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 ]
“By relearning his grandmother’s old style of storytelling, Márquez began telling a story unlike any before.” Angus Fletcher on what Gabriel García Márquez understood about rediscovery. | Lit Hub Criticism Are climate change novels a form of activism? Seven novelists weigh in, including Pitchaya... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-24 09:30:49 UTC ]
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This year marks the sixth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, an international accord that marks the first time nearly every nation on Earth promised to tackle the climate crisis. The goals set by that agreement, however, have not been met. As the climate crisis worsens, more novelists than... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-24 08:53:41 UTC ]
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Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. If you're reading this online or in a forwarded email, here's the link to sign up for our Wake-Up Call newsletters. Touchdown for Amazon Good morning! Amazon executives are sure having a... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2021-03-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Our food writer found a cure for this never-ending winter in a 17-year-old cookbook that elevates the art of the slow braise. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2021-03-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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At the Guardian, Kazuo Ishiguro discusses his newest book, Klara and the Sun, and how this latest offering echoes themes and ideas he has often explored in his previous work. “Literary novelists are slightly defensive about being repetitive,” Ishiguro says. “I think it is perfectly justified:... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-02-26 21:30:38 UTC ]
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“Like so many women novelists of previous centuries, Yezierska’s canonical status is a phenomenon of the recent past.” Catherine Rottenberg on the overdue revival of Anzia Yezierska. | Lit Hub Fashion isn’t frivolous: Francesca Granata recommends books central to our understanding of femininity,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-26 10:30:02 UTC ]
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Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, both published by Chatto & Windus, are among titles longlisted for this year's £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-22 15:59:07 UTC ]
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MOST NOVELISTS WHO want to embed sophisticated ideas in their fiction resort to long stretches of dialogue. In the traditional philosophical novel, loquacious characters are the vehicles for politics or principles. Sarah Moss is different. She favors realism and interiority. In each of her... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-02-21 13:30:51 UTC ]
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Welbeck Publishing Group has acquired an epic historical fiction series by Dr Hilary Jones, the general practitioner and media doctor. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-12 01:43:04 UTC ]
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Over the past 20 years, industry shifts have funneled more novelists into TV rooms than ever. It's salutary in many ways — beginning with health insurance. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-11 15:00:05 UTC ]
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She brought her exacting tastes, both literary and culinary, to undertakings including a massive update of the time-honored tome ‘Joy of Cooking.’ Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-10 13:23:20 UTC ]
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The editor behind the 1997 revision of 'The Joy of Cooking' and many other influential cookbooks, as well as works of nonfiction and literature, died on Saturday on Long Island. She was 79. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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If you enjoyed Maggie O'Farrell's historical fiction about Shakespeare's son, check out these thematically similar books like HAMNET. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-02-03 11:37:00 UTC ]
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‘The Ideal City’ collects the most successful urban ideas from around the world, to serve as a sort of cookbook of best practices for city leaders. By the end of the century, if cities continue to grow at current rates, the world’s urban space may expand by 618,000 square miles—the equivalent... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2021-02-03 07:00:40 UTC ]
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The author of best-selling books set in medieval England and Wales, she insisted that historical fiction had an obligation to the facts. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-29 22:25:25 UTC ]
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Tributes have been paid to US author Sharon Penman, a “giant” of historical fiction, who has passed away at the age of 75. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-28 04:51:02 UTC ]
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Network Automation Cookbook is designed to help system administrators, network engineers, and infrastructure automation engineers to centrally manage switches, routers, and other devices in their organization's network. This book will help you gain hands-on experience in automating enterprise... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2021-01-20 14:20:02 UTC ]
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Debut novelists performed solidly last year, despite widespread fears that they would lose out to more established authors due to 2020's pandemic-hit publishing schedules. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-14 13:16:53 UTC ]
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In this Read Harder Challenge post, we're recommending books for the task asking you to read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-01-11 11:31:00 UTC ]
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It’s a truism that historical fiction reveals more about its own age it than the one it portrays. We can’t escape or even perceive our own biases, the reasoning goes, so we end up helplessly projecting them onto a past where they don’t belong. But the past is not a museum, and contemporary... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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