Trevor Berrett

Trevor Berrett is the editor of The Mookse and the Gripes

2013 Shadow Giller Winner

by

If you go on over to KevinfromCanada’s blog, you’ll see what we picked as this year’s Shadow Giller winner. We actually have two winners, because our winner is not on the Real Jury’s shortlist (what were they thinking?!). Of the two winners, I have got around to reviewing neither, but I hope to fix that … Read more

Chinelo Okparanta: “Benji”

by

Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Chinelo Okparanta’s “Benji” was originally published in the November 11, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Update: When the following post was written, neither Chinelo Okparanta nor The New Yorker had acknowledged any relationship … Read more

Episode 10: Jeremias Gotthelf’s The Black Spider

by

The-Black-SpiderNYRB Classics published their edition of The Black Spider in October of 2013, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 10 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

Vainglorious people, doomed children, a black spider — the green man is coming, and through the ages enough people have made pacts with him that we are all in his debt. So clean your homes, folks, and your souls. We are about to learn our lesson from Jeremias Gotthelf’s 1843 novella The Black Spider.

In Episode 11 we will be talking about J.L. Carr’s A Month in the Country. Please send us your thoughts and we’ll share them on the show.

NYRB Classics Giveaway!

by

A few months ago I announced here that I was venturing into a solo podcast dedicated to discussing “The Worlds and Works of Shakespeare.” Well, that’s been going on, and I’ve just finished the first play (the first of 38 — this is a long-term project). While I do plan on keeping that podcast separate … Read more

Lucie Brock-Broido: “Moon River”

by

Lucie Brock-Broido’s “Moon River” was first published in the October 14, 2013 issue of The New Yorker and is available here for subscribers. Betsy In an essay about Alberto Giacometti, Jean Genet said, “If I want to tame a work of art, I frequently use a trick: I adopt, however artificially, a state of naiveté, I … Read more

Lisa Moore: Caught

by

On to my third book of this year’s Giller Prize shortlist, and again I find myself confronting a familiar name: Lisa Moore. Her books Open and Alligator were each shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and her previous novel February was longlisted for the Booker Prize. So her name is familiar to me, but I have never read any of those books. And while … Read more

Lynn Coady: Hellgoing

by

In 2011, Lynn Coady’s novel The Antagonist was shortlisted for the Giller Prize (my thoughts here), and it was one of my favorites of that year. Looking back on my post, I see I almost had it in my first-place spot. I was excited, then, to see that she made the shortlist again this year … Read more