Aviaries – Zuzana Brabcová (tr. Tereza Novická)
In his “Preface” to ‘L’Assommoir’ Émile Zola claimed the novel “is a work of truth, the first novel about the common people that does not lie and that smells of the common people. And readers should...
View ArticleMinute-Operas – Frédéric Forte (Translated by Daniel Levin Becker, Ian Monk,...
Originally posted on Messenger's Booker (and more): First up from the American Literary Translators Association, 2016 National Translation Awards longlist for Poetry (geez that’s a mouthful), is...
View ArticleThe Barefoot Woman – Scholastique Mukasonga (tr. Jordan Stump)
“Don’t bear any children, because when you bring them into this world you’re giving them death. You’re not bearers of life anymore, you’re bearers of death.” (p22) Reports vary on the extent of the...
View ArticleThe desert responds to ‘Poems to be found in the desert’
Last year Burning House Press in the UK published two fiction pieces written by myself. Firstly the ‘notes’ for my collection ‘Poems to be found in the desert’ and later the launch speech for the same...
View ArticleThe Old Gringo – Carlos Fuentes (translated by Margaret Sayers Peden & the...
What they call dying is merely the last pain – Ambrose Bierce (epigraph) In December 1913 American writer, journalist and Civil War veteran, Ambrose Bierce travelled through Louisiana and Texas to El...
View ArticleThe Recognitions – William Gaddis
The word “recognition” (in various forms) appears eighty-one times in the text of William Gaddis’s ‘The Recognitions’. This information is captured in the wonderfully detailed ‘A Reader’s Guide to...
View Article“Fournel’s Bouquet” – Jugiong Writer’s Festival – Short Story Competition
I’m pleased to advise that I won first prize in the Open Section of the Jugiong Writer’s Festival Short Story Competition, for my story “Fournel’s Bouquet”. The Festival was held on the weekend of...
View ArticleRobert Musil, mathematics and infinity
There is really no need to belabor the point, since it is obvious to most of us these days that mathematics has taken possession, like a demon, of very aspect of our lives. Most of us may not believe...
View ArticleMore Musil, mathematics and machines
Let’s continue looking at Robert Musil and his references to mathematics. ‘The Mathematical Man’ is an essay from 1913 (first published as ‘Der mathematische Mensch’ in ‘Der lose Vogel’, no 10-12,...
View ArticleMusil on Rilke & Rilke on Rodin
More Austrian literature. Robert Musil is well known for his fiction and Rainer Maria Rilke his poetry, so I thought I would have a look at something a little out of the ordinary for each of these...
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I still read and I still write
I have been reading. I have been reading a lot. I’ve read the full longlist from the 2019 Booker Prize, all thirteen titles, I’ve read Nicola Barker’s latest release, ‘I Am Sovereign’, and a number of...
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The Combinations – Louis Armand – structure
It was like walking around inside an overly elaborate riddle – the kind of riddle designed to conceal a solution that was either too obvious or didn’t exist. Early in Louis Armand’s ‘The Combinations’...
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The Combinations – Louis Armand – updated chessboard
In my last post about the structure of Louis Armand’s ‘The Combinations’ I wrote about the novel being modeled on a chessboard. Pazter from chess.com contacted me after reading my post and pointed out...
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Pixel – Krisztina Tóth (tr. Owen Good)
He wanted to shed light on the fact that in reality people don’t see what’s in front of them, and that people can only assess and reassess unfamiliar situations one step at a time, before they put...
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Ice – Sonallah Ibrahim (tr. Margaret Litvin)
‘Ice’ by Sonallah Ibrahim (translated by Margaret Litvin) was longlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize, an award for Translated literary fiction written in any language of the “European Bank of...
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A User’s Manual – Jiří Kolář (tr. Ryan Scott)
Twisted Spoon Press located in Prague, in the Czech Republic, have been a favourite go to publisher, purveyors of quality books, always beautifully produced and presented. It is through them that I...
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César Vallejo & Roy Andersson
Something a little different from me. Literature and film culture blending. An homage to Peruvian poet César Vallejo appears at the beginning of Roy Andersson’s 2000 film ‘Songs From The Second...
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Charles Baudelaire & Agnès Varda
Seems readers like the merging of poetry and film, last week’s post about Roy Andersson’s film featuring Peruvian poet César Vallejo’s poem ‘Stumble Between Two Stars’ has been my most popular post...
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The Labyrinth of Solitude – Ocatvio Paz (various translators)
Octavio Paz, Nobel laureate in 1990, winner of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize in 1981 and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1982, a writer and diplomat and my first stop in a journey I...
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The Edge of the Storm – Augustín Yañez (tr. Ethel Brinton)
The impact of Mexico’s revolution (1910-20), the last of the great peasant revolts and the first major revolution of the twentieth century was felt on much of the literary production of the country...
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