undermines legal concepts of originality, authorship, ownership, and selfhood. Intellectual property issues are rarely the focus of literary scholarship, but as David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu have recently argued, they are fundamental to any real understanding of how literature circulates globally.

       (See also her piece on Borges and “Borges” at Nimrod.

       And, sure New York Review Books is coming out (some day ...) with a(n abridged, sigh) translation of this, but, b(i)oy, would I love to get my hands on a copy of this:



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

       Profile: Yuzuki Asako

       At The Guardian Lisa Allardice profiles the Butter-author, in Butter author Asako Yuzuki: ‘I’m very far from the ideal Japanese woman’.

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

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       Profile: Vincenzo Latronico

       At The Times Hannah Swerling profiles the Perfection-author, in What’s the next millennial cliché ? Just ask Vincenzo Latronico

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

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