Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from German by Michael Hofmann. Born in East Berlin in 1967, Erpenbeck, in addition to being an award-winning novelist, is also an opera director and playwright who trained as bookbinder (endearing her to us even more). Her novel, published by Granta books, is described by [...]
by Lauren The 2024 winners of the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes were announced earlier this week at New York’s Columbia University. Read on to see what they are and what the jurists had to say about them. Fiction Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips “A beautifully rendered [...]
by Sophie R.I.P. Paul Auster, who died on 30 April of complications from lung cancer. NPR is one of the many sites with an obituary, and The Guardian gathered tributes by fellow authors. Awards! The Pulitzer Prizes were awarded last night, and the honorees are: Nightwatch (Fiction), Primary Trust (Drama), No [...]
by Lauren Always looking for good book recs, we at ABC love spring’s literary award season. Last week, the International Booker Prize 2024 shortlist was announced in recognition of “the best works of literature originally written in languages other than English which have been translated and published in the UK or [...]
by Sophie I hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Easter and Holi, and a wonderful Eid al-Fitr to come next week to all who celebrate that! What do South Africa's former first couple, Black inexpression, and Uyghur poets have in common? Books about or by them were all National Book [...]
by Sophie Let's start with bookish events in the country: Natali Simmonds hosts a resilience in writing workshop at ABC Amsterdam on 8 March, our Book Chats book club meets in Amsterdam on 22 March to discuss Scorched Grace, Emily Hund presents her book The Influencer Industry at the John [...]
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet queen, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time when scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts who cluster around him can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka. Winner of the 2022 Booker Prize.
by Sophie Let's start off with some award winners: this year's Newbery Medal (for best US children's book, basically) was won by Dave Eggers for The Eyes and the Impossible (illustrated by Shawn Harris). The Caldecott Medal (for best illustrations of a children's book) was awarded to Vashti Harrison for Big. [...]
by Lauren Norwegian author, poet and playwright Jon Fosse has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Swedish Academy called his "innovative plays and prose which gives voice to the unsayable." The 64-year-old's major works, written in the Nynorsk variation of Norwegian, include the Septology [...]
by Lauren Don’t you just love awards season? The 2023 winners of the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes for achievements in Letters, Drama & Music were announced earlier this week. Read on to see what they are and why judges chose them. Fiction Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver “A masterful [...]
