The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction have launched #ThisBook, where they have asked nineteen well-known (in the UK but probably not elsewhere) women to nominate the novel written by a woman that most impacted, shaped or changed your life. The results are interesting, if not surprising. With the possible exception of Helen Forrester‘s autobiography, there … Read more
My bath-time reading of the Guardian Literary Review recently involved reading D J Taylor’s interesting article, rather badly titled Literary hero to zero (I am guessing that the title is a sub’s and not Taylor’s.) However, before getting to the article, I am going to go off on a tangent, which will lead to another … Read more
The new Folio Prize has announced an inaugural short list of eight writers, which is bound to cause some controversy. Five of the writers are from the US, one from Canada, one from England and one from Ireland. The prize was set up as something of a response to the Man Booker Prize, not least … Read more
As we are completely out of the Nobel Prize for Literature season and, I would hope, no-one else is discussing the matter, I thought it would be time for me to put in my somewhat controversial proposal. When listening to rock music, I have now and then thought that some of the better songwriters would, … Read more
Luis Goytisolo has won the Spanish Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas [National Prize for Spanish Letters]. I found his Antagonía tetralogy challenging but well worth reading. Sadly, it is not available in English. Indeed, none of his work is available in English. His brother Juan won the prize in 2008. The only other writer … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Terézia Mora‘s Das Ungeheuer [The Monster], winner of this year’s German Book Prize. It follows on from Der einzige Mann auf dem Kontinent [The Only Man on the Continent], which told the story of the somewhat naive and simple computer engineer, Darius Kopp, from the former East Germany, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Pierre Lemaitre‘s Au revoir là-haut (The Great Swindle), the winner of the 2013 Goncourt Prize. The story starts in the last week of World War I, when all parties are awaiting the armistice. However, Lieutenant d’Aulnay-Pradelle wants his last chance at glory and promotion. He sends two men … Read more
Pierre Lemaitre has won this year’s Goncourt Prize for his Au revoir là-haut [Goodbye Up There]. Only one of his books has been translated into English – Alex, a thriller about a kidnapping. The winning novel is about two French men returning from World War I, ignored, neglected and broke. They decide to do something … Read more
With Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries winning the ManBooker Prize, I must apologise to Jim Crace and Ruth Ozeki, as I predicted that Crace would win and Ozeki should win, a curse that doomed both of them. Nevertheless, congratulations to Eleanor Catton. Her novel is a very fine one and I am convinced that she will … Read more
Now that the Nobel Prize – congratulations to Alice Munro but, as I almost never read short stories, I am afraid that I have not read her nor do I have plans to do so – and German Book Prize – congratulations to Terézia Mora, whom I hope to read soon – are out of … Read more