The Indian
The opening of Jón Gnarr’s novel/memoir The Indian is a playful bit of extravagant ego, telling the traditional story of creation, where the “Let there be light!” moment is also the moment of his birth on January 2nd, 1967. Then comes sly awareness of the flow from preconsciousness to consciousness, “Murmuring ...
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Mother of 1084; Old Women; Breast Stories
Mahasweta Devi is not only one of the most prolific Bengali authors, but she’s also an important activist. In fact, for Devi, the two seem to go together. As you can probably tell from the titles, she writes about women and their place in Indian society. Some of the characters in her stories are old women living in poverty, ...
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2015 PEN Literary Awards Shortlists
A month or so after the longlists were announced, PEN has announced the finalists for all of their literary prizes, including two translation-specific ones. * First up is the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, which has a killer shortlist: Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon, translated from the Korean by ...
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Tristana
The prolific Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós wrote his short novel, Tristana, during the closing years of the nineteenth century, a time when very few options were available to women of limited financial means who did not want a husband. Tristana desires independence and freedom, and she possesses the intelligence and ...
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Antoine Volodine at "The New Inquiry"
Over at The New Inquiry, there’s an extensive, amazing essay about “post-exotic novels” by Antoine Volodine, man of a few pseudonyms, author of Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven, winner of the Prix Médicis (for another book that Open Letter will be publishing), and creator of one of the most ...
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April is Open Letter Month at Quail Ridge Books!
Way back in the last millennium, I worked for a time at Quail Ridge Books, the best independent bookstore in Raleigh and, at that time at least, probably the whole Triangle. I started as a general bookseller, worked in receiving, and designed the “International Fiction” section before leaving for Dalkey Archive ...
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I Am a Sore Loser [Some April Translations]
Back when I was in junior high, my best friend and I would spend hours and hours playing Double Dribble on his Nintendo. (Fun fact! This game was called “Exciting Basket” in Japan.) I might be 100% wrong, but I’m pretty sure this was the first basketball game for the Nintendo. And man, was it ever low rent. ...
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