Why This Book Should Win: "The Island of Second Sight" by Albert Vigoleis Thelen [BTBA 2013]
As in years past, we will be highlighting all 25 titles on the BTBA Fiction Longlist, one by one, building up to the announcement of the 10 finalists on April 10th. A variety of judges, booksellers, and readers will write these, all under the rubric of “Why This Book Should Win. You can find the whole series by clicking ...
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Best Translated Book 2008 Longlist: The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans
We’re into the home stretch now . . . Through next Friday we’ll be highlighting a book-a-day from the 25-title Best Translated Book of 2008 fiction longlist, leading up to the announcement of the 10 finalists. Click here for all previous write-ups. The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans, ...
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Congrats to Peter Mayer
Here’s a little nugget from the London Book Fair: Introduced by agent Ed Victor as a “publisher to his core,” Peter Mayer, former head of Penguin and who now runs both Overlook Press and Duckworth Press, was presented with the Trilogy Lifetime Achievement Award at a lunch during Tuesday’s London Book Fair. ...
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Kharms Excerpt
The Winged Elephant has an excerpt of the new Kharms book that, like most of Kharms’s writing, is short, precise, hysterical and fantastic. This is all I can comfortably quote here without violating free use rules: One day Orlov stuffed himself with mashed peas and died. When a story opens like that, you ...
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The New Yorker, Bringing the International Fiction
Now if they’d only get rid of the lame cartoons, I’d really like the New Yorker. Anyway, on top of the Kunkel review of Robert Walser, this week’s New Yorker includes some pieces from the OBERIU-founding, grand-absurdist Daniil Kharms. Any Kharms books, stories, excerpts you can get your hands on are ...
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