Sex, Time, and Memory: Annie Ernaux’s Young Man, by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 08/21/2023 - 15:04 The Young Man—forthcoming from Seven Stories in September 2023—is Annie Ernaux’s first novel in English translation after receiving the most coveted honor in literature, the Nobel Prize in Literature, in October 2022 (see WLT’s review of Le Jeune Homme, May 2023, 73). A slim book of autofiction, translated by Alison Strayer, it is a few pages shorter than Simple Passion (1991), her shortest book so far. With deft terseness, Ernaux recounts her short relationship with a student thirty years younger than her. The epigraph reiterates the raison d’être of her writing: living is incomplete without evaluating life’s experiences. Life is spontaneous facticity, spent in accordance with one’s desires and impulses. Writing throws new light on life. It unearths, as Ernaux puts it in The Girl’s Story (2016), something that is irreducible to any singular explanation. In a startling sentence at the beginning of The Young Man, Ernaux equates writing with the need and possibility of overcoming “the fatigue, the dereliction” of sex and the violence of orgasm. She feels writing brings “greater pleasure” than sex, because it doesn’t abandon you to a postcoital void. It is reminiscent of Roland Barthes’s idea of body-writing in The Pleasure of the Text (1973), of writing as a fragmented overcoming of... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2023-08-21 20:04:48 UTC ]
A haunting horror novel set a century ago in the American West, Eleanor Catton’s first novel in a decade, a Ukrainian war diary and much more. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-03-01 10:00:54 UTC ]
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As the winner of the second annual Books Like Us First Novel Prize, Dorabji will receive a $50,000 book deal with Simon & Schuster. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree and Center for Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novel prize finalist Lydia Kiesling’s second novel, Mobility, which this August will be the first book to be published on the new imprint from Crooked Media,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-13 16:01:46 UTC ]
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“Essex Dogs,” the first novel in a projected trilogy by the historian Dan Jones, imagines a hard-bitten band of mercenaries hired to invade France on behalf of their English king. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-02-03 10:00:06 UTC ]
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Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew talks to River Sing Me Home author Eleanor Shearer about her hotly... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-01 09:53:21 UTC ]
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Jesmyn Ward's next novel, LET US DESCEND, will be published on October 3, 2023. It's her first novel since SING, UNBURIED, SING. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-01-28 01:23:42 UTC ]
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Lovers of gorgeous prose and ghost-soaked literary fiction rejoice: two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward’s next novel officially has a release date. Let Us Descend, Ward’s first novel in five years (since 2017’s Sing, Unburied Sing) will be published by Scribner on October 3. The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-27 15:09:45 UTC ]
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The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy’s first novel since The Road in 2006, shows him at the peak of his powers even as he nears his ninetieth year. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2022-11-24 13:19:55 UTC ]
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Author of the Inspector Alan Banks series and welcome presence at crime fiction festivals around the worldPeter Robinson was the creator of the immensely popular Inspector Alan Banks crime series, set in Yorkshire – the books sold almost 9m copies in 19 languages and spawned a successful... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-14 16:44:04 UTC ]
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A passage from Cormac McCarthy’s first novel since his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2006 book “The Road.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-10-14 12:10:42 UTC ]
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"Please don't ban my books in my hometown," John Green concluded in the TikTok. "It's really upsetting for my mom." Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-09-13 13:44:10 UTC ]
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Author of The Horse Whisperer, the 1995 book that was turned into a popular film, starring and directed by Robert RedfordNicholas Evans, who has died aged 72 after a heart attack, was the unlikely author of the bestselling novel The Horse Whisperer (1995), which became a Robert Redford film.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-16 17:09:25 UTC ]
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What are some of the best short stories about childhood, and the experiences of children? Although there are dozens of classic tales about those formative years, the following stories represent, for our money, some of the finest stories about children taking the rocky path of knowledge and... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-08-05 14:00:32 UTC ]
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Many fiction writers wind up wishing they could redraft their early works. Akhil Sharma actually did. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-07-12 13:49:06 UTC ]
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Herzog's novel follows Hiroo Onoda, a real Japanese lieutenant who terrorized the Philippine villagers of Lubang Island with guerrilla tactics for 29 years after World War II’s conclusion. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-06-16 12:36:39 UTC ]
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'Tomb of Sand' is the first novel translated from an Indian language to win the award. Shree and Rockwell split the International Booker's £50,000 purse. The post In London, Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell Win the 2022 International Booker Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-05-26 21:30:55 UTC ]
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Nina LaCour's first novel for adults, "Yerba Buena," follows a promising and complicated lesbian love story in the mold of Sarah Waters. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-05-26 13:00:31 UTC ]
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The adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel can’t quite bring tricky source material – repressed characters, digital communication – to lifeIt was always unlikely that Conversations with Friends, the new Hulu and BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel, would be able to repeat the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-05-24 06:05:00 UTC ]
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Ali Smith's first novel since her seasonal quartet takes place in our pandemic-inflected world. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-05-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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“Liarmouth” is about three generations of women in one family who plan to confront or kill one another. It also has a trampoline fun park. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-05-03 09:00:08 UTC ]
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