I hope to have a review posted for Sergio Chejfec’s The Planets within the next day or so. In the meantime, here’s a round-up of the items that caught my eye last week. Levi Asher discusses Why Reading Is Always Social over on LitKicks. The NYRB Blog has this post by Tim Parks entitled Most Favored Nations, and this older post The Dull New Global … Continue reading The Review: Quick Link Round-Up
The 2012 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature began today and I’m ridiculously excited! What’s that… don’t know about the 2012 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (the name doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?)? Queue up the official description – April 30–May 6, 2012 100 Writers from 25 Countries Writers from around the world convene in New York City to … Continue reading The Review: PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
Mathea Martinsen is an elderly woman. A widow, with no children, she is facing the end of her life alone. Even before her husband Epsilon’s death she suffered from social phobia – unable to approach people and unwilling to leave her apartment. All her interactions require advance planning and extensive mental preparation, whether it involves speaking to a grocery clerk or greeting her neighbor’s son. … Continue reading The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti A. Skomsvald (Kerri A. Pierce, translator)
There’s good news and there’s bad news. Thankfully, more of the former. Random House Germany, publisher of Das Labyrinth der Träumenden Bücher, has been kind enough to confirm that there is an English translation planned for release in the U.S. Negotiations are in process and, though no names were mentioned, I’m fairly certain that no one will be shocked when the U.S. publisher finally makes … Continue reading News Flash – Update on Walter Moers’ The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books
Put out my eyes, and I can see you still; slam my ears to, and I can hear you yet; and without any feet can go to you; and tongueless, I can conjure you at will. Break off my arms, I shall take hold of you and grasp you with my heart as with a hand; arrest my heart, my brain will beat as true; … Continue reading Poems from the Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke
READER AT LARGE 