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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An unconventional collection of novels failed to generate a consensus among the Pulitzer board members. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The late Manning Marable won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for history, honored for a Malcolm X book. But no Pulitzer Prize was awarded for fiction. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Interactive Advertising Bureau is addressing a problem that's plagued tech-centric industries since the first Mac-vs.-Dos argument: standardization. The problem has become acute for Web video, an industry enjoying meteoric growth, and the growing pains that come with that growth. So the IAB... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As digital book sales continue to gain traction, the comparison between bookstores and record stores has gotten closer. Coupled with the comparisons comes an implicit warning that bookstores could share the fate of Tower, Virgin, and HMV—record stores that are all gone. While the number of... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comic-book nerds are about to have it all. Beginning this month, all new Marvel releases are available digitally the same day they hit shelves. But the real feat is this: Comic-book stores will be on board with the change, too. That's because Marvel has spent years developing its strategy,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#graphic novels
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The literary genre is white-hot in Hollywood, with filmmakers bidding on unpublished books and paying as much as $1 million for the rights to relatively modest sellers.The back-to-back blockbuster successes of "Harry Potter," "Twilight" and now "The Hunger Games" have turned the hunt for fresh... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By encouraging readers to tackle longer, more sophisticated novels, the queen of daytime TV may have hurt overall fiction sales. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble has said it will expand its digital business internationally but will not... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Other National Book Critics Circle honorees include writer John Lewis Gaddis for 'George F. Kennan: An American Life' and Maya Jasanoff for 'Liberty's Exiles.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The under-the-radar author won for her collection "Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories."Reporting from New York -- The National Book Critics Circle gave its 2011 fiction prize to Edith Pearlman, an under-the-radar writer of short stories, at its annual awards ceremony Thursday evening at... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A novel banned by the Chinese government has made the longlist for the Independent Foreign... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jan Berenstain and her husband, Stan, published their first Berenstain Bears book in 1962. Three hundred titles about the family of bears that deal with everyday problems appeared, as well as videos and TV shows.Jan Berenstain, who with her husband, Stan, made up one of the most successful... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Lifespan of a Fact' lays out a thought-provoking debate of the issue between authors John D'Agata and Jim Fingal.The key passage in John D'Agata and Jim Fingal's "The Lifespan of a Fact" (W.W. Norton: 124 pp., $17.95 paper) comes late in the book, during an exchange on the role of fact in... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Transworld titles earn pride of place in both the Mass-market and Original Fiction charts this... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith is to promote cross- over young adult (YA) titles more directly to adults via a new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith says it increased its market share over the Christmas period, with retail analysts... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Germany’s top fiction title at the end of December, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out His Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson climbed up from #5, supplanting previous chart-topper Inheritance (Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance was also #2 in Spain). Jonasson’s novel has sold more... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#million copies
Jon Appleton has been appointed to the newly-created post of editorial director for fiction at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Sutherland, a former judge and chair of the Man Booker prize, is to chair the judging panel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Saqi Books is to launch a new non-fiction imprint, with plans to publish... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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