The Mookse and the Gripes

2013 Man Booker International Prize Winner

Trevor — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:21:03 +0000

They’ve just announced this year’s winner of the Man Booker International Prize:

Lydia Davis

I’m thrilled at this news. Not only is Lydia Davis one of my favorite writers, she is also a short story writer and a supreme translator (in fact, the only thing I have reviewed here from her is her translation of [...]

Leandro Sarmatz: “The Count”

Trevor — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:30:44 +0000

Leandro Sarmatz’s “The Count” (“O Conde”; tr. from the Portuguese by Peter Bush) is the ninth story in Granta 121: The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists. For an overview of the issue and links to my reviews of its other stories, please click here.

This relatively short piece (only five pages) centers around Emil Fleischer, a Yiddish actor [...]

Albertine Sarrazin: Astragal

Trevor — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:05:44 +0000

Long out of print in the United States, Astragal (L’Astragale, 1965; tr. from the French by Patsy Southgate, 1967) came to New Directions in a wonderful way. One day Barbara Epler, publisher and president of New Directions, was talking to Patti Smith about favorite authors when Smith brought up Albertine Sarrazin. Epler admitted she had never [...]

2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Winner

Trevor — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:39:54 +0000

The winner of this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was just announced.

The Detour, by Gerbrand Bakker; tr from the Dutch by David Colmer (in the U.S. this book was published as Ten White Geese)

Exciting news! I haven’t read The Detour (or Ten White Geese) yet, but Bakker’s The Twin is one of those great books that I think [...]

Steven Millhauser: “Thirteen Wives”

Trevor — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:01:42 +0000

Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Steven Millhauser’s “Thirteen Wives” was originally published in the May 27, 2013 issue of The New Yorker.

Click for a larger image.

Betsy

Steven Millhauser’s “Thirteen wives” is a mix of fiction, fantasy, advice, and memoir, and it’s magnificent. In thirteen parts, ostensibly told [...]

Laura Erber: “That Wind Blowing Through the Plaza”

Trevor — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:46:14 +0000

Laura Erber’s “That Wind Blowing Through the Plaza” (“Aquele vento na praça”; tr. from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin) is the eighth story in Granta 121: The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists. For an overview of the issue and links to my reviews of its other stories, please click here.

Besides being a writer, Laura Erber is also [...]

Tahmima Anam: “Anwar Gets Everything”

Trevor — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:43:25 +0000

Tahmima Anam’s “Anwar Gets Everything” is the third story in Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists 4. For an overview of the issue and links to my reviews of its other stories, please click here.

This piece is an extract from Anam’s forthcoming novel, Shipbreakers, the third in a trilogy she began with A Golden Age (2008) and The [...]

Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo: Where There’s Love, There’s Hate

Trevor — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:19:12 +0000

One of my favorite books is Adolfo Bioy Casares’s The Invention of Morel (here) (if you haven’t read that wonderful book about loneliness and love, you should correct that immediately). I was ecstatic, then, when I saw that Melville House was publishing, as part of their Neversink Library, a collaboration between Bioy Casares and his wife, Silvina Ocampo, Where There’s Love, There’s Hate (Los Que [...]

Gregory Spatz’ Thirteen Favorite Short Stories

Trevor — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:48:21 +0000

Last week I reviewed Gregory Spatz’ excellent new collection of short stories, Half as Happy (here). I have had the pleasure of corresponding briefly with Mr. Spatz since then, and we were discussing his favorite short stories. I asked if we could post his list here with some of his thoughts. Thanks for putting this together, [...]

Palmer Brown: Hickory

Trevor — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:01:00 +0000

In the early days of this blog, I wrote a post on A.A. Milne’s The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh (here). That post was in response to KevinfromCanada’s “Creating a Reading Legacy” (here). There Kevin says:

Any serious reader knows that one of the most important factors in creating a literate adult is to read to a child. [...]