The Mookse and the Gripes » Uncategorized

2012 Best Translated Book Award Winner

Trevor — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:00:49 +0000

I’m thrilled at hearing this year’s Best Translated Book winner:

Stone Upon Stone, by Wieslaw Mysliwski, tr. from the Polish by Bill Johnston

I haven’t reviewed this book yet, but I finished it a few weeks ago and had a feeling it would win. It is superb, and I do (and will) highly recommend it. The award is young, but this is the second time that Archipelago Books published the winning title . . . meaning if you’re not familiar with them, you should be.

Click here for the announcement on the Three Percent blog.

2012 Orange Prize for Fiction Shortlist

Trevor — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:42:03 +0000

I’m late posting this, but on April 17 the shortlist for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction was announced:

Half-Blood Blues, by Esi Edugyan (my review here)
The Forgotten Walz, by Anne Enright
Painter of Silence, by Georgina Harding
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
Foreign Bodies, by Cynthia Ozick (my review here)
State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett (my review here)

I was thrilled to see Enright and Ozick on the shortlist. I certainly did not expect to see them there. The winner will be announced on May 30. My vote goes to Ozick.

2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Trevor — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:30:47 +0000

For the first time since 1977, the Pulitzer committee elected to honor no work of fiction.

The three nominated finalists were:

Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson (my review here)
Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell (my review here)
The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace

Each has its problems.

Train Dreams is a novella first published in The Paris Review in 2002. It won the O’Henry award for short stories in 2003. So, though I liked it a lot, I can see why it didn’t win — though why was it eligible in the first place? In the end, it just must not have been declared good enough.

The Pale King is the unfinished novel David Foster Wallace was working on when he committed suicide in 2008. The Pulitzer can and has been awarded posthumously, but it is understandable why it wasn’t awarded to an unfinished book an editor put together — as the Pulitzer website puts it, this book was “posthumously completed.” Again, if it was eligible in the first place, it must have just been not good enough.

Swamplandia!, in my opinion, just wasn’t very good. So I’m with the committee on that one.

It will be interesting to see how this hits the world of publishing. Afterall, it’s one thing to be a finalist when another book has won. But if no book wins . . .

2012 IMPAC Finalists

Trevor — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:22:36 +0000

Today the finalists for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award were announced (links to my (few) reviews in parenthesis):

Rocks in the Belly, by Jon Bauer
The Matter with Morris, by David Bergen (click here for my review)
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (click here for my review)
The Memory of Love, by Aminatta Forna
Even the Dogs, by Jon McGregor
Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes
Landed, by Tim Pears
Limassol, by Yishai Sarid, tr. from the Hebrew by Barbara Harshav
The Eternal Son, by Cristovão Tezza, tr. from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin
Lean on Pete, by Willy Vlautin

2012 Best Translated Book Award Finalists

Trevor — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:14:07 +0000

Today the ten finalists for the Best Translated Book Award were announced, whittling away at the longlist of twenty-five (click here for the longlist). Here they are:

Lightning, by Jean Echenoz, tr. from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)
Upstaged, by Jacques Jouet, tr. from the French by Leland de la Durantaye (Dalkey Archive)
Kornél Esti, by Dezsö Kosztolányi, tr. from the Hungarian by Bernard Adams (New Directions)
I Am a Japanese Writer, by Dany Laferrière, tr. from the French by David Hormel (Douglas & MacIntyre)
New Finnish Grammar, by Diego Marani, tr. from the Italian by Judith Landry (Dedalus)
Stone Upon Stone, by Wieslaw Mysliwski, tr. from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Archipelago Books)
Scars, by Juan José Saer, tr. from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Open Letter)
Kafka’s Leopards, by Moacyr Scliar, tr. from the Portuguese by Thomas O. Beebee (Texas Tech University Press)
In Red, by Magdelena Tulli, tr. from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Archipelago Books)
Never Any End to Paris, tr. from the Enrique Vila-Matas (New Directions)

Since the longlist was announced on February 29, I have been trying to get through a number of the books, and to date I have read eleven. Of the seven finalists I’ve read to now, the only one on this list that I’m a bit surprised by is Upstaged, which was fun but . . . well, I must have missed something of the Republicanism or something. I also didn’t particularly care for New Finnish Grammar, but I can see why others like it.

Here are links to my reviews:

Lightning (click here)
Upstaged (click here)
Kornél Esti (click here)
New Finnish Grammar (click here)
Stone Upon Stone (forthcoming)
Scars (click here)
Kafka’s Leopards (click here)
In Red (forthcoming)
Never Any End to Paris (click here)

2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

Trevor — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:45:57 +0000

The winner of this year’s PEN/Faulkner was announced this morning.

The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka

The winner gets $15,000. I have this book on hand and have been meaning to read it since it was also a finalist for the National Book Award back in November. It’s short enough I just need to get to it.

Here are the other finalists, each of whom receive $5,000 (making it a good week for Don DeLillo and Steven Millhauser who also took home some money for The Story Prize).

Russell Banks for Lost Memory of Skin
Don DeLillo for The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories
Anita Desai for The Artist of Disappearance
Steven Millhauser for We Others: New and Selected Stories (my review here)

For the official press release, click here.

The Story Prize Winner

Trevor — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:07:50 +0000

This past week the winner of The Story Prize was announced, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

We Others, by Steven Millhauser (my review here)

I loved this collection, and I’m glad Millhauser walked away with the $20,000 winnings. The other two finalists (who each get $5,000) were Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman and The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillo. I haven’t paid much attention to this relatively new award before, but I will be from now on. I’ve added a page to follow it here.

2012 National Book Critics Circle Award Winners

Trevor — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:33:13 +0000

Tonight the NBCC Award winners were announced.

Fiction: Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, by Edith Pearlman
Nonfiction: Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary War, by Maya Jasanoff
Biography: George F. Kennan: An American Life, by John Lewis Gaddis
Poetry: Space, in Chains, by Laura Kasischke
Autobiography: The Memory Palace: A Memoir, by Mira Bartók
Criticism: Otherwise Known as the Human Condition, by Geoff Dyer

I have read about five of the stories in Binocular Vision and can only say that I hope this win gets Edith Pearlman read more — it’s excellent.

2012 Orange Prize for Fiction Longlist

Trevor — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:36:08 +0000

Yesterday the longlist for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction was announced:

Island of Wings, by Karin Altenberg
On the Floor, by Aifric Campbell
The Grief of Others, by Leah Hager Cohen
The Sealed Letter, by Emma Donoghue
Half-Blood Blues, by Esi Edugyan (my review here)
The Forgotten Waltz, by Anne Enright
The Flying Man, by Roopa Farooki
Lord of Misrule, by Jaimy Gordon (my review here)
Painter of Silence, by Georgina Harding
Gillespie and I, by Jane Harris
The Translation of the Bones, by Francesca Kay
The Blue Book, by A.L. Kennedy
The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
Foreign Bodies, by Cynthia Ozick (my review here)
State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett (my review here)
There but for the, by Ali Smith
The Pink Hotel, by Anna Stothard
Tides of War, by Stella Tillyard
The Submission, by Amy Waldman

I have read only four of them (links to the reviews above), and would rank those as follows: (1) Foreign Bodies (this is Ozick, so I am obligated to love it — and I did), (2) Lord of Misrule (I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book about horse racing — or, rather, about the unfortunates crowding around the horse races), (3) Half-Blood Blues (I liked this one much more than I was expecting and wouldn’t have been upset had it won the Booker last year), and then State of Wonder (this one was also better than I thought but was much less to my taste — the story comes before the development of any interesting ideas here).

My positive response to the four I read means I might like many more on this list. My focus over the next few months will be on the Best Translated Book Award longlist (the list here), but I’ve been meaning to slip in Gillespie and I and The Forgotten Walz (after all, I need to have read some of the books written in Great Britain and Ireland as they put together the prize!).

The shortlist will be announced on April 17 and the winner on May 30.

2012 Best Translated Book Award Longlist Announced

Trevor — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:52:56 +0000

This is exciting news! I’ve been waiting for this list for over a month since last year the longlist was announced at the end of January. Click here for the official announcement on the Three Percent blog. And here is the list of 25 titles — if this isn’t the most exciting list of books I’ve seen in a while . . . well, there’s no “if”: this is the most exciting list of titles I’ve seen in a long while.

Leeches, by David Albahari, tr. from the Serbian by Ellen Elias-Bursac (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
My Two Worlds, by Sergio Chejfec, tr. from the Spanish by Margaret B. Carson (Open Letter)
Demolishing Nisard, by Eric Chevillard, tr. from the French by Jordan Stump (Dalkey Archive)
Private Property, by Paule Constant, tr. from the French by Margot Miller and France Grenaudier-Klijn (University of Nebraska Press)
Lightning, by Jean Echenoz, tr. from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)
Zone, by Mathias Énard, tr. from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Open Letter)
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, by Johan Harstad, tr. from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin (Seven Stories)
Upstaged, by Jacques Jouet, tr. from the French by Leland de la Durantaye (Dalkey Archive)
Fiasco, by Imre Kertész, tr. from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson (Melville House)
Montecore, by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, tr. from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Knopf)
Kornél Esti, by Dezsö Kosztolányi, tr. from the Hungarian by Bernard Adams (New Directions)
I Am a Japanese Writer, by Dany Laferrière, tr. from the French by David Hormel (Douglas & MacIntyre)
Suicide, by Edouard Levé, tr. from the French by Jan Steyn (Dalkey Archive)
New Finnish Grammar, by Diego Marani, tr. from the Italian by Judith Landry (Dedalus)
Purgatory, by Tomás Eloy Martínez, tr. from the Spanish by Frank Wynne (Bloomsbury)
Stone Upon Stone, by Wieslaw Mysliwski, tr. from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Archipelago Books)
Scenes from Village Life, by Amos Oz, tr. from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The Shadow-Boxing Woman, by Inka Parei, tr. from the German by Katy Derbyshire (Seagull Books)
Funeral for a Dog, by Thomas Pletzinger, tr. from the German by Ross Benjamin (W.W. Norton)
Scars, by Juan José Saer, tr. from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Open Letter)
Kafka’s Leopards, by Moacyr Scliar, tr. from the Portuguese by Thomas O. Beebee (Texas Tech University Press)
Seven Years, by Peter Stamm, tr. from the German by Michael Hofmann (Other Press)
The Truth About Mary, by Jean-Phillippe Toussaint, tr. from the French by Matthew B. Smith (Dalkey Archive)
In Red, by Magdelena Tulli, tr. from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Archipelago Books)
Never Any End to Paris, tr. from the Enrique Vila-Matas (New Directions)

I have read only four of these and have four more on the shelf waiting for me. I can’t wait to learn more about the ones I’m unfamiliar with and hope to get through a number of these before the ten finalists are announced on April 10. The winner will be announed as part of the PEN World Voices Festival later in the spring.

Some statistics.

Run down by language: French (8), Spanish (4), German (3), Hungarian (2), Polish (2), Serbian (1), Norwegian (1), Swedish (1), Italian (1), Hebrew (1), Portuguese (1).

This list comes from 17 publishers! I’m sad that NYRB Classics was shut out, though I don’t know how many eligible titles they published this year (I would have voted for Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s The Letter Killers Club (my review here)). However, a few other favorites have strong representation: Dalkey Archive (4), Open Letter (3), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2), New Directions (2), and Archipelago Books (2). All have catalogs worth following.

Here are links to my reviews of what I’ve read so far:

With a list this good, I don’t know where to turn next.

_________________

Here are links to the reviews of some of the books that I’ve read subsequent to posting this: