Alain Mabanckou Interview
Richard Lea has a great audio interview with Alain Mabanckou about Broken Glass, his second novel to be published in English. (Although apparently only in the UK for now. Soft Skull did African Psycho a couple years ago, but I haven’t seen a listing for the new book yet.) The Guardian also posted a positive review of ...
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Unnecessary Quotes!
OK, so this isn’t exactly translation related, but hell, it’s Friday and I think this just became my new favorite blog. When living in Normal, IL, I was obsessed for a time with misused quotation marks. And trust me, Normal is filthy with unnecessary quotes . . . like the headline in The Pantagraph (the local, ...
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Walking Tour of NY Independent Bookstores
Based on the response to their online walking tour of NY indies, The Millions are taking this idea physical and have organized a real walking tour of independent bookstores in New York. (Or at least six of them.) On Saturday, May 2nd at 11am, participants will meet at Three Lives (154 W. 10th at Waverly Place) and go from ...
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IMPAC Prize Shortlist
The 2009 Shortlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced earlier today. And here are your eight finalists (is there any rhyme and/or reason to this figure? or the enormously long longlist?): The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot D穩az Ravel by Jean Echenoz, translated from the ...
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Open Letters Monthly on My Uncle Napoleon
I remember when the Modern Library first published Iraj Pezeshkzad’s My Uncle Napoleon a few years, but this review by Bryn Haworth makes it sound really interesting. (When Byrn writes about the book itself. The stuff about today’s Iran is good, but this novel sound intriguing to me for other, more literary ...
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2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist
They’ve just announced the shortlist for the Independent Foreign Ficton prize: Voiceover by C矇line Curiol, translated by Sam Richard from the French Beijing Coma by Ma Jian, translated by Flora Drew from the Chinese The Siege by Ismail Kadare, translated by David Bellos from the Albanian The Armies by Evelio ...
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I Don't Think This Was an April Fools Joke
But maybe Borders wishes it was . . . From PW A series of one-time charges and lower sales lead to a loss from continuing operations of $184.7 million at Borders Group for the year ended January 31 compared to a loss of $19.9 million in the previous year. Total revenue declined 8.9%, to $3.27 billion. Sales fell 9.4% at ...
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