Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies”

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi won the Man Booker International Prize this year for its beautifully rendered portrayal of a family’s tangled history in the village of al-Awafi in Oman. The novel was the first book translated from Arabic to win the prize, and more surprisingly, it was the first novel by an Omani woman […] The post Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies” appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-26 11:59:00 UTC ]

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Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s Book Cover of the Year Tournament

This week, readers on Electric Literature’s Twitter and Instagram voted to narrow a field of 32 beautiful book covers down to their favorite of the year. Some of the margins were razor-thin—in particular, both Sin Eater vs. The Exhibition of Persephone Q in round one and Animal Wife vs. Follow... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-07 12:00:36 UTC ]
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We’re getting a new Lauren Groff novel (about nuns!) in 2021.

Yes, the two-time National Book Award finalist and America’s most famous contemporary practitioner of the Joni Mitchell school of marriage fiction (think about it) is returning to the novel game. Riverhead Books announced earlier this afternoon that Matrix—Groff’s first novel since 2015’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-01 18:25:06 UTC ]
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Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Have to Cover Up

In Fariha Róisín’s debut novel Like a Bird, protagonist Taylia Chatterjee lives a privileged life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her sister Alyssa. Alyssa often receives preferential treatment from their liberal, overbearing parents—a white Jewish mom, a Hindu Bengali dad. Taylia is... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Help Us Pick the Best Book Cover of 2020

This hasn’t been an easy year for sustained, careful reading. But you know what doesn’t take any attention at all? Judging a book by its cover! That’s why we’re doing our first ever “best book cover of the year” tournament—and we want you to weigh in. Vote for your favorites on Electric... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-30 12:00:30 UTC ]
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11 New Books by Native American Writers

This year has been a dumpster fire and we mean that literally. But the shining bright spot in the literary world is an abundance of great new books by Indigenous writers being published in 2020. Since it’s National Native American Heritage Month, we’re focusing on books coming out of the U.S.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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William Heinemann lands 'masterpiece' from Richard Powers

William Heinemann will publish Bewilderment, Richard Powers' first novel since his Booker-shortlisted and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory (William Heinemann, 2018).  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-24 19:27:03 UTC ]
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Advice to the New Guard: A Conversation with Translator Jessica Cohen by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Since 2003, Jessica Cohen has published over twenty books translated from Hebrew to English. Among other honors, she shared the 2017 Man Booker International Prize with author David Grossman for her translation of Grossman’s A Horse Walks... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-11-20 16:36:29 UTC ]
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A Definitive Ranking of Roald Dahl Film Adaptations

Roald Dahl holds a special place in my childhood. I still have vivid memories of reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda in school (we even read his rather unsavory memoir Boy; his accounts of boarding school bullying haunt me to this day!) and of watching the delightful early ’90s... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-20 12:00:50 UTC ]
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Stories Happen in the Space Between How We Feel and What We Say

Short stories are a complex form, one that author and professor Danielle Evans continues to show herself adept in. The ever-shifting opportunities of short fiction are evident in Evans’s work, from her debut collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self to her latest, The Office of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-20 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Attention: the principal from Buffy just wrote a novel. It’s called Illyria.

Hello and welcome to the very niche readership who understands what I am talking about and why I am excited and amused by this! The rumors (from this headline) are true: Principal Snyder, also known as Armin Shimerman, has recently published the first novel in a historical fantasy series about... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 15:43:11 UTC ]
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In ‘Here Is the Beehive,’ a philandering mother deals with the death of her lover

Sarah Crossan’s first novel for adults is, like some of her celebrated YA novels, written in verse. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-17 13:59:37 UTC ]
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“Hillbilly Elegy” Is the Last Thing America Needs in 2020

My first novel was released within six months of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir of Appalachian roots and a youth spent in a Rust Belt community with a dearth of jobs and resources. Vance’s book came out just before the 2016 election; mine was released just after. Donald Trump’s victory had... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-17 12:01:45 UTC ]
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7 of the Year’s Best Debut Novelists on Their First Literary Loves

Every year, we ask The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalists to reminisce about the first book they fell in love with. This year, we asked Finalists to reflect not just on the first story that stole their heart, but the story that seeded curiosity and empathy for the plight of others... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 09:48:30 UTC ]
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New Franzen trilogy announced in US

Jonathan Franzen is set to return in the US next year with Crossroads, the first novel in a new trilogy from the author. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-16 09:26:52 UTC ]
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7 Literary Translators You Need to Know

Imagine bookstores, libraries and life really, without Anne Frank, The Little Prince, the Quran, and Murakami. This is what a world without literary translators would look like—our literary travels would be devoid of global textures and much, much less rich. Through the work of translators,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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New novel from Costa-shortlisted Beale to JMP

John Murray is publishing a new novel from Susan Beale, whose debut novel The Good Guy was shortlisted for 2016's Costa First Novel Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 19:51:11 UTC ]
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What Do We Owe Our Comunity in a Time of Crisis?

In her first novel published in 14 years, author Julia Alvarez explores grief, isolation, and sisterhood. Afterlife follows Antonia, a writer and retiring English professor, who has just lost her husband Sam. As she reimagines what her life will be without her husband, Antonia also struggles... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-02 12:00:33 UTC ]
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Exhausting the Vein of Realism: A Conversation with Lynne Sharon Schwartz

I DON’T KNOW when I first became aware of Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s writing, but it was probably sometime between 1980, when Raymond Carver lauded her on the basis of her National Book Award–nominated first novel Rough Strife, and 1989, when Sven Birkerts raved about Schwartz’s PEN/Faulkner... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-29 15:00:49 UTC ]
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Rituals of Housekeeping, Memories of Home: On Marilynne Robinson’s First Novel

In one of my earliest memories I am standing on a beach with my father and we are sculpting the shape of a woman’s body out of sand. In my mind it is winter—Avalon in the off-season—and I see us huddled in coats, wrapped in wool, bracing ourselves against the salt wind that blows in […] The post... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 08:50:18 UTC ]
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20 Small Press Books from 2020 You Might Have Missed

There’s no denying that this is a rough—if not catastrophic—year for many businesses, from mom-and-pop-run local eateries to huge corporations like Macy’s. But as the Washington Post noted, a national array of bookstores and readerly good-will has helped Bookshop.org raise millions for indie... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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