National Book Critics Circle Finalists

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Today the NBCC announced their finalists. Fiction: Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Someone, by Alice McDermott The Infatuations, by Javier Marías (my review here) A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt Nonfiction: Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt that Brought Him to Justice, by Kevin … Read more

Akhil Sharma: “A Mistake”

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Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Akhil Sharma’s “A Mistake” was originally published in the January 20, 2014 issue of The New Yorker. Betsy “A Mistake,” by Akhil Sharma, is, according to the Page-Turner interview with Deborah Treisman, the fictional account of an event that really happened to … Read more

Stefan Zweig: Letter from an Unknown Woman

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Despite considering myself a fan of Stefan Zweig’s emotionally turbulent stories since I read his novella Chess Story back in 2008 (my thoughts here, in one of my first posts on this blog), until recently I had no idea he wrote Letter from an Unknown Woman (Brief einer Unbekannten, 1922; tr. from the German by Anthea Bell, 2013). I … Read more

Dan Chiasson: “Obituary”

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Dan Chiasson’s “Obituary” was first published in the January 6, 2014 issue of The New Yorker and is available here for subscribers. Dan Chiasson’s “Obituary” is interesting but difficult. I am not exactly at sea with it, but neither am I safe on shore. This is an accounting of some of the thoughts I had while … Read more

Dinaw Mengestu: “The Paper Revolution”

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Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Dinaw Mengestu’s “The Paper Revolution” was originally published in the January 13, 2014 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor The last (and only) thing I read by Mengestu was “An Honest Exit” (my thoughts … Read more

Bonus Episode: NYRB Classics’ Early 2014 Releases

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In this episode we look at what NYRB Classics will be releasing in the first part of 2014 (and a bit beyond).

While we do discuss all fourteen of the titles, the fun part of the episode is when Brian and I step back and list our top five most anticipated releases from this group. There’s some great stuff coming, of course, so this was a bit difficult. Please let us know what you’re most looking forward to.

  • Intro
  • Brief discussion of each book (the individual times are below): 00:03:27
  • Brian courageously offers the “least anticipated”: 00:31:45
  • Our top five anticipated titles: 00:37:50

Here are the fourteen books we talk about:

  • (00:03:27): The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos, by Patrick Leigh Fermor — March 4, 2014
  • (00:04:27): On Being Blue, by William H. Gass — March 18, 2014
  • (00:06:09): The Use of Man, by Aleksandar Tišma — April 29, 2014
  • (00:08:08): Shakespeare’s Montaigne — April 8, 2014 (Brian and I both muddled this one. It’s the translation of Montaigne that Shakespeare would have read.)
  • (00:11:07): During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, by Joan Chase — April 15, 2014
  • (00:13:10): Fortunes of War: The Levant Trilogy, by Olivia Manning — May 13, 2014
  • (00:14:40): Agostino, by Alberto Moravia — July 8, 2014
  • (00:17:06): Last Words from Montmartre, by Qiu Miaojin — June 3, 2014
  • (00:18:46): Zama, by Antonio di Benedetto — October 21, 2014
  • (00:20:16): The Mad and the Bad, by Jean-Patrick Manchette — June 17, 2014
  • (00:22:08): Fear, by Gabriel Chevallier — May 20, 2014
  • (00:25:20): The Professor and the Siren, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa — July 15, 2014
  • (00:27:48): You’ll Enjoy It When You Get There: The Selected Stories of Elizabeth Taylor — August 12, 2014
  • (00:30:05): The Captain’s Daughter, by Alexander Pushkin — August 19, 2014