Book Reviews Apala Bhowmick The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die (John Murray, 2019), by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, translated from the original Bangla by Arunava Sinha, is a fast-paced thriller about the rescue mission around the flagging finances of an erstwhile-affluent Bengali family who open a shop in the city that sells sarees. The narrators consist of three women of different generations of the family, lending the plot a delightful tripartite divide. It is a tale about the tenacity of the human spirit to withstand hardships and about human relationships that endure. This translation—of a difficult text to translate—possesses the rare quality of being appealing to both the English-speaking reader and to the audience who can understand the Bengali language. I’ve had a chance to read the original Bengali text as well, and the work has been successfully transferred, cultural flavor and all, into a rather curt and mercantile language like English. Speaking of mercantilism, the reader will be afforded a sidelong glance at upper-middle-class Bengali sentiments, at least at a certain point in the history of this community, toward professions like the merchant’s or the petit bourgeois shopkeeper’s. Words like shaashuri and Pishima have been retained, and the name Chakor Mitra, which the reader will encounter on the very first page, is phonetically funny but also funny when you know the implications of the first name when it’s used as a noun in... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-03-10 15:47:11 UTC ]
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Coffee House Press, with two finalists, and Cinco Puntos Press join FSG and Pantheon with titles on the shortlist for this year's prestigious PEN Faulkner Award for fiction. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When the New York Times Co. bought the Boston Globe for $1.1 billion in 1993, many of the nation’s newspaper publishing companies happily would have paid the same price for the same opportunity. With the Globe now on track to be sold for ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Debbie Ford wrote 'The Dark side of the Light Chasers,' a self-help book. Debbie Ford built on her self-help books to become a lecturer, teacher, self-help coach at the The Ford Institute for Transformational Training. Ford passed on Sunday. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Southern California author's first story collection draws from his experiences in high school basketball, plumbing sales and more.There's a subtle arc to Jim Gavin's first book, "Middle Men" (Simon & Schuster: 224 pp., $23). Gathering seven stories largely set in Southern California, it... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins is to merge its three non-fiction divisions into two imprints, creating a new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It is no surprise to see aphorism alive and thriving in our current celebrity climate. The forgotten, it may be assumed, never said anything interesting, whereas choice words of the famous live forever at cocktail parties and in book reviews. To carry a portfolio of pithy quotations is to... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rosemary Clarke, director of programmes at Booktrust, died last weekend after a short illness.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The distinguished editor Peter Carson died today (9th January) following a long illness. Carson... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction has been announced in a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Egmont Press has acquired a debut historical fiction title, The Executioner's Daughter, by TV... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency has appointed David Haviland to build a fiction list, with the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's book awards time in the UK! The five Costa Book Awards were all won by women writers, while Queen Elizabeth’s New Years Honours List included several authors. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder Children’s Books has acquired a new series, Foxy Fiction, by author Caryl Hart and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lion Hudson is launching a fiction imprint “as a platform for Christian novelists from all... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent David Bolt died on 16th November, aged 84. Bolt worked at David Higham... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray is planning to expand its non-fiction publishing output and has appointed Georgina... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frank Cottrell Boyce’s The Unforgotten Coat, published by Walker, has won the 2012 Guardian... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Individual donors including Christopher Foyle, Joanna Trollope, ebook site Bilbary, Cherie Blair... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Piccadilly Press is claiming to be the first publisher to have harnessed the 50 Shades-generated... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Award-winning newspaper publisher Arthur Sulzberger Sr, who led the New York Times for three decades, dies at 86 after a long illness. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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