opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 July 2026

11 July : Hershel Parker (1935-2026) | Roderick Literary Award shortlist
12 July : Sergio Pitol profile | Indian literature, domestically and abroad
13 July : Publishing in ... Australia | Australian Landfall review | Passenger to Frankfurt review
14 July : Luis Goytisolo (1935-2026) | James Joyce Archive | Tanizaki Jun'ichirō profile
15 July : Rentrée littéraire numbers | Outsider Editions | A Case of Need review
16 July : Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes | Lu Xun Literary Prizes | The Shards - the TV series
17 July : Library-packing | Literature in translation in ... Burma | Dany Laferrière in Haiti | Kobayashi Erika profile
18 July : JSW Prize in Literature | 'In defense of reading books'
19 July : Camus archive to BnF | Unter Tieren review
20 July : Bookselling in ... New Zealand | Daisy Rockwell Q & A | Deadfall (Fat Chance) review

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       Bookselling in ... New Zealand

       Via I'm pointed to Steve Braunias' 'investigation into the biggest threat facing NZ bookstores' at newsroom., Publishers ‘self-sabotaging’ NZ books, where he finds that:

A somewhat bleak report on the current state of New Zealand booksellers has identified the biggest threat to bookstores -- that they are unable to get in stock fast enough to satisfy customer demand because most books, even New Zealand titles, are held in warehouses across the ditch in Australia.

       (The 'ditch' is, of course, a rather sizeable expanse of water -- New Zealand is quite a distance from Australia.)
       The shift to warehousing in Australia, rather than in New Zealand itself, apparently is relatively recent -- and interestingly:

The great migration of book warehouses from New Zealand to Australia was, at first, considered no big deal for publishers and booksellers. Books were commonly airfreighted at the low, low price of about 50 cents per kilo. The delivery was fast, and bookstores only had to wait a few days for orders to arrive. That all changed with the coming of the plague.

       Now, between expensive air freight and slow sea shipping, New Zealand booksellers have difficult decisions to make as to how many books to order and how to ship them.

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

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       Daisy Rockwell Q & A

       At Scroll.in Chintan Girish Modi has a Q & A with the author and translator, in ‘This one line is my bible – every footnote is a confession of failure’: Translator Daisy Rockwell.
       Among her observations:

Most of your books were out in India before you signed contracts in the US. What does this say about the American publishing industry and the appetite for translations from Hindi and Urdu ? If someone with your publishing history and family name found it so hard to get her books out, what are the chances for Indian writers who aspire to get a book deal in the US ?

It says that the American publishing industry has no interest in South Asian literature in translation. Many of my books will never make it to my country because there is no appetite on the part of the super-white publishing industry.

       'No interest' is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but, yes, boy is it limited (as I've often complained ....).

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

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       Deadfall (Fat Chance) review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Keith Laumer's 1971 novel, Deadfall, also released as Fat Chance.

       Laumer is best-known for his science fiction, but this is a perfectly respectable Raymond Chandler imitation; still, if you're looking for a Fat Chance, the one I'd really recommend is Simon Gray's.

       (Deadfall was re-titled Fat Chance for the movie-tie-in edition, but that didn't really work out, because they re-re-named the movie Peeper (which doesn't seem to have done it any good either); the German edition of Deadfall was titled Rote Blumen auf dem Hemd ('Red Flowers on the Shirt'; yes, very late in the novel there's a scene with a character where: "Three red flowers bloomed suddenly on his rumpled white shirt, down low, just above the belt" ...); and Peeper was released in Spanish as Un detective curioso, so, yeah, they really seemed to have trouble figuring out what the best title for this thing was.)

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

       Camus archive to BnF

       I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but the Bibliothèque nationale de France has announced the acquisition of "la plus grande partie des manuscrits d'Albert Camus" -- calling it: "l’acquisition la plus importante jamais réalisée par l’État en matière de patrimoine littéraire" ('the most significant acquisition ever made by the state in terms of literary heritage'). See also the more extensive dossier de presse booklet at the Ministry of Culture site (yes, presented in a format that is even worse than just plain dreaded pdf ...).
       At Le Monde Fabienne Darge reports on the acquisition, in Albert Camus archives, including manuscripts, forged documents and letters, join national collection (presumably paywalled), noting the collection: "spans 50 meters and includes 260 boxes or crates", 42 of the boxes consisting of correspondence (!). Also good to hear: the library will: "present the Camus collection to the general public with an exhibition planned for March 2027, marking the 70th anniversary of his Nobel Prize".

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

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       Unter Tieren review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek's latest, Unter Tieren.

       This is premiering at the Salzburg Festival on 16 August -- and, despite the estimated four-hour run-time, seems to be a very hot ticket: all the performances are already sold out. (It's also coming to the Burgtheater in the fall, so I might check it out then.) The brief teaser certainly makes it look ... interesting.

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

       JSW Prize in Literature

       Drukyul's Literature & Arts Festival is starting soon in Bhutan -- it runs 1 to 3 August -- and they've added some prizes this year, including the JSW Prize in Literature, and at The Hindu they report that Ashwin Sanghi to be the first recipient of Bhutan's JSW prize for literature.
       I am unfamiliar with Sanghi's work, but he writes in English and apparently: "is the bestselling author of several historical and mythological thrillers". Also, dear god, he's 'co'-'written' a book with ... James Patterson; see, for example, the Arrow publicity page. And in a caleidoscope profile Pooja Wanpal wonders: Ashwin Sanghi -- India's Dan Brown ? .....

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

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       'In defense of reading books'

       At Time Jen Benka -- executive director of the admirable new Literary Arts Fund -- writes In Defense of Reading Books, which I suppose is always a good thing, and good to see in a prominent publication like Time.
       I'm not sure about claims such as: "Perhaps most importantly, especially now, reading or listening to literature is also good for our hearts", but, hey, yes: read books ! I can certainly recommend it.

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

       Library-packing

       A nice piece here by Ignacio Sánchez Prado at the Pittsburgh Review of Books on A Library on the Eve of Packing.

       (I am soon to undertake considerable library-unpacking, as my books arrive from the United States, so this is obviously of interest. I am looking forward to the shelving and cataloguing; I'll be keeping you posted how things go .....)

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

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       Literature in translation in ... Burma

       At The Global New Light of Myanmar Maung Maung Myint Thein writes on going Beyond Borders: Why Young People Should Read Translated Literature, and it's good to hear that, despite current conditions in the country, there is some interest in and support for claims such as:

A nation that invests in translation invests in its future. By encouraging young people to read translated literature, Myanmar can cultivate informed citizens, thoughtful leaders, and globally minded individuals who are prepared to contribute meaningfully to both national development and international understanding.

       The examples do tend to be older and classical literature, but still .....

       Meanwhile, I sure wish more were being translated from Burmese and the other languages of Myanmar; see the very limited number under review at the complete review.

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

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       Dany Laferrière in Haiti

       Good to see that, as difficult as conditions are in Haiti, visits and events such as this are still taking place, as The Haitian Times reports that Why Must a Black Writer Write About Sex ?-author Dany Laferrière returns to Haiti for a literary tour and meets with university students.

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

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       Kobayashi Erika profile

       At nippon.com Itakura Kimie profiles the Trinity, Trinity, Trinity-author, finding Author Kobayashi Erika's War and Nuclear Writings Unearth New Perspectives.

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

       Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes

       The Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes, the leading Japanese book awards, are biannual prizes -- i.e. they're given out twice a year -- and they've now announced this year's summer-edition winners; see, for example, Mike Fu's report in The Japan Times, Chito Kosagawa and Kasumi Asakura win Japan's top literary prizes.

       The Akutagawa Prize went to ゾンビ回収婦 ('The Zombie Collector') by Kosagawa Chito; see also the Kodansha publicity page.

       The Naoki Prize went to けんぐゎい by Asakura Kasumi; see also the Kobunsha publicity page.

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

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       Lu Xun Literary Prizes

       The China Writers Association has announced that they've announced the winners of this year's Lu Xun Literary Prizes (鲁迅文学奖) -- though oddly I can't find the list of winners on the site yet; they have published the list of finalists; you can however find the complete list of winners -- thirty-five works in seven categories -- here.
       Chinese media coverage of this is ... peculiar, with articles focused solely on local winners ..... Meanwhile, at Global Times Chen Xi focuses on just one of the poetry winners, in Winning literature prize ‘will never change who I am,’ says Chinese delivery rider-poet, as apparently: "among all the celebrated names, one stood out and captured the public's imagination".

       There were five winners in the translation category (out of ten finalists), including Chinese translations of some very big works: Finnegans Wake, Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, and Karl Kraus' The Last Days of Mankind -- and Eugene Vodolazkin's Laurus.
       (Great to see the Chinese translation of Finnegans Wake honored -- and that gives me an opportunity to also commend Patrick O'Neill's fascinating Tales of Translation, Finnegans Wakes.)

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

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       The Shards - the TV series

       Via I'm pointed to Lexy Perez's piece in The Hollywood Reporter, ‘The Shards’ Trailer: Igby Rigney, Kaia Gerber Navigate Senior Year and a Serial Killer in FX’s Bret Easton Ellis Adaptation as, yes, they've made a TV series -- executive produced by Ryan Murphy -- based on Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards.
       The first episodes are premiering 5 August on FX.

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

       Rentrée littéraire numbers

       I missed this a couple of weeks ago, that they've released the numbers regarding this year's rentrée littéraire -- the big French book-release period, when they flood the market with the year's biggest titles -- but franceinfo has the rundown: 461 novels are being released, down from 484 in 2025, with French releases holding steady at 344 but translations down to 117 (vs. 140 in 2025).

       They list a few of the titles -- including Amélie Nothomb's latest (L'adolescence du perroquet; see also the Albin Michel publicity page).

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

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       Outsider Editions

       At Publishers Weekly David Varno profiles "a new paperback reissue imprint spearheaded by editorial director Thomas Gebremedhin" at Doubleday, in Outsider Editions Wants the Backlist's Outcasts.
       Always good to see yet another paperback reissue imprint, and Outsider Editions -- "a corrective to the perception of the canon as an immutable collection of works" ! -- does look promising.
       (Meanwhile: I've been at this so long that I still have an ARC of Han Ong's Fixer Chao floating around somewhere, from when it first came out.)

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

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       A Case of Need review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Michael Crichton's 1968 thriller, A Case of Need; he published this under the pseudonym 'Jeffery Hudson' -- and it won the 1969 Edgar Award.
       I was curious about this one since it deals with abortion -- still illegal in the US at the time, and, of course, now once again illegal in many states.
       (It was also made into a film in 1972 -- The Carey Treatment, directed by Blake Edwards (!), and starring James Coburn.)

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

       Luis Goytisolo (1935-2026)

       Sad to hear that Antagony-author (and brother of the great Juan) Luis Goytisolo has passed away; see, for example, EFE report.

       Back in 2009 there were (strong) rumors that Luis was a finalist for the Nobel Prize (see my discussion at the time), and in retrospect it seems plausible; one wonders what his chances would have been if Antagony had been available in English by then, and he had a somewhat stronger international presence .....
       See also the Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells author-page for information about more of his books (as he remains woefully under-translated into English).

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

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       James Joyce Archive

       An article about how James Joyce Archive brings 'unreadable' literature to life by Gillian Minaker at The Brock News is a fun reminder of this amazing work.
       The James Joyce Archive isn't his actual archive, but rather a sixty-three volume facsimile edition of all of Joyce's work and manuscripts, published in 1978 by Garland Publishing (list price at the time: US$4,995.00; apparently only 250 copies were published); they recently acquired a set at Brock University, occasioning the article.
       With online capabilities -- such as the James Joyce Digital Archive -- the printed version perhaps isn't as special and useful as once it was; still .....

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

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       Tanizaki Jun'ichirō profile

       At nippon.com Yamanaka Takeshi has a profile of Tanizaki Jun’ichirō: A Writer in Pursuit of Transcendent Beauty.

       Quite a few of Tanizaki's works are under review at the complete review:

• Devils in Daylight
• The Gourmet Club
• In Black and White
• In Praise of Shadows
• Longing and Other Stories
• The Maids
• Red Roofs & Other Stories
• The Siren's Lament

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

       Publishing in ... Australia

       Via, I am pointed to the Kill Your Darlings post where they: '"asked publishers, agents, booksellers and writers" Should We Be Publishing Fewer Books in Australia ?
       Interesting responses from those in the industry.

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

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       Australian Landfall review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Egon Erwin Kisch's 1937 account of making Australian Landfall.

       Much of this deals with the trials he was subjected to as the government wanted to keep him out as an 'undesirable alien', a rather famous and still-remembered case (not least because of the ridiculous 'language-test ' that could be used to weed out undesirables). Too much about that resonates all too strongly still in the present-day 'alien'-hostile climate.

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

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       Passenger to Frankfurt review

       The second-most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the late Agatha Christie stand-alone, Passenger to Frankfurt, which for some reason I forgot to mention when I posted it a few days ago.
       (Sure, arguably it's forgettable -- but not that forgettable; sorry about that.)

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

       Sergio Pitol profile

       At Mexico News Daily Alan Chazaro profiles the author, in How Sergio Pitol, one of Mexico's most influential writers, gave Xalapa its literary fame -- interesting not least because it points me to the Sergio Pitol Traductor-series published by the Universidad Veracruzana. Only twenty titles, but an interesting selection.

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       Indian literature, domestically and abroad

       At Times Now Girish Shukla argues that: 'a long pattern shows Indian readers embracing their own writers only after Western juries approve, and the habit carries real costs', in Why India Reads Its Authors Only After the West Approves Them (presumably paywalled -- but see e.g.).
       Not a new argument/complaint -- and not quite so straightforward as it's made out here: I think Shukla is flat-out wrong in claiming: "English translation is largely commissioned when international attention makes it viable"; as I often complain, many, many works written in Indian languages are translated into English and published in India itself but are hard to find in the US/UK, not getting published or distributed abroad.
       Shukla also suggests:

Publishers, knowing that domestic acclaim moves little, underinvest in exactly the literary fiction that prizes abroad later reward, an irony that outsources India's literary risk-taking to foreign juries.

       More problematically:

International juries reward what travels: Partition, borders, family, the themes legible from outside. The Indian books that do not travel, the office satire, the bureaucratic comedy, the untranslatably local, remain unvalidated and therefore, by the pipeline's logic, unread. The West's approval does not just select India's stars. It quietly edits India's sense of its own literature.

       Sigh. It's exactly those books that "do not travel" that I want to see/read.

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

       Hershel Parker (1935-2026)

       Melville scholar Hershel Parker recently passed away; see now, for example, the tribute at Northwestern University Press or the obituary (presumably paywalled) at The New York Times.
       See also the publicity pages for volume one and two for his Melville-biography at Johns Hopkins University Press.

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

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       Roderick Literary Award shortlist

       James Cook University has announced the shortlist for its Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, an A$50,000 prize "given to the best Australian book of the year that deals with any aspect of Australian life" -- making for a diverse list "including a picture book, memoir, poetry, YA and literary fiction, and an academic study".

       They've been giving out this award since 1967; previous winners include True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2000; he also won for Oscar and Lucinda in 1988) and The Tyrant's Novel by Thomas Keneally (2003; he also won for The Daughters of Mars (2012)).

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

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