Interviews Renee H. Shea Monique Truong / Photo © Haruka Sakaguchi Monique Truong, who came to the United States in 1975 as a refugee from Vietnam, began exploring untold and ignored histories in her first novel, The Book of Salt (2003), told through the voice of Binh, the cook of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris. Her autobiographical second novel, Bitter in the Mouth (2010) is a coming-of-age story set in North Carolina. In her most recent novel, The Sweetest Fruits (Viking, 2019), Truong tells the story of Lafcadio Hearn from the perspective of three women: his mother, Rosa; his first wife, Alethea; and his Japanese wife, Setsu. Shea: At its core, The Sweetest Fruits is a story about storytelling—and it’s Russian dolls of narrative! It’s not only that three different women have their say about Hearn and their relationship with him, but each is telling her story to a specific audience—so issues of mediation and agency add further complications, as do oral vs. written stories and translation. How did you arrive at this approach instead of just telling the story in the voice of one person, then the next, then the next? Truong: This question is a Russian doll of inquiries! You’re absolutely right that the novel is interested in the different ways that stories are transmitted to us: oral vs. written, in our mother tongue vs. in translation, private story vs. public history, women’s voices vs. men’s, face-to-face vs.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-09-17 13:54:26 UTC ]
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Author Philippa Gregory insists on a “clause” in film contracts to prevent filmmakers from changing historic facts in her work. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new book chronicles the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and its stunning aftermath. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2016-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The U.S. Hispanic population of 56.6 millionaccounting for 17.6% of U.S. inhabitants and 11.3% of all purchasing poweris a particularly key demographic in this presidential election year, with about 27.3 million eligible Hispanic voters who are adult U.S. citizens. Spanish-language media giant... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2016-08-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It might be a double-edged sword, Jennifer Close says, that her fourth novel, "The Hopefuls" (Knopf, July), is being published the same week that the Republicans in Cleveland, and the Democrats in Philadelphia the following week, are convening to select their presidential nominees. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When 15-year-old Alex Cooper told her Mormon parents she liked girls, she expected a bad reaction- but not eight months of captivity and abuse at the hands of a couple practicing ‘gay conversion therapy.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Confessions of a Book Reviewer, George Orwell wrote that even the harried and poverty-stricken literature critic was nonetheless “better off than the film critic, who cannot even do his work at home, but has to attend trade shows at eleven in the morning and, with one or two notable... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2016-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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“The way people buy books today is completely different from how they bought them five or 10 years ago,” Martin Lindstrom says. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three years ago Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist and associate professor at the Harvard Business School, garnered a lot of attention for a TED Talk on body language and power posing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As part of his Sunday morning presentation, consumer expert Martin Lindstrom, author of the soon-to-be-published Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends, selected five booksellers for an onstage business review. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Monique Schwitter has won the 2015 Swiss Book Prize for her book, One in the Other. She will receive 30,000 Swiss francs in prize winnings. The post Monique Schwitter Wins Swiss Book Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dodo Ink has bought a literary erotic novella by Monique Roffey about a married couple whose relationship is going stale until they meet a mysterious femme fatale. UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, were acquired from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Nearest Thing to Life is the latest collection from James Wood, the English literary critic and New Yorker writer. The book consists of several of Wood’s lectures; it is less focused on the specific novelists and essayists whom Wood is famous for evaluating and instead serves as an... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's been a year since the death of Michael Brown. We'd like to hear from you about the books you feel are moving the conversation around race and racism forward. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marketers continue to boost spending in the U.S. Hispanic media market, with 2014 advertising outlays growing by 12.0%, far ahead of the estimated 4.9% growth for overall U.S. major-media ad spending. As usual, internet spending (up 18.3%) and TV (up 14.7%) fueled that growth. Newspapers eked... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2015-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The music played by Radio 2 is not replicated anywhere else – and then there’s our drivetime book club, children’s writing contest and moreIt is true that in the next few months, many folk will want to have their say about the BBC. It is also true that many of them will have earned good money... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones has more than tripled sales of its Fiction Book of the Month in volume terms in the past two years, the company’s head of events and PR Sandra Taylor revealed. She said its Book of the Month choices were “consistently making bestsellers because we are hand-selling better”. Giving... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After 750 fans gave Judy Blume a standing ovation before she even said a word on stage, Jennifer Weiner kicked off an hour-long Q&A with Blume during BookCon. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With her recent promotion to editorial director of romance added to her existing role as executive editor at St. Martin’s Press, Monique Patterson will help oversee the house’s romance program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Winter Institute offers many ways for booksellers to interact with authors, with dozens participating in Tuesday evening’s author reception and Wednesday’s closing event with writers from small presses and university presses. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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