The new Elena Ferrante is just one of the exciting novels in translation coming next year. Lara Feigel talks to the UK editors who are rediscovering classics and finding new audiencesThere are voices that speak to us across oceans and centuries with more intimacy than the people who surround us in our daily lives. These can speak directly with clarity and honesty: think of Elena Ferrante, whose feverishly awaited new novel The Lying Life of Adults is written from the perspective of an adolescent girl disillusioned by the “unreliable animals” inhabiting the adult world; or Natalia Ginzburg, writing in The Little Virtues that after the war “we cannot lie in our books and we cannot lie in any of the things we do”. They can speak meanderingly out of troubled nights, entering our dreams: think of Vigdis Hjorth, writing in Will and Testament that “it is terrible that someone who has been destroyed spreads destruction, and how hard that is to avoid”. Or they can speak precisely and carefully, allowing us to access our own hopes and fears by describing material surroundings in minute detail. In Territory of Light, Yūko Tsushima’s autobiographical tale of motherhood in the wake of divorce, there are long descriptions of the flat where she lives alone with her daughter: “The apartment was filled with light at any hour of the day.”From postwar Italy, from contemporary Norway, from 1970s Japan, these narrators speak of love, suffering and domestic labour. That we have access to these... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-11-23 08:00:49 UTC ]
Head of venerable press says his sector has important role in the defence of free speech and champions the revival of literary fiction and traditional booksFaber & Faber’s chief executive has called for publishers to oppose crackdowns on free speech and the rise of so-called fake news.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The dominance of three honours in the UK can be prohibitively expensive for small publishers, and end up discouraging risk-taking on ‘difficult’ authorsCutting-edge British literary fiction risks being undermined by its growing reliance on a handful of powerful book prizes, a leading literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From literary fiction to middle-grade series, Singapore’s new literary voices are getting louder, and their works finding new homes far away from the tropical city-state. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Singapore literature, or Sing lit as it is known locally, is getting hot—and it is not because of the island’s tropical climate. Recent months have seen many titles, from literary fiction to middle grade series, getting picked up by overseas publishers, including those from the U.K. and U.S. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The British-based Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for literary fiction in the world, announced its longlist Wednesday, with five American authors on the list of 13. It’s only the third year that authors from outside the Commonwealth have been considered for the prize, which... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I first met Peter Owen in the late 1980s, when he published some short stories that I had written about Saudi Arabia. I was invited to interesting parties at his house in Holland Park, west London, and at various embassies where he would launch the many translations of literary fiction he... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ten years and 800,000 words ago, Justin Cronin, at the time a well-regarded, if largely unknown, author of literary fiction and a recipient of the PEN/Hemingway Award, started telling a story—one that he didn’t think would be published. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reclusive Italian writer Elena Ferrante and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk have been named on the six-strong Man Booker International Prize shortlist. Three titles from independent publishers feature on the list: Ferrante's The Story of The Lost Child, the final novel in her Neapolitan quartet,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While taking stock of lagging literacy rates and persistent economic challenges, literary agent Patricia Seibel still sees quality and a loyalty to literary fiction as hallmarks of Portugal's resilient market. The post Portugal’s Book Market: A Few Words With Patricia Seibel appeared first on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Millennial women who grew up reading JK Rowling’s wizard series are driving sales in other genres as they reach their 20s and 30s, according to recent researchThe women switched on to books by Harry Potter are shaping the literary world, according to new research, boosting the market in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elena Ferrante's hit Neapolitan quartet is to be adapted into an eight-part Italian language TV series. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Perspectives' Erin L. Cox looks back at 2015 in publishing and highlights three significant moments that sparked conversation in the literary world. The post 3 Key Publishing Moments of 2015, the Year of Provocative Thinking appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Fry will voice two classic detective stories exclusively for Audible. Fry, who voiced all seven of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, will voice The Coin of Dionysius and The Game Played in the Dark by Ernest Bramah, which features the blind detective Max Carrados who was first... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elena Ferrante—the mysterious Italian writer whose Neapolitan novels have captivated the literary world with their portrait of a lifelong female friendship—has been asked many times why she keeps her identity private. She has responded with many variations on the answer that she gave Vanity Fair... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bookstore/art gallery is adding a trade imprint, Chatwin Books, focused on literary fiction and poetry. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Avery has been promoted to editorial director of William Heinemann. Avery joined the Cornerstone imprint in 2011 as editor, and was made senior editor in 2013. Before joining William Heinemann he was at Jonathan Cape and Vintage Books. Avery publishes non-fiction and some literary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Tramp Press asked authors submitting manuscripts to name the writers who inspire them, only 22% were female - pointing again to ‘the larger issue in the industry: our habitual dismissal of women’An Irish publisher has stoked the flames of the gender debate currently running in the literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing sector has the lowest level of illegal downloads in the entertainment industry, with book piracy at half the rate of copyright theft in film and musicFor publishers, fresh from winning a landmark ruling forcing internet service providers to block illegal ebook download sites in Russia... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harper Lee’s unexpected companion novel to To Kill a Mockingbird has bookshops readying for huge salesRead the first chapterListen to an extract read by Reese WitherspoonFirst chapter review: A beguiling journey into the pastSix months ago, it was a book the literary world would have laughed off... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After attending a panel discussion on 'The Crisis of American Fiction,' in which an all-male panel discussed only male authors for an entire hour, author Kamila Shamsie began to research the dearth of women in publishing and literary fiction. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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