… the literary review Quarterly Conversation polled a wide variety of translators, writers, editors, and publishers to find out which books they thought were in most urgent need of translation. The list of their recommendations has now been published as “Translate This Book!”

François was plugging Pierre Senges’s “Fragments de Lichtenberg”.

So, heartiest congratulations, buddy!

Go read the article from The New Yorker here.

For those unfamiliar with the awards, here’s an intro taken from the website:

The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis magazine, to recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

Check out the complete list of nominees joining her in the Best Fantasy Novel category:

• Peter M. Ball, Horn, Twelfth Planet Press
• Trudi Canavan, Magician’s Apprentice, Orbit
• K.E. Mills, Witches Incorporated, HarperVoyager
• K.J. Taylor, The Dark Griffin, HarperVoyager
• Glenda Larke, The Last Stormlord, HarperVoyager

A complete list of nominees for this and other categories can be found here.

Crossing our fingers and toes, Glenda!

This year Copenhagen is celebrating literature for a whole week in November, starting the 6th with libraries and local community centres opening up their doors all over town.  “København læser” (Copenhagen reads) is an event, which is free of charge with writers and critics sharing their love for literature.

The big annual book fair, Bogforum, will officially be declared open on Friday the 13th of November at 10.15 by the famous author Per Olov Enquist.  If you cannot wait, then Bogforum, together with the Royal Library, has made a pre-opening event on Thursday evening with the British writer Monica Ali.  The event is a part of the Royal Library’s “International Forfatter Scene” (International Author Scene), where they invite international authors to talks filmed by the Danish national TV.

The actual Bogforum takes place in the heart of Copenhagen and is open to the general public with books on any subject to content your heart.  Like book fairs all over world, you will be able to find all the newly published books about philosophy, psychology, religion, history and politics, cookery, health-and-body care, and of course fiction for children and the adult reader!

On the various stages you will be able to meet Danish writers who you may already be familiar with as their books have been translated into many European languages.  Maybe Merete Pryds Helle, Ida Jessen, Svend Åge Madsen, Anders Bodelsen, or Dorrit Willumsen ring a bell?  If not, now is your chance to expand your knowledge the literature and the many different writers from Denmark.

If you are more interested in politics, then perhaps the former editor from the German “Der Spiegel”, Stefan Aust may get your attention with his book about “Rote Armee Fraktion”?  Or could a discussion about the challenges of the multicultural society in the West between the editor of the Danish national newspaper “Politiken”, Thøger Seidenfaden and Rune Engelbreth Larsen spark your interest?

You could also listen to a talk between Margrete Auken and her daughter Ida Auken, about their book “Dig, mig og Gud” which deals with faith and God. Both are members of the Danish parliament and Margrete is a priest where as Ida Auken has a masters in theology.

Or perhaps you are more into gardening and would love to hear what Camilla Plum, author of “Camillas Havebog”, has to share with Denmark’s “grand old man” of gardening, Søren Ryge Petersen? Camilla Plum is famous for a food show set on her farm, where she cooks with vegetables from her own garden. She has also published several cookbooks.

A more exotic part of Denmark is in focus, when the author Kim Leine talks about his new book “Tunu”, which gives you access to the tough circle of life in Greenland where people live closely with the facts of death and nature.

If you have small children and no babysitter in sight, then there is no reason why you should not bring them along. They could meet the very talented artist and writer Peter Madsen, who shows his drawings and talks about his and Sissel Bøe’s new series of children books “Troldeliv” and the making of his comic book “Valhalla”.  Or get entertained on the stage for children, by the funny duo Michael Wikke and Steen Rasmussen, who are well established as makers of family oriented films. Or they could listen to another well known writer and filmmaker, Kim Fupz Aakeson telling the story about the boy Vitello.  There will be many competitions for the children of various ages all over the fair.

The list of subjects, authors and writers is long and diverse and I haven’t even mentioned all the different crime writers yet!

The highlights of the foreign writers must be the invasion from the British isles;  Robert Goddard, Sadie Jones, Susan Moody, Paul Sussman, Tabish Khair, Raymond Khoury and Roddy Doyle. 
Or could the Americans Colin Harrison, Liza Mundy, Donald Spoto be more to your preference? 
Or maybe you think the large group of Scandinavian writers are the highlights; From Norway Karin Fossum, Jan Kjærstad, Anne B. Ragde, Helene Uri, From Sweden Per Olov Enquist, Jan Guillou, Camilla Läckberg, Klas Östergren, and from Iceland Einar Már Gudmundsson?

Whatever you like to read, or enjoy hearing, you are sure to find something familiar, something new and something to rock your boat at the Copenhagen book fair!

Copenhagen reads:  http://kbhlaeser.dk/english
Copenhagen book fair: http://www.bogforum.dk/
Royal Library: http://www.kb.dk/da/dia/forfatterscene/091112_ali.html

Check it out here.

When the news broke that this film was being made, I was ecstatic, then cautious.  Bob and Jude are hardly the Holmes and Watson of my memories.  However, as Hollywood is wont to do, what we know and love is ‘rebooted’, and made accessible to a more modern audience.

The bad news is the film isn’t out yet for me to pan or praise. The good news is the trailer is, indeed, out.

I’m undecided yet whether I like my Sherlock Holmes so James Bond-ish.

• Scottsboro, Ellen Feldman
• The Wilderness, Samantha Harvey
• The Invention of Everything Else, Samantha Hunt
• Molly Fox’s Birthday, Deirdre Madden
• Home, Marilynne Robinson
• Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie

Go here.

Inevitably, it involves a global cult and a race against time to unlock a secret formula.

Details of the plot are likely to remain fiercely guarded until much nearer the publication date of September 15, but intrigue centres on whether Brown’s vast and conspiracy-crazed international fanbase can divine any clues about the novel from its title: The Lost Symbol.

Also, something to send fans screaming in delight, or detractors screaming in anguish for sullying bookstores with future copies of the book:

Jason Kaufman, Brown’s US editor, said: “From the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises.”

Read about it in the Times here.

Btw, I loved this quote from the Times:

His books have antagonised Christian groups and upset sensitive lovers of fine English prose but their protests have been drowned out by record-breaking sales.

Absolutely neutral, that one.

Such was his influence that the adjective ‘Ballardian’ has made it to the Collins English Dictionary:

defined as “resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard’s novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments”

Read it from BBC here.

Update: Boingboing has a host of links related to Ballard’s death.  Go here.

They are:

• Best Novel: The Night Sessions, Ken MacLeod
• Best Short Fiction: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• Best Non-Fiction: Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn
• Best Artwork: Cover of Subterfuge (ed. Ian Whates), Andy Bigwood

(Thanks to Science Fiction Awards Watch)

This recent episode has the Book Club panel discussing the beloved (and equally bewildering) Infinite Jest by the David Foster Wallace.

Interesting discussions – go check it out.