Border crossing: How translated fiction can open up the world

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 ]

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Our 15 Most-Read Posts Of All Time

Fifteen years ago, Electric Literature started as a print and digital quarterly journal during the glory days of the print magazine era. Our very first issue surpassed 10,000 copies in sales, we were stocked in newsstands and bookstores, and as an e-book. We were one of the first to publish... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-27 11:10:00 UTC ]
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All the times Sally Rooney was saner than Book Media.

It’s delightful, on the one hand, to have a feverish Book Event. I’m as excited as anyone that we’re doing midnight release parties for literary fiction in the year of our lord 2024. That said, we need to talk about the Rooneyverse. This week, we’re getting a novel—Intermezzo—from Sally Rooney,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-23 13:55:56 UTC ]
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Tim O'Connell Takes the Reigns at Saga Press

O’Connell comes to Saga from the flagship Simon & Schuster imprint, for which he will continue to acquire literary fiction and select nonfiction. Joe Monti, who founded Saga in 2015, has been promoted to VP, associate publisher, and editorial director. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘My Brilliant Friend’

The first novel in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet was just voted the best book of the 21st century. We like it too. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-08-23 13:58:16 UTC ]
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Artists and Activists Both Have a Role. But Not the Same One.

As the literary world is roiled by fights over politics and war, are we losing sight of the writer’s purpose? Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-08-05 09:03:35 UTC ]
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Book Club: Read ‘My Brilliant Friend’ With the Book Review

In August, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “My Brilliant Friend,” the first book in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-07-31 09:04:25 UTC ]
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War, Trauma, and Human Courage: A Conversation with Zhang Ling, by Yan Lu

War, Trauma, and Human Courage: A Conversation with Zhang Ling, by Yan Lu Interviews [email protected] Mon, 07/22/2024 - 16:20 Zhang Ling is the author of ten novels, including A Single Swallow (trans. Shelly Bryant) and Where Waters Meet, the... Continue reading at World Literature Today

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A Real Contender for Best Book of the 21st Century

A work of literary fiction with a mystery at its center that explores family, friendship, and loss. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-07-19 16:15:00 UTC ]
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Goodreads reviews of JD Vance’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ are stuck in limbo amid news that Trump picked the author to be his VP

If you had a sudden urge to review the 2016 memoir for some reason, you might be out of luck right now. Yesterday, former president Donald Trump announced his running mate for the 2024 election: Senator JD Vance of Ohio. Vance, a onetime fierce critic of Trump, is a relative newcomer to... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2024-07-16 12:25:00 UTC ]
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Our 21 Most-Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2024

It might be a bad year in the world, generally speaking, but it has been a great year for books—especially genre books! I love some good literary fiction as much as anybody but I’m a sucker for a good book of magic, dragons, spaceships, monsters, slashers, ghosts, etc… and so I’ve been combing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-07-03 08:56:04 UTC ]
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Fall 2024 Adult Preview: Literary Fiction

Among this fall’s noteworthy titles are novels by Rachel Kushner, Richard Price, and Elizabeth Strout about people grasping for a sense of community in a changing world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Atria to Relaunch Washington Square Press Imprint

Washington Square Press, which has for years served as a home for many of Atria's trade paperback conversions, will relaunch as a frontlist hardcover imprint in spring 2025. Helmed by Atria VP and editorial director Lindsay Sagnette, the reimagined imprint will focus on literary fiction,... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins

Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/29/2024 - 15:10 An epic family saga that spans over one hundred years and two countries, Wendy Chen’s powerful, lyrical debut,... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-29 20:10:46 UTC ]
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Predicting the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

With March Madness and the Super Bowl recently crowning champions and the Grammys and Oscars awarding music and movies, it’s finally time for the literary world to have its own big moment in the sun. And that can only mean one thing: It’s Pulitzer time! While there are many book awards that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-19 11:15:00 UTC ]
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PEN President Jennifer Finney Boylan Announces Plans to Review PEN’s Work Going Back a Decade

PEN America has faced an enormous amount of criticism from the literary world for, among other things, failing to call Israel’s six-month assault on Gaza a genocide, and is now facing a wave of withdrawals from two of its signature events, the literary awards and the World Voices Festival. In... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-18 14:26:32 UTC ]
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Unruly Writing: On the Problem with the Fragmented Art History Book

There is a disturbing trend that has emerged in the literary world as of late. Let’s call it the “Fragmented Non-Fiction Art History” book. These titles look good on bookshelves, with their aesthetically-inclined covers and trendy lineup of female artists they purport to be about. The covers are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-05 09:53:47 UTC ]
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‘God forbid that a dog should die’: when Goodreads reviews go bad

From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachro­nistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
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The Book Behind ‘American Fiction’ Came Out 23 Years Ago. It’s Still Current.

The movie, with its handful of Oscar nominations, has refocused attention on “Erasure,” a satire of the literary world and its racial biases. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-02-03 10:02:42 UTC ]
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The 23 Most Popular Books on Book Riot in 2023

These are the 23 most clicked-on books featured on Book Riot in 2023, from fantasy to literary fiction and more. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-01-16 11:45:00 UTC ]
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Exclusive Cover Reveal of “If Only” by Vigdis Hjorth

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover for the novel If Only by Vigdis Hjorth, which will be published by Verso Books on September 3, 2024. Preorder the book here. “A relatively young woman, aged thirty. She married in her early twenties, had two children. It is winter. January and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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