Interviews Emilio Fraia’s Sevastopol, out this summer from New Directions, is the sort of book that beguiles and dazzles in equal measure. Consisting of three disparate stories—of a mountain climber attempting to scale Mt. Everest, a mysterious loner who vanishes into the Brazilian countryside, and an avant-garde production set during the Crimean War—the book is an enigma: Is it a linked collection, a “novel-in-stories,” or something else entirely? Fluidly translated by Zoë Perry, the work came together over an extended period, with sections first published in Granta’s Best Young Brazilian Novelists issue in 2012 and the New Yorker in 2019. Fraia, who lives in São Paulo, spoke over email about Sevastopol, the shadowy realms of fiction, and the “Fora Bolsonaro” movement, among other things. Anderson Tepper: Emilio, before I ask you about the book, I want to know how things are in Brazil right now and what is happening with the pandemic. Emilio Fraia: So far, some 560,000 Brazilians have died, the direct result of Bolsonaro’s criminal conduct during the pandemic. He has made countless statements against the vaccine, against wearing masks, and in favor of ineffective drug therapies. At no point during this tragedy has the president uttered a single word of true grief for victims of the virus. And as if that weren’t enough, now his government is embroiled in a bribery scandal involving the purchase of overpriced vaccines, and every... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-09 20:31:30 UTC ]
Mariam Rahmani’s debut novel is both charmingly familiar and totally unpredictable. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2025-03-26 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Two Dollar Radio has been quietly rocking the publishing world since its inception in 2005. The Ohio-based indie publisher and “family outfit” turns twenty this year, and we at Lit Hub want to extend a hearty happy birthday. In a literary landscape that’s often knocked for a fear of risk-taking,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-03-14 18:01:37 UTC ]
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In this land of opportunities, being an immigrant can often feel like playing a round of Twister. A certain contortion of mind, language, and will power seems written into the script; a lot of territory remains untouchable. Shubha Sunder’s debut novel Optional Practical Training is named after... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-07 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Fifteen years ago, Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel became a best seller, but was also heavily criticized for its portrayal of Black characters. Now, she has written second novel, “The Calamity Club.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-03-07 10:04:33 UTC ]
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Emily St. James’s debut novel Woodworking chronicles the developing friendship between a 16-year-old trans girl and her recently-out-to-herself English teacher in Mitchell, South Dakota in the months leading up to the 2016 election. In a town like Mitchell, secrets are few and far between,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Climate change is conspicuously absent from most realist, literary fiction set in the present day. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, droughts and other natural disasters are part of our daily lives, yet they’re absent, save for brief mentions of a news clip for a college protest from much of our... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, the highly-anticipated debut novel by Yiming Ma, which will be published by Mariner Books in the US and McClelland & Stewart in Canada on August 12, 2025. You can pre-order here in US or here in Canada.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Houser will publish his debut novel A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, an adaptation of his hit podcast, this fall. The book is the first title from the new publishing arm of his entertainment company, Absurd Ventures. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fiona Warnick talks to Sheila Heti about AI, writing for children, and the negotiation of public and private selves. | Lit Hub In Conversation How much can—or should—we know about our literary idols? Anna Funder on George Orwell and real life doublethink. | Lit Hub Memoir “I’d always figured... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-24 11:30:43 UTC ]
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Georgia Hunter's debut novel about a Polish Jewish family that survived the Holocaust was turned into a Hulu series. Her second novel, 'One Good Thing,' revisits WWII Europe but is a more conventional work. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-02-24 11:00:28 UTC ]
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“You see, but you do not observe.” –Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia” * It all started with a book that made me curious. I was on a house call in Georgetown, invited to browse the personal book collection of a woman who used to be a professional rare book dealer like me. I spent […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-19 10:58:39 UTC ]
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Sophie Lewis chronicles the rise and fall of #girlboss feminism: “The funeral for ‘trickle-down feminism,’ eerily, keeps repeating itself, suggesting that, every time we report that the girlboss is dead, we’re being wishful.” | Lit Hub Criticism Rebecca Romney on unearthing a legacy of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-18 11:30:57 UTC ]
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Out of 1,100 submissions, writer Giada Scodellaro’s Ruins, Child has won the 2024 Novel Prize, and will be published early next year. The Novel Prize is awarded biennially to an unpublished work of literary fiction and “rewards novels that explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-13 18:21:05 UTC ]
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Regular bookstores might be dying—but bookstores dedicated to romance novels are thriving thanks to TikTok and a desire for third places. Throughout Harvard Square, there are many bookshop brimming with the latest literary fiction and intellectual memoirs, patronized by scholarly types. But in... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2025-02-13 10:30:00 UTC ]
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1. Check the cover for clues. Literary fiction will have the title in Helvetica along with amorphous shapes in shades of that year’s Pantone color. Genre fiction will have a little cutout showing the face of either a wizard or a rakish duke. It opens to reveal the whole picture, and they’re... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-07 12:15:00 UTC ]
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This week, the book-reading internet was apparently in a mild uproar over six redesigns of Jane Austen novels, which will be published—with new introductions from popular contemporary YA romance novelists like Ali Hazelwood and Tessa Bailey—by Puffin, Penguin UK’s children’s imprint, in March.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-04 14:47:27 UTC ]
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Olufunke Grace Bankole’s debut novel The Edge of Water opens with a prophecy: “A storm is coming.” The order of things, the Iyanifa tells us, will be disrupted by a soul who defies her fate. What follows is the story of three generations of Nigerian and Nigerian American women: Esther, who... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Good Girl—the debut novel by award-winning poet Aria Aber—follows nineteen-year-old Nila as she becomes charmed in a Berlin club and falls manically in love with Marlowe, an older brooding American writer. Raised by Afghan refugees, Nila’s childhood remains haunted by the shadows of exile while... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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I purposely avoided reading the works of other Palestinian American novelists making their ways into the world as I wrote Too Soon. When I looked up, I saw my book would be a part of a literary wave I had no idea I was riding, an artistic movement, that felt particular to the Palestinian... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-01-22 09:59:55 UTC ]
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