Alice Munro: “The Office”
Trevor and Betsy look at Alice Munro’s “The Office,” from Munro’s first story collection Dance of the Happy Shades.
Trevor Berrett
Hemingway/PEN Award Winner
The announcement of this award slips past me every year. I was just looking to see when it would be announced and see that it already was (see their page). Winner: The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers Finalists: A Partial History of Lost Causes, by Jennifer duBois In the Shadow of the Banyan, by Vaddey Ratner … Read more
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists
The 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award finalists have been announced (see the official site). The winner will be announced on March 19. Threats, by Amelia Gray Kind One, by Laird Hunt Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, by T. Geronimo Johnson Watergate, by Thomas Mallon Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz I … Read more
Flavia Company: The Island of Last Truth
I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to old-fashioned shipwreck stories. The Island of Last Truth (L’illa de l’última veritat, 2011; tr. from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin, 2012) hits the spot: it’s the story of a man who is the sole survivor of a pirate attack and who ends up being marooned on a small island for … Read more
Best Translated Book Award Longlist
Over at Three Percent, the 2013 Best Translated Book Longlist has been announced. A great list! I will be updating this post throughout the day and the season to include links to reviews and whatever else seems appropriate. The Planets, by Sergio Chejfec; Argentina; tr. from the Spanish by Heather Cleary (Open Letter Books) Prehistoric … Read more
Will Mackin: “Kattekoppen”
Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Will Mackin’s “Kattekoppen” was originally published in the March 11, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor It’s always exciting when The New Yorker publishes an author’s debut piece of fiction. From the little I can find, Mackin has been an aspiring writer for … Read more
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Longlist
Here are the sixteen books on the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist, which comes to us just a few days before the Best Translated Book longlist (which I’m really looking forward to). This is an exceptional list of books. Since this is a British prize, some of the books have been published in the U.S. … Read more
National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
The winners have been announced: Fiction: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain Nonfiction: Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, by Andrew Solomon Autobiography: Swimming Studies, by Leanne Sharpton Criticism: Stranger Magic, by Marina Warner Biography: The Passage of Power, by Robert Caro Poetry: Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys, by D.A. Powell
Colm Tóibín: “Summer of ’38”
Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Colm Tóibín’s “Summer of ’38” was originally published in the March 4, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor I’m a fan of Colm Tóibín. It’s been nearly four years since we’ve had any of his fiction in The New Yorker, so this … Read more
Friedrich Reck: Diary of a Man in Despair
Trevor reviews Friedrich Reck’s World War II journal entries that end when he was executed, collected in Diary of a Man in Despair, translated from the German by Paul Rubens. Read the full post.